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From the Gallup News Service:

“[Last] week, the Federal Reserve Board raised two short-term interest rates, the federal funds rate and the discount rate, in a reported effort to ‘diminish the risk of inflation.’ One fear was that in the current robust labor market with workers in short supply, the demand for higher wages could push up inflation. But a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, which asked workers themselves what level of raises they expect to receive, suggests that overall wage increases this year may be about the same as last year.

“Among Americans employed either part-time or full-time (excluding all self-employed), 26 percent expect to receive higher raises this year than they received last year, while almost the same number — 24 percent — expect to receive lower raises. Another 49 percent of workers expect to receive raises that are about the same as they received last year. This number includes those who received no raises last year and expect none this year as well.

“The pattern of these expectations is similar for both full-time and part-time workers. . . . These results suggest that — at least from the workers’ perspective — there is on balance no anticipation of significant salary or wage increases this year.

“It should be noted that these results do not address the size of the wage increases, just the proportion of workers who expect such increases. Still, workers with family incomes greater than $50,000 a year are no more likely to expect higher raises this year compared to last year than are workers with family incomes in the $20,000 to $50,000 range. However, workers with family incomes of less than $20,000 a year are considerably less likely to expect higher raises. . . .

One-third of Americans Expect Inflation to Outpace Income

“Despite the low overall rate of inflation, 34 percent of Americans expect that in the next year prices will go up faster than their incomes, while 20 percent expect their incomes to increase faster than prices, and 43 percent expect their incomes to increase just enough to offset inflation. . . .