Original F-117A explanatory reporting guide. It does not rate any real person's statements. Primary-source websites listed below are research starting points; no fictional claim is presented as a finding.
A headline about wages is incomplete until it identifies the wage measure and the purchasing-power question being asked. Comparing dollars paid to workers with the value of those dollars in the marketplace requires two different sets of measurements.
01 Nominal and real are not interchangeable
Nominal wages are measured in dollars paid at the time. Inflation-adjusted (real) wages express purchasing power relative to a price index. A nominal series can rise even when purchasing power rises more slowly or falls. Neither series is fraudulent; they answer different questions.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage and price series. A rigorous comparison must identify the specific series, seasonal adjustment, start and end dates, and which price measure was used. Saying simply that wages rose is not enough to decide whether workers became better off.
02 A record depends on its definition
A politician may accurately describe a record-high nominal dollar amount when a different comparison of real growth rates or household income would produce another result. The honest approach is to present the precise claim and the alternate view, then explain why the measure matters.
Inflation adjustments are calculations, not decoration: the choice of index, base year, population and period must be disclosed. We should not compare unlike historical series without explaining a definition break.
03 The checks we will make
- Link to the actual BLS or BEA series rather than only a summary article.
- Declare whether a chart shows dollars, index values, a percentage change or a growth rate.
- Show the observation dates, geography, population and any seasonal adjustment.
- Disclose revisions, unavailable observations and formula assumptions.
- Offer a table of the values behind each chart.
04 How the site currently illustrates the distinction
The Numbers laboratory has an explicitly fictional five-period chart. It demonstrates how the shape of nominal and real series might diverge; it is not an observation about U.S. wages or any administration. Real sourced historical datasets and reproducible exports are scheduled for Phase 07.
Sources & Further Reading
These are attributable primary-reference destinations and related F-117A methodology pages. This field guide makes no fact-check determination about an individual.
Challenge the evidence, not the person.
The standard is reproducibility. Corrections and responses will be documented under the F-117A corrections policy.