real wages

noun [plural] (also real income [C or U])

Definition

› ECONOMICS the value of money earned by workers in an economy at a particular time, after taking into account the effect of inflation on what can be bought with that money: A decrease in real wages and disposable incomes means that mortgage-payers are really suffering from recent interest rate rises. Real wages have fallen behind inflation, and the income gap between rich and poor continues to widen.

(Definition of real wages noun from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)