Teresa currently earns a real wage of $12.00 per hour; in other words, the amount of her paycheck each week is $12.00 per hour times the number of hours she works. Suppose the price of apple juice is $2.40 per gallon; in this case, Teresa's real wage, in terms of the amount of apple juice per she can buy with her paycheck 4 gallons of apple juice per hour.
When workers and firms negotiate compensation packages, they have expectations about the price level (and changes in the price level) and agree on a nominal wage with those expectations in mind. If the price level turns out to be higher than expected, a worker's wage is lower than both the worker and employer expected when they agreed to the wage.
Teresa and her employer both expected inflation to be 3% between 2012 and 2013, so they agreed, in a two-year contract, that she would earn $12.00 per hour in 2012 and $12.36 per hour in 2013. However, suppose inflation between 2012 and 2013 actually turned out to be 6%, not 3%. For example, suppose the price of apple juice rose from $2.40 per gallon to $2.54 per gallon. This means that between 2012 and 2013, Teresa's nominal wage decreases by 3% and her real wage decreases by approximately.
Step-by-step explanation:
A nominal pay is the pace of pay workers are compensated. In case you're paid $15.00 every hour, your ostensible compensation is $15.00 every hour.
The most significant thing to think about an ostensible compensation is that it isn't balanced for swelling. Swelling is an expansion in the general value level in an economy.