Question

Ginny currently earns a (real or nominal) 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 sparkling water is $2.50 per gallon; in this case, Ginny (real or nominal) wage, in terms of the amount of sparkling water she can buy with her paycheck, is gallons of sparkling water 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 (real or nominal) wage with those expectations in mind. If the price level turns out to be higher than expected, a worker's (real or nominal) wage is than both the worker and employer expected when they agreed to the wage.

Ginny and her employer both expected inflation to be 4% between 2012 and 2013, so they agreed, in a two-year contract, that she would earn $12.00 per hour in 2012 and $12.48 per hour in 2013. However, suppose inflation between 2012 and 2013 actually turned out to be 5%, not 4%. For example, suppose the price of apple juice rose from $2.00 per gallon to $2.10 per gallon. This means that between 2012 and 2013, Ginny's nominal wage by___________ % , and her real wage by approximately____________ .

Answer 1

since we are using this year as our base year, Ginny's real and nominal wage is $12 per hour

price of sparkling water $2.50 per gallon

Ginny can buy 4.8 gallons of sparkling water per hour of work

If the price level turns out to be higher than expected, a worker's real wage is LOWER than both the worker and employer expected when they agreed to the wage.

Ginny and her employer both expected inflation to be 4% between 2012 and 2013, so they agreed, in a two-year contract, that she would earn $12.00 per hour in 2012 and $12.48 per hour in 2013. However, suppose inflation between 2012 and 2013 actually turned out to be 5%, not 4%. This means that between 2012 and 2013, Ginny's nominal wage INCREASED by 4%, and her real wage by DECREASED BY approximately 0.92%.

Ginny's real wage in 2013 = $12.48 / 1.05 = $11.89

it decreased by ($11.89 - $12) / $12 = -0.92%