Soaring health insurance costs are quietly preventing wages from rising higher, while workers also shoulder a larger share of premiums, economist says

Soaring employer-sponsored health insurance costs are quietly suppressing U.S. wage growth, according to an economist cited in the report, with workers also absorbing a larger share of premiums. Had employer contributions grown at the roughly 3% pace of a few years ago, wage growth would be running about 0.2–0.3 percentage points faster today. The dynamic matters because it means headline wage gains overstate workers' real take-home improvement, as rising premium contributions offset pay increases. Workers face a double squeeze: slower wage growth overall plus a bigger slice of compensation diverted to health coverage. Watch next: upcoming employer benefits surveys and open-enrollment data for signs of whether premium growth moderates or continues to erode pay gains.