Governor Tate Reeves, August 2025 (Photo from Governor Reeves on Facebook)
- Mississippi’s average weekly wage grew 5 percent, the second highest rate in the nation. Governor Reeves said, “Surely does not fit the narrative being pushed by certain members of the liberal press!”
Mississippi is Number 2 in America for real wage growth.
That was the message shared by Governor Tate Reeves Monday afternoon via X, adding that the state is “seeing ‘rapid population inflows.’”
“Surely does not fit the narrative being pushed by certain members of the liberal press,” Reeves said.
From July 2024 to July 2025, wages grew 1.5 percentage points faster than inflation, reports USAFacts using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Nominal wages — the literal dollars earned regardless of cost of living — increased by 4.2% while inflation stood at 2.7%,” USAFacts noted. “When wage growth outpaces inflation, it indicates that workers are experiencing an increase in purchasing power from the previous year.”
According to the national data, between July 2024 and June 2025, the nominal average wage grew from $1,200 to $1,250 — $50 more a week, a growth rate of 4.2 percent. Accounting for inflation, the real wage growth was 2.5 percent or an additional $30 a week.
In Mississippi, the average weekly wage grew 5 percent. Idaho is the only state that showed a higher growth at 6.7 percent.
Magnolia State eastern neighbor Alabama came in at 2.3 percent and fellow southern states Georgia and Florida came in at 4.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
This wage growth means that workers are gaining in purchasing power, and in Mississippi, where the cost of living continues to be one of the lowest in the nation, that means real dollars in families’ wallets.
Governor Reeves went on to say, “It’s almost as if… Conservative policies work! Competent governance works! Mississippi has SERIOUS momentum!”
Notably, eight states showed negative real wage growth, including Mississippi’s northern neighbor of Tennessee.
