Rate of Increase of Salary and Earnings (RISE)
RISE is WorkWhile’s real-time measure of the growth in wages earned by workers on our platform. It’s the first of its kind for wage data: a high-frequency indicator built from shift-level earnings data rather than surveys.
Why RISE matters for the economy
It measures realized pay, not intentions
RISE tracks what workers actually earn on completed shifts – more reliable than posted wages or survey-based methodologies.
High-frequency turning-point signal
Updated daily, it can flag inflections in wage pressure and labor-market tightness ahead of slower government reports.
Interpreting RISE
RISE is simply the year-over-year change in average hourly earnings earned across all shifts by workers on WorkWhile.
Method at a glance
Population
Paid shifts on WorkWhile.
Calculation
Year-over-year change in average hourly earnings across all shifts, trimmed at the 99.9th percentile. We remove shifts at the extremely high end of hourly wages because some shifts are paid lump sum and very short in duration, leading to grossly inflated hourly wages.
Frequency
Calculated hourly; charted from 2025-01-01 onward.
