If you're cashing higher paychecks but feeling as though you're able to buy less you're - sigh - probably right. Actually, the government will back you up on that.

That's because it measures how much we earn each hour (even for people paid annual salaries and commissions.) And after a recent tally, official economists reported that on average we received wages that were 2.2 percent higher than last year.

No cheering please because in the same report it gets real, showing us our real hourly earnings are worth less than they were last year. Basically, economists look at our paychecks, wipe away inflation, and then say how much stuff our money can buy when you consider that prices for good and services also rose. When you look at it that way, we earned 1.3 percent less. 

Of course, that's an average and given the unemployment rate, you might (read: should) be happy to be cashing any checks at all. But look below to see your industry averages. 

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