[Copernicus]

You do realize that average real earnings can go up or down in an expanding economy, and vice versa in a recession.

If you add jobs at the low end of the wage scale, even if real wages go up for every person who was already working, average real wage can still go down.

Also real wages are not a terribly good proxy for standard of living because it ignores numerous factors, such as improvements in quality, availability etc, and because those statistics are based on CPI (which is primarily focused on necessities) and doesnt reflect other sources of earnings. As boomers start to retire there will also be reductions in average real wage without any declines in standard of living of workers.