At first glance, it looks like many Americans got big pay raises since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

But in reality, only workers in two industries -- leisure and hospitality and retail trade -- are actually coming out ahead, once inflation is taken into account.

Overall, wages and salaries for private industry workers rose by 4.2% between December 2019 and this past June, before rising prices are considered, according to an analysis of Employment Cost Index quarterly data by Jason Furman, an economics professor at Harvard University.

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However**,** once inflation is factored in, paychecks actually shrank by 1.2% over that time period, the analysis found.

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US consumer prices jumped by 9.1% year-over-year in June, the highest level in more than 40 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Workers have had more bargaining power to get larger wages, but firms have also had power to set higher prices," said Furman, also a former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration. "And the prices are beating the wages."