SALEM - Higher wages are driving up Oregon’s projected tax revenue, but most middle-class workers won’t feel the benefits of larger paychecks over the next year because of inflation, state economists said Wednesday.
A quarterly economic forecast from the state Department of Administrative Services predicted that Oregon will recover from a pandemic-induced recession much more quickly than it did from the Great Recession. Higher wages, especially for low-income workers, are making up for expiring federal aid, according to the forecast.
But labor shortages and supply chain disruptions are driving prices up and eating into families’ budgets. And the Portland area, which contains roughly half the state’s population and jobs, is lagging the rest of Oregon in recovering from the pandemic . . .
