San Francisco wages after inflation, September 2026

Private-sector workers in the San Francisco metro averaged $50.70 an hour in September 2026. Adjusted for inflation that is $50.70 in today’s money, up 0.5% from a year earlier.
The two lines are the post. The real series peaked at $56.17 in December 2020.
An average, not a median, so it is pulled upward by high earners. It also moves with who is working: a month that sheds low-wage jobs raises the average without raising anyone’s pay, which is much of what happened in 2020.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, average hourly earnings of all private employees, San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont MSA, via FRED; real series deflated by CPI-U to the latest available period. Auto-generated each build.