This makes it quite clear how the gap between apparent and real earnings increases with time.
But census data show that the real earnings of the typical college graduate actually fell in 2004.
Why the effect should suddenly be so large, since there was some rise in real earnings before 1992, is the hard part to explain.
But the real weekly earnings of similar workers who had only completed high school dropped 7 percent.
This is not, of course, to say that workers would have been prepared to face long-term falls in real earnings.
The department will also report real earnings for January.
So investors would scratch their heads and wonder what the company's real earnings were.
Reported profits rose more in the 1990's than did real earnings, thanks to that aggressive accounting.
This was after all a period of full employment and marked growth in people's real earnings.
Over the last 12 months, real earnings have risen only at an average of 3.1 percent.