The Prehn Institute today publishes the Prehn Hours of Work Index, a monthly measure of how many hours a production worker on the average American wage must work to buy the three assets Americans save for: shares, gold and a house. The index is priced in hours rather than dollars, so it needs no deflator and is comparable back to 1964.
In August 2026 the index was 340.8. A basket which took 100 hours of work in the year 2000 now takes 341 hours, about eight and a half working weeks against two and a half. The reading is 20.3 per cent higher than a year earlier and a little below the record of 366.1 set in February 2026.
Each component is published separately. A tenth of the S&P 500 cost 23.7 hours of work in August, against 10.2 hours in 2000. An ounce of gold cost 137.4 hours, against 20.1.
The house is the exception. The median new one cost 6.31 years of full-time pay, down from 8.02 at the peak in April 2022 and near its level of 2019. The figure uses new houses and leaves out mortgage costs, for reasons given in the method note.
The wage used is the average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory employees, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and $32.53 in August 2026. Share and gold prices are monthly averages of daily closes. For houses, the source is the Census Bureau's median sale value of new homes sold.
The index is updated on the morning of each monthly jobs report, when the new wage figure is released. The first scheduled update is Friday 2 October 2026, with the September wage.
Felix Nikolas Prehn, economist and former investment banker and founder of The Prehn Institute, said: "Wages are quoted in dollars, and so are assets, and the dollar itself moves; hours of work do not. A worker in 2000 paid two and a half weeks of work for the basket. Today the price is eight and a half."
The chart, the full monthly data series and the method are published at prehninstitute.com/indices/hours-of-work-index. Index values and charts may be reused free of charge with credit to The Prehn Institute. An embeddable chart which updates itself each month is available on the same page.
About The Prehn Institute
The Prehn Institute is an independent research institution founded by Felix Nikolas Prehn, economist, tech founder and former investment banker. It publishes research on the financial markets and provides instruction.
Contact
Felix Nikolas Prehn is available for comment. Write to [email protected].