Ginny currently earns a (real or nominal) wage of $12.00 per hour; in other words, the amount of her paycheck each week is $12.00 per hour times the number of hours she works. suppose the price of sparkling water is $2.50 per gallon; in this case, ginny (real or nominal) wage, in terms of the amount of sparkling water she can buy with her paycheck, is gallons of sparkling water per hour. when workers and firms negotiate compensation packages, they have expectations about the price level (and changes in the price level) and agree on a (real or nominal) wage with those expectations in mind. if the price level turns out to be higher than expected, a worker's (real or nominal) wage is than both the worker and employer expected when they agreed to the wage. ginny and her employer both expected inflation to be 4% between 2012 and 2013, so they agreed, in a two-year contract, that she would earn $12.00 per hour in 2012 and $12.48 per hour in 2013. however, suppose inflation between 2012 and 2013 actually turned out to be 7%, not 4%. for example, suppose the price of sparkling water rose from $2.50 per gallon to $2.68 per gallon. this means that between 2012 and 2013, ginny's nominal wage (increased or decreased) by % , and her real wage (increased or decreased) by approximately %.