On average, real wages over the past decade declined for Americans with lower-level positions in organizations but increased for midlevel and senior-level employees, according to analysis of US employee pay data by Korn Ferry International Inc. (NYSE: KFY).

The study found that, adjusted for inflation, average wages for clerical or entry-level professionals fell 2.3% since 2008 to $45,882. As professionals move up the corporate ladder, however, their wage prospects improved slightly. Midlevel professionals’ wages rose 2.4% in the past 10 years to $85,332, while senior managers make approximately 5.7% more on average today than they did in 2008 at $160,292.

“Even though we’ve seen significant growth in the economy since the recession, salaries have barely kept up with inflation, and in the case of lower-level employees, we have actually seen real-wage decreases since 2008,” said Korn Ferry Senior Client Partner Tom McMullen. “While there are only slight increases for midlevel professionals and senior managers, we do see higher wage growth for those levels due to the demand for specialized, skilled employees.”

For the analysis of inflation-adjusted wage growth from 2008 to 2018, researchers looked at data from more than 5.5 million US employees in nearly 2,000 companies in a wide range of industries.