went backwards

[ironman2012]

Hi,

And since that - you know, we made a lot of sacrifices at that time. We lost - we sacrificed cost-of-living allowance. You know, we lost retirement security, you know, job security. And, you know, the whole fight in this that we're standing for now is we've went backwards roughly $10 an hour in wages over the last 16 years.

(This transript comes from npr.org The UAW held talks with GM and Ford over the weekend but the strike persists on September 18, 2023.)

Does the blue part mean "the wages reduced $10 an hour"?

Thanks in advance!

 

[lingobingo]

It’s a word-for-word transcript, errors and all, and that use of have went is technically an error for have gone. He seems to be saying that their wages are roughly $10 an hour lower than they were 16 years ago. But that seems pretty unlikely to me. I expect he means it relatively, i.e. that the spending power of their wages has dropped by that amount over that period.

 

[PaulQ]

"the wages have reduced [in value] by $10 an hour" -> Yes.

I expect he means it relatively, i.e. that the spending power of their wages has dropped by that amount over that period.