Downward nominal wage rigidity in the United States in times of economic distress and low inflation

•We investigate downward nominal wage rigidity in the U.S. using a nationally representative establishment-based compensation survey.•We estimate both operative and potential rigidity using three distinct methods.•We find no evidence that the Global Financial Crisis changed the extent of potential downward rigidity, but increased operative rigidity.•Potential rigidity trended down and operative rigidity trended up as wage inflation fell over the broad stretch of our data.•We find a much lower degree of both types of downward nominal rigidity at multi-year horizons.