The idea behind the American version of Abenomics was to reduce inequality by running a very hot economy, thus creating labor shortages and driving up wages. The pandemic assisted in this process. American companies have responded, however, by raising prices to protect their profits; the resulting inflation has caused the real value of wages to remain stagnant. The Fed is also threatening to raise interest rates to cool the economy down and reduce wage increases. The attempt to break out of the dollar store economy has, therefore, failed.
What can we learn from this? That simply increasing wages, either through legislation (minimum wage increases) or by creating labor shortages, will not help workers or reduce inequality by itself. Additional assistance is necessary, including changes to the tax code to benefit workers over capitalists, and, in some cases, antitrust action to prevent unjustified price increases.