Even though the economy generally is strong, as the White House proclaims, new data illustrates why President Bush’s polls are low: Wages haven’t been rising and workers are losing health coverage.

White House aides assert that worker compensation has begun to rise as the economy continues to grow, but they acknowledge the word is not getting out in time to help Republicans in the November elections.

The latest Gallup Poll shows that Bush’s overall approval rating is 42 percent, but on the economy, it’s only 39 percent.

Gallup also found that Americans favor Democrats to handle the economy by a margin of 52 percent to 38 percent.

Conventional political wisdom is that attitudes on the economy suffer under a dark shadow cast by the Iraq war, but some top administration aides acknowledge that economic concerns may have their own bite.

This week’s report from the Census Bureau shows that the nation’s median household income rose slightly in 2005 – but only because more family members were taking jobs to make ends meet.

And a front-page New York Times analysis of economic data showed that both median hourly wages and total worker compensation – wages plus benefits – fell between 2003 and 2005, despite surging productivity and corporate profits.

Meanwhile, the bureau’s report showed another jump in the number of Americans lacking health insurance – up 1.3 million in one year to 46.6 million, or 15.9 percent of the population.