For years, even as the economy recovered and the stock market soared, most American workers saw little evidence of better times in their paychecks.

But last month’s surprisingly large increase in both average hourly and weekly earnings, along with other encouraging data, has convinced many economists that falling unemployment and increased hiring are finally about to start paying off in terms of wage gains for a broader swath of workers.

“It’s the beginning of an uptick, and we should see it continue over the next year or two as the unemployment rate falls and the labor market tightens,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS, a private economics and forecasting firm. “You have to be careful, but my gut instinct is that this is the beginning of better wage performance.”

Still, even the seemingly good news for wages in November wasn’t clear-cut. Although overall wages increased 0.4 percent — double what economists had been expecting — the gain for lower-paid workers in nonsupervisory and production roles increased only 0.2 percent.