The term real wages refers to wages that have been adjusted for inflation. This term is used in contrast to nominal wages or unadjusted wages.
The use of adjusted figures is in undertaking some form of economic analysis. For example, in order to report on the relative economic successes of two nations, real wage figures are much more useful than nominal figures.
Real wages are a useful economic measure, as opposed to nominal wages, which simply show the monetary value of wages in that year.