Posted on 09/22/2015 4:37:18 PM PDT by ForYourChildren
Once upon a time, American men used to get something called a "raise." That is when your employer would actually pay you more money. Now, it is true that some people still have experience with this all-but-forgotten practice, but even the ones who do tend not to get pay increases that keep up with price increases. That is why, as David Wessel of the Brookings Institution points out, the typical male worker actually saw his after-inflation pay fall between 1973 and 2014.
What is four lost decades between friends?
So why, as you can see below, have median male earnings flatlined over a time when the economy has doubled?
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Hmm... what happened around 1973? Let me think.....
Hint - Gold Standard.
16 replies and nobody mentions the obvious. Men make less because women make more. It’s not rocket science. Look at the explosion over the last 40 years of women working high paying jobs.....and sadly the converse. How many men are working jobs that used to be female dominated.
That is one reason. Another reason is that slowly over time, a man’s earning power has been whittled away as families slowly shifted to two income households. At first it was great.....it literally was twice the money. But then men started to accept jobs for pay they would not have been able to accept years ago. Pep boys is a large auto store with mechanics where I live. They pay around $15/hour to start. That is not a wage to support a family. Yet they are staffed. Of course his wife will have to work.
The pay of Americans has been cut in half. Not too long ago, the men worked and the women, to a large degree, stayed home. Now, the standard of living is maybe the same, but it takes two incomes to maintain that same standard.
An interesting side study would be to see how many men are working outside the official economy, and how that has changed over the last 40 years.
Taxed more now.
Pay raises are only possible in a growing economy. In a shrinking economy, you are the only one left doing your former co-workers’ work - at 20% less pay.
” Most employers will happily dump any long time 40+ employee for a twenty something who will work for half as much.”
And the employer ends up hiring 2 or 3 of the cheaper labor to replace the one employee whose insights and experience went out the door.
Fixed it.
Freepers who are employers...are you part of the problem?
Will you choose to be part of the solution?
Three words.
Welfare programs explosion.
Power to the indolent!
That is so true. I’ve had more jobs than I care to admit to in the last 25 years. Every time I’ve gone to a new firm I’ve never gotten less than a 15% increase. It’s been real tough the times I was unwillingly out of work, but it has paid well.
So why, as you can see below, have median male earnings flatlined over a time when the economy has doubled?
...
Because the Federal Reserve crashes the economy when people start getting pay raises, or to put it another way, when the labor market favors the worker.
Yep. Had it happen to me. And I was working for a company ran by the biggest left wing NY Jewish libs you could imagine.
And the President of my division is a boyhood friend of Donald Trump, Jonathan Tisch.
Demand, meet supply.
See Illegal Immigration.
Senior Engineers in 1972 could make $30,000. Today that would be $274,000, but today engineers make around $125,000, and pay far more in taxes.
As the government became involved in the private market the situation grew worse.
Any questions?
Red is pay deflated by the CPI. Green is total compensation deflated by the CPI. Blue is total compensation (pay plus benefits) deflated by the PCE, the personal consumption expenditures price index, which the Federal Reserve considers more accurate than the CPI.
Or not.
Of course, you and and I and Donald know who makes that stuff these days. The mystery is why Donald should want to "fix" that 70% reduction in hours needed.
that graph is depressing if you are a man
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