Posted on 04/29/2014 4:15:41 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The real median income of American men who work full-time, year-round peaked forty years ago in 1973, according to data published by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 1973, median earnings for men who worked full-time, year-round were $51,670 in inflation-adjusted 2012 dollars. The median earnings of men who work full-time year-round have never been that high again. […]
By comparison, the real median earnings of American women who work full-time year-round peaked in 2007, when women who worked full-time earned $38,872 in constant 2012 dollars. …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
More women in the workplace, means more labor supply = downward pressure on wages.
Not to mention offshoring.
Plus we get to keep a whole lot less of it for ourselves..
I would attribute downward pressure on wages to the ready access we have to goods made in China where the currency is manipulated for the express purpose of making their goods cheap in the US. A classic case of “the cheapest goods aren’t always the least expensive goods.”
A man who immigrated here in 1969 from Iran told me that he went to several companies and applied for jobs. By the end of the week he had two offers. (His English was rudimentary.) He said, there was no comparison between they way things were then and now. He lays the difference on the amount of government intruding on companies. Forget about taxes. Think about labor laws and government sponsored lawsuits by disenchanted minorities. (A lawyer told me he’d take one of those even if he knew the client was lying. Because the government pays the bill the company always settles as there is no incentive for the client to stop suing.) Then, there’s a city, county, state and federal EPA. A company has to hire an environmental specialist just to deal with them. Cross the border into Mexico and you see all those businesses who were run off because they could potentially cause a problem. Well, they took all these jobs with them.
Simple, when one “levels the playing field” they don’t move people up, they move people down to the lowest denominator.
BFL
That was the heyday of the union, $25/hr to turn a screw job.
As much as I hate the IRS and taxes, that statement isn't true.
1973
Top rate- 50%
Highest income tax tier- $200K
Top rate on Capital Gains- 39.6%
2013
Top rate- 39.6%
Highest income tax tier- $400K
Top rate on Capital Gains- 15/20%
I also ran a few scenarios at the $20K, $50K, $100K, and $200K scenario, and each case the tax was quite a bit lower.
Most of this thanks to Reagan, and the mid '90's GOP controlled congress.
Wait till all those illegals start competing for those wages!
My hourly wages:
1970: $1.00 (Agricultural Arkansas wages).
1971: $1.50 (Oklahoma Industrial)
1973: $2.60. (Oklahoma and New Mexico wages
1975: $5.00. (OK and NM wages)
1976: $3.60 (Arkansas wages)
1977: $6.00 (NM wages)
1978: $6.50 ( Power Plant wages.)
2008 $32.00 (Power plant wages)
Today: RETIRED: (Begging for nickles and dimes on the street) ;-D
I stand corrected, thank you for your work..
Your numbers don’t account for tax breaks from then, such as credit card interest. Right now the only deductions that apply to those making over $109k are mortgage interest, vehicle ownership taxes, and charitable contributions. That’s about it. Back then there were loads more tax breaks.
Just wait till they pass amnesty.
True but tax rates were much higher in the 70s.
As a single guy making good money in the 70s, I was typically in a 40% or higher marginal bracket.
$51,670.00 in 2012 dollars = $53,177.61 in 2014 dollars. Nominal value in 1973 dollars = $9,992.19, and using the 2,080-hours-per-year rule of thumb works out to $4.80 per hour in 1973, but who made that much back then?
I made $980 month in 1970 so that was about 5.65/hr.
Wasn’t the top tax rate in 1973 70%?
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