I can buy a soda for a dime and hamburger for a quarter. Dude I can live forever on a wage like that...
Hey, wait, there's inflation involved... its more complicated than a simple number.
You graduated from MIT... figure it out...
It is 64% higher than in 1990, while the CPI has moved up only 54% in that time. Total economic growth has been still faster, because there are 25 million additional people working, as well.