By changing jobs several times, I've been able to remain near the highest level of compensation I've ever made also. I do not think that is the predominant situation these days.
I personally know people who haven't had a raise in five to ten years. I also know others whose raises have been once every two or three years for a total of 2%.
Inflation is stripping these people of purchasing power.
We have set up several layers of competition for wage earners in the United States. We have sent production off shore. We are flooding the nation with tens of millions of foreign nationals. We are moving clearical positions off shore.
Let's be honest here. Capitalists seem to understand every supply and demand scenario there is, until it comes to setting up tens of millions of short-circuits to salary support in the U.S. We have oversaturated the workforce through the methods I've mentioned, but I'm am constantly told this has had no negative impact whatsoever on U.S. employees. That just does not compute.
I don't like what I see and the caption that I copied at the top of this response should cause any honest person some sobering thoughts on this subject.
""I personally know people who haven't had a raise in five to ten years""
then they need to get a new job in a new field.
"We have sent production off shore"
that isnt true. Industrial production in the US is higher now than it has ever been. and Guess what, next month it will be higher still. Of course all the foreign plants here dont count to the PRC/Buchanan brigade....Hyundai setting up a plant in Georgia is seen as weakness by the populists.
I often hear the mantra that "only low-paying service jobs" are being created. But the dramatic growth in these sectors infer that there are a whole bunch of people who are buying things, going out to restaurants and on top of that, having additional money to go bar-hopping.
Where are those people coming from?
"I don't like what I see and the caption that I copied at the top of this response should cause any honest person some sobering thoughts on this subject."
I'm with you, DoughtyOne. I don't like what I see either. Too much of our economy is either a Ponzi scheme, or a stream of outsourcing, or an influx of H1-B visas, or a loss of manufacturing jobs (great for when another war comes along and half of our manufacturing base is decimated). Plus too much of our real estate, Treasury bonds, etc. are now owned by foreign entities. Plus our workers are losing their pension plans, medical plans, and any security for their old age.
This globalism stuff is not at all to my liking, and major corporations in this country are acting more like internationalists, and less like American companies. Does not bode well for the future. Yes, I know the stock market is up at the moment. But it can come down just as easily, as it did during the stock market bubble that burst not that many years ago. Countries can't survive on being service industries alone. Without a decent manufacturing base, we put ourselves at jeopardy in times of crisis, just like the pickle we are in right now because of our oil needs while being at the mercy of unfriendly countries who control most of the world's oil. Pretty soon we won't have much of a U.S. car industry, and so many manufacturing companies have now left this country, or the manufacturing work is being done elsewhere in the world. This can't go on indefinitely without bad things happening to our country.
We'll, I'll fall back on that old axiom, there is only a recession if You are out of work. My wife and I are the first of the Boomer's. We are approaching 60, and we have been employed our entire working lives. We get raises every year. We have a diversified retirement portfolio. We have already bought our retirement home. Our son is 35, his only education was four years in the Marine Corps, and he's making $125k a year. Who says anything is broken??!! Where are these people who get no raises? I work at a major US corporation, and we give raises every year. And, we're hiring!!
Inflation is stripping these people of purchasing power.
I make less (by almost half) than I did 20 years ago yet my lifestyle is better by tenfold.
If you are relying on wages to acheive the American Dream you are doing it wrong.
Simple formula everyone should learn: Learn to live on 90% of your income (or less) and invest the rest.
Wages are not the answer! What you do with your excess Wages is!