Men in their 30s lag behind their fathers in pay

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | May 26, 2007 | Greg Ip

[ConservativeStatement]

American men in their 30s today are worse off financially than their fathers' generation, a reversal from just a decade ago, when sons generally were better off than their fathers, a new study finds.

The study, the first in a series on economic mobility undertaken by several prominent think tanks, also says the typical American family's income has lagged far behind productivity growth since 2000, a departure from most of the post-World War II period.

The findings suggest "the up escalator that has historically ensured that each generation would do better than the last may not be working very well," says the study, which was scheduled for release Friday.

The study was written principally by John Morton of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which is leading the series, called the Economic Mobility Project, and Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution. Others participating are the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute and the Urban Institute.

[-YYZ-]

We’ve got more stuff, and a little longer to play with it, but are we really living better today than 30 years ago? I remember when we only had 3 channels, and were happy to have them. Today we have 300 and always complain that there’s nothing on worth watching.

[syriacus]

Housing and utilities are much more expensive nowdays, but a little money buys a lot of goods such as clothing and electronics today.

[Victoria_R]

The headline talks about fathers and sons, but the "median income for a man in his 30s" sampled 30 years ago and today is not necessarily exactly the same sample. How many illegal immigrants who weren't qualified by background to immigrate legally are in the sample?

My dad calculated his real income (adjusted for inflation) peaked in 1972. For the middle class it has been downhill ever since.

[Goldwater and Gingrich]

“Irrelevant study...women now take up much of the work force and are doing MUCH better than their mothers (at least in monetary value)”

It’s too bad all those wife’s don’t have time to have kids any more, that’s OK we will just bring in 12 million replacement citizens.

The new ordder of things.

[okie01]

It's possible that the movement of women into the labor force has affected male earnings, and it's possible that men are not working as hard as they used to."

Possible? Possible???!!!

Of course, the movement of women into the work force has had a huge effect on wages. Effectively double the work force and wage growth is going to be impacted.

Notwithstanding, this piece proves that while individual men's incomes may have declined, household income for two wage earner families has probably doubled over the same period.

[dfwgator]

"Life was a carnival! We entertained ourselves! We didn't need moooovin' pitchurrrres. In my day, there was only one show in town -- it was called "Stare at the sun!" ... That's right! You'd sit in the middle of an open field and stare up at the sun till your eyeballs burst into flames! And you thought, "Oh, no! Maybe I shouldn't've stared directly into the burning sun with my eyes wide open." But it was too late! Your head was on fire and people were roastin' chickens over it. ... And that's the way it was and we liked it!"

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.  

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

These 30 year olds living like this have their credit cards maxed out and absolutely no savings....they live for today.

[LibertyRocks]

I believe if you looked closely they’re all living on credit — at least that’s what I’ve seen amongst my peers... Instant gratification from plastic, and living beyond their means. There is no doubt that our generation has it harder than our parents — at least when looking at Manufacturing for instance. My husband earned a great living in the early 90’s — now we’re lucky if he gets 1/2 of what he used to earn. It started before 9-11 and went downhill further after that. A skilled machinist doesn’t make nearly what they used to, unless they are VERY lucky, and work in a union shop in Chicago...

[LibertyRocks]

Thank you to NOW and all the other women in the 70s. Now, a woman HAS to work as it’s the rare family that makes enough on one income anymore.

[LibertyRocks]

LOL, should’ve read your remark ThisLittleLight, before posting to you, altura...

[HoosierHawk]

Same here.

My parents didn't have it that well.

My grandfather, a mason, raised rabbits to help feed the family.

[LibertyRocks]

My husband just passed along this little tidbit of info re: manufacturing. Machinists’ wages have not gone up since the late 80s... That means they are earning the SAME as their fathers did without any raise for inflation.

[rwfromkansas]

Dang. What does he do?

I graduated summa cum laude, but I am going into teaching. The pay stinks, but it is where my passion is right now.

That doesn’t mean I will do it forever, so I am curious what he does. :)

[Turbopilot]

They haven’t closed the colleges, or the trade schools, or any of the other postsecondary education options. They also haven’t prohibited anyone from going into business for himself. And there are no end of commissioned sales jobs with no outwardly imposed cap on earning potential.

All this study could possibly show is that the average work ethic of a given 30-year-old man is less than the average work ethic of a given 30-year-old man 30 years ago; it indicates nothing about the earning potential of any individual 30-year-old man. And without correcting for the influence of illegal aliens working under the table or women in the work force in greater numbers, it doesn’t even show anything about the average work ethic.

[rwfromkansas]

Why go into a career you know has poor job security, layoffs, and no raises?

I don’t really feel sorry for them.

[rwfromkansas]

I know families who earn 30 grand a year with only one worker and get along fine with 2 kids.

It is possible if you want to do it.

[Rodney King]

Maybe if we just elect a Republican congress and President they will reduce the incredibly high cost of government that is dragging down the private sector. Oh wait, we tried that already.

[terycarl]

my kids, all (fortunately Republicans)could buy and sell me many nimes over.....My youngest son made 4,000 less last december than I did for the YEAR..I love them for it, they worked theis asses off for it, and I couldn’t be prouder for all three of them. Put it in context, ...My oldest was born in 1963.

[guitfiddlist]

My 38 year old husband is an electrician...

The construction trades are particularly hard hit by illegal aliens who move in and are eagerly hired by contractors for wages which deeply undercut the honest American worker.

Some might dispute that - saying that illegals can't get the Trade Licenses required to work as an Electrician or a Plumber, for example. But while I was living in Charlotte NC - the illegals completely overtook residential construction work.

When I asked a friend in the home building industry how illegals could be doing wiring and plumbing, she said that they had licensed Tradesmen make the rounds inspecting the work and then signing off on it, as if they'd accomplished it.