Posted on 10/25/2014 6:11:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Social Security Administration has just released wage statistics for 2013, and the numbers are startling. Last year, 50 percent of all American workers made less than $28,031, and 39 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000. If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks off, you would make $20,000. So the fact that 39 percent of all workers made less than that amount is rather telling. This is more evidence of the declining quality of the jobs in this country. In many homes in America today, both parents are working multiple jobs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet. Our paychecks are stagnant while the cost of living just continues to soar. And the jobs that are being added to the economy pay a lot less than the jobs lost in the last recession. In fact, it has been estimated that the jobs that have been created since the last recession pay an average of 23 percent less than the jobs that were lost. We are witnessing the slow-motion destruction of the middle class, and very few of our leaders seem to care.
The "average" yearly wage in America last year was just $43,041. But after accounting for inflation, that was actually worse than the year before...
American paychecks shrank last year, just-released data show, further eroding the public’s purchasing power, which is so vital to economic growth.
Average pay for 2013 was $43,041 — down $79 from the previous year when measured in 2013 dollars. Worse, average pay fell $508 below the 2007 level, my analysis of the new Social Security Administration data shows.
Flat or declining average pay is a major reason so many Americans feel that the Great Recession never ended for them. A severe job shortage compounds that misery not just for workers but also for businesses trying to profit from selling goods and services.
Average pay declined in 59 of the 60 levels of worker pay the government reports each October.
And please keep in mind that "average pay" is really skewed by the millionaires and billionaires at the top end of the spectrum.
Median pay in 2013 was just $28,031.02. That means that 50 percent of American workers made less than that number, and 50 percent of American workers made more than that number.
Here are some more numbers from the report that the Social Security Administration just released...
-39 percent of American workers made less than $20,000 last year.
-52 percent of American workers made less than $30,000 last year.
-63 percent of American workers made less than $40,000 last year.
-72 percent of American workers made less than $50,000 last year.
I don't know about you, but those numbers are deeply troubling to me.
It has been estimated that it takes approximately $50,000 a year to support a middle class lifestyle for a family of four, and so the fact that 72 percent of all workers make less than that amount shows how difficult it is for families that try to get by with just a single breadwinner.
The way that our economy is structured now, both parents usually have to work as hard as they can just to pay the bills.
But there was one group of Americans that did see their incomes actually increase last year.
Those making over 50 million dollars had their pay increase by an average of $12.8 million in 2013.
For everyone else, the news was not good.
And of course this is a trend that has been going on for a long time.
Posted below is a chart that comes from the Federal Reserve. It shows how real median household income in the United States has declined since the year 2000...
Meanwhile, the cost of living has continued to rise at a steady pace.
Needless to say, this is putting a tremendous squeeze on the middle class. With each passing day, more Americans are losing their spots in the middle class and this has pushed government dependence to an all-time high. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49 percent of all Americans now live in a home that receives money from the government each month. This is completely and totally unsustainable, but our long-term economic problems just keep getting worse.
Our politicians have stood by as millions upon millions of good paying jobs have been shipped out of the country. Millions of other middle class jobs have been lost to technology. This has resulted in intense competition for the middle class jobs that remain.
And at this point we are even losing lots of lower paying retail jobs. For example, it is being reported that Sears plans to close 110 more stores and lay off more than 6,000 workers. Sears says that the report "isn't accurate", but it isn't denying that stores will be closed either...
In an email to USA Today, Sears spokesman Howard Riefs said the store count and closures "isn't accurate,'' but did not provide store closures or layoff numbers.
"As we stated in our (second quarter earnings report), we disclosed that we would be closing unprofitable stores as leases expire and in some cases will accelerate closings when it is economically prudent. And that we would consider closing additional stores during the remainder of the year,'' Riefs said. "Make no mistake, we believe the store will continue to play an integral role in our transformation, however, if a store is not generating a profit, it is straightforward that the store should be considered for closure."
No matter how many stores Sears does end up closing over the next few months, the truth is that our economy is a complete and total mess at this point.
Our politicians and the mainstream media are trying to put a happy face on everything, but the cold, hard numbers prove that we are not anywhere close to where we were prior to the last recession.
Because it is so difficult to find a good job in America today, I often recommend to people that they should consider starting their own businesses.
But thanks to the bureaucratic control freaks in the Obama administration and in our state governments, small business ownership in America today is at an all-time low. It is almost as if they don't want the "little guy" to win. Every avenue of prosperity for the middle class is under assault, and there does not appear to be much hope that this will change any time soon.
And the truly frightening thing is that this is about as good as things are going to get for the middle class. We are rapidly approaching the next major wave of our long-term economic decline, but that is a topic for a future article.
According to the Social Security Administration, the cost of living only increased by 01.7% last year. If you receive an S.S. check, that’s your raise come Jan. 2015.
The average American hasn’t a CLUE how much of our tax money Obama has sent down Muslim sh*t holes while he plans to slash the military, CUTS MEDICARE and threatens to withhold senior’s social security checks!
BILLIONS FOR JIHAD! Obamas 2009 Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Pandemic Flu was revised and passed by the full committee. It gives billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to countries and entities that support Sharia law and/or harbor, hide and support those who want to destroy the U.S. and our allies. http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2009/05/1...
Read the summary from David Obeys office that was quietly released last week with nary a word from any media.
$3.6 BILLION, matching the request, to expand and improve capabilities of the Afghan security forces
$400 MILLION, as requested, to build the counterinsurgency capabilities of the Pakistani security forces
AFGHANISTAN: $1.52 BILLION, $86 MILLION above the request WEST BANK AND GAZA: $665 MILLION in bilateral economic, humanitarian, and security assistance for the West Bank and Gaza
JORDAN: $250 million,$250 million above the request, including $100 million for economic and $150 million for security assistance
EGYPT: $360 MILLION, $310 million above the request, including $50 million for economic assistance,$50 million for border security, and $260 million for security assistance
PAKISTAN:$1.9 billion,$591 million above the request
IRAQ:$968 MILLION,$336 million above the request
Oversight: $20 million,$13 million above the request, to expand oversight capacity of the State Department, USAID, and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan to review programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq
Lebanon:$74 million
International Food Assistance:$500 MILLION,$200 million above the request, for PL 480 international food assistance to alleviate suffering during the global economic crisis
REFUGEE ASSISTANCE:$343 MILLION,$50 million above the request, including humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
Funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency programs in the West Bank and Gaza is limited to $119 million (Note: Gaza = Hamas)
Disaster Assistance: $200 MILLION to avert famines and provide life-saving assistance during natural disasters and for internally displaced people around the world, including Somalia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, the Middle East and South Asia
Peacekeeping:$837 MILLION FOR UNITED NATIONS peacekeeping operations, including an expanded mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a new mission in Chad and the Central African Republic
Department of Justice: $17 million, matching the request, for counter-terrorism activities and to provide training and assistance for the Iraqi criminal justice system
OBAMA GIVES YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO REBUILD MUSLIM MOSQUES AROUND THE WORLD! http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/... #
ACCORDING TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WILL GIVE AWAY NEARLY $6 MILLION OF AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS TO RESTORE 63 HISTORIC AND CULTURAL SITES, INCLUDING ISLAMIC MOSQUES AND MINARETS, IN 55 NATIONS. See the State Department document here. http://exchanges.state.gov/media/pdfs/office-...
And THAT’S just the tip of the iceberg.
THIS will blow your mind!! http://gbk.eads.usaidallnet.gov/ They should have 2010 up, but they don’t. That’s where you’ll find Obama’s largesse towards Muslim countries really go off the charts.
http://www.foreignassistance.gov/DataView.aspx charts: http://gbk.eads.usaidallnet.gov/data/fast-facts.html .
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Obama Increased Foreign Aid 80%; Spent 76% More on Foreign Aid Than Border Security cnsnews
CNSNews.com) - From fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2011, according to the U.S. Treasury, the federal government increased spending on foreign aid by 80 percent and, in fiscal 2011, spent 76 percent more on foreign aid than it did securing the borders of the United States.
In fiscal 2008, the government spent a total of $11.427 billion in international assistance programs, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. In fiscal 2011, according to the statement, it spent $20.599 billion—an increase of $9.172 billion, or 80 percent, from 2008.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-increased-foreign-aid-80-spent-76-more-foreign-aid-border-security
Forgot to include the 40 million spent by Obama so far on his vacations.
and those below with another bennie.
If you have employees almost all your problems will have two feet. At some point you will ask who is working for whom?
Very hard to make it as a sole prop because of: Don’t get sick, don’t turn down work, don’t plan days off etc.
You do have freedom though. Every move you make is not judged, your work is. I would have a horrible time going back to the corporate world or even employee world. Think about it, who that you know can screw up your life in one day.. A boss / company you work for and your wife.
Sole prop is Freedom but freedom isn’t free.
Good luck.
Pretty terrible isn’t it? Most people don’t even know what that means. Average vs. Median or Mean.
It should be unsustainable. I will freely admit that that the haves have hoarded far too much and that it is not sustainable.
What amazes me though are the numbers of large fine houses and $40K plus cars. Is is all on extended credit?
Many years ago, in American History class at the tender age of 17, while studying the Great Depression I formed a view that it was all because the money got stacked up on one side of the ledger. The haves had too much and could not move or spend it all and it was not being reinvested and so not enough consumption going on.... Too few dollars chasing too many goods .... Depression.
For some reason I’m reminded of the parable of Talents. We now have money being created from nothing. Money not reinvested in growth or value added products but just so many empty bets on the price of a stock that has little underlying value. Facebook comes to mind for some reason?
The Greatest Generation came home and produced stuff. They made something of value from something of less value by adding labor and brains.
Good article,Thanks :)
Sounds like you are a marxist. The whole point of inequality is that someone can create a job for the one who has none.
Contrary to what Hillary said, it is the businesses that create jobs, and those people usually have the money to drive that $40K plus car.
Without those people and their wise use of money, savings and ability to make money...the majority of the US citizens would be living in poverty, period. That’s capitalism.
As Winston Churchill pointed out “Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings, whereas Socialism is the equal sharing of misery.”
Personally I like having something to aspire to, and not be wallowing in the mud with the rest of the pigs.
NOT SUSTAINABLE.
When I was growing up a job at Sears was actually a job one could make a living at or make a good contribution to the family income with. People that owned gas stations lived in decent houses down the street from my engineer Father. A lot of us were OK but not many of us were in real poverty.
I assure the author, there is a real all out war against the little sole proprietor and small business. If these groups do not understand they have a bullseye on their back they are living an illusion. The only thing that changes is whether or not the laser beam is on the bullseye on any given day. If I did not have a business and were trying to start one today I would have to be simply ignorant of not just the business risk, that is simple, but the legal and focused legal risk of GOVERNMENT against small business or any business through regulation and taxes.
Here in wonderful Texas you have to pay franchise tax on GROSS RECEIPTS meaning you have to pay tax even if you didn’t make a dime in net income.... all because of the precious Texas constitution’s prohibition against income tax. Taxes will be gotten somehow, the monster will live even if the Government monster has to kill you to do it.
Sounds like you are either selfish or ignorant but you clearly are way off base.
People who do not value employees enough to pay them a living wage are not worth working for. If you are going to have employees worth having they are worth paying well. If you can’t pay them well you are in a business that can’t compete with low cost labor. You pay for junk, you get junk.
Have a nice day.
I'm with you 100%. I gave my half of my own biz to my former wife in lieu of alimony (and now *she* has to deal with the employees). It'll take me a couple of years to get there, but my next stop will be a South Seas island, or maybe Panama. I may change my plans if the US miraculously becomes business-friendly, but I don't see that happening.
A million dollars, in terms of security without work or retirement is just about nothing these days. It won’t buy you a decent living. You might withdraw 3% of it a year and maybe and I do mean maybe survive to die but you won’t be doing much living in the mean time.
That is how much a million dollars is.
I never got a job from a poor person but I sure have paid a lot of money out to support them. I’d much rather have them earning decent money instead of having my money laundered by a bunch of slug bureaucrats and politicians than having what is left given to the poor. At least 1/3 and as much of my lifetime earnings have been taken by the government. Maybe 15 to 20% of that is money I got benefit from and helped to prosper the nation. The rest went for making more poor people more poor and dependent and more demanding of my money from politicians.
You need to read about ROWAN, the man President McKinley sent ‘”to take a message to Garcia” because the reason people are not making a better wage is their work ethic and the lack of productivity that isn’t making the business the profit that would allow them to get a better living wage.
Elbert Hubbard wrote that essay ‘to take a message to Garcia’ in 1899, it sold 40 million copies by 1913 and over 80 million copies by 1936...you see business men and women have the same problems with employees today as back then....lazy and unproductive.
So yes you pay for junk and you get junk, sometimes that is all that is available. If a business gets a loyal productive employee the business prospers, and the employee gets paid better and promoted.
I can point to examples of this all day long, in fact in my own family we have two young men who got jobs in a warehouse and they have a strong work ethic. One worked his way through 2 years of college and is full time employed and in six months he had won almost every month’s $200 bonus for most trucks loaded....was promoted. And got his brother hired....both are doing well...but the lazy amount of guys passing through there are not able to do the work, and can’t handle the pace...why? They never learned to work hard and do a good job, and give the employer 110%. They are fired or quit after a couple of weeks...you see America was built on hard work.....and most were glad to have a job.
Complainers rarely succeed or get a raise because they are a liability that cause the company morale to go down. ..they are divisive against the purpose of the business and the Bible said ‘warn a divisive man once or twice then have nothing more to do with him’.
My mother always said ‘it isn’t what you make, it’s what you save’.....the glass is either half empty or half full. Those who are the latter end up with a full glass.
Recently I had an opportunity to interact with the “intelligence” level of my neighborhood at a block party. It was a simple association game. And the subject was sports, something I am familiar with but not at the “expert” level of my neighbors.
Now, these are all folks I have interacted with for many years. And I consider them to all be stable, mid-class folks. Some were teachers. Some are craftsmen. All kinds of things.
And it was shocking just how (how do I say this nicely) dumb these folks were.
So while I realize my pay is way above average, and looking at the folks I work with, I consider myself above average but not greatly, I have to acknowledge that the “average” is pretty dumb, and the below average must be barely functional.
Believe me I know...
I cannot ever imagine going back to work for someone else. My little business has been successful the past 4.5 years. And admittedly, I am doing something that I truly love to do, so most days it really doesn’t seem like ‘work.’
As I’ve told interviewers: How bad can a job be when every time you walk in there’s a wagging tail?
Going back to work for a company? No way.
My situation is similar to yours. You didn't mention, but the forms also ask what you have saved up. Now we are reasonable folks that try to have at least six months' income saved in quick-access cash. That means in the end the last three (used) cars have been paid for in cash. And no debt beyond our house.
We have one not-quite-big screen TV. But not all the latest toys. We live rather modestly. Cheaper cell phones. No cable TV. Frugal.
What do we get out of that? Nope, no financial aid. But our son's friends? The ones with new cars and multiple big screen TVs, but nothing in their savings accounts? Yup, tons of grants.
This country is so backwards, rewarding those that are fools and penalizing those that are self sufficient. Sometimes I think I am the fool.
The SoSo Security Report link below (econ prof from S. Korea pronounced Social Benefits as SoSo Benefeets) is the backbone of the article and linked above in the post:
http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2013
There is something really wrong with what is going on, I just don't get it. My first career job (close to 35 years ago) almost equaled the median wages earned now! WTH????
Also innovation and creativity. The way things are structured now, it's almost impossible for someone to make a living by creating something of value.
The macro-solution has been to create low-income consumers who will spend everything they have, work for very little cash which is subsidized by credit transfers of funny money for their food, medical, housing subsidies. How is this any different from slavery? The new slaves might be willing invaders, but most don't rise above following orders and being given survival.
Another thing I've noticed, that in spite of expensive tastes of the top 25% (or so) is that people don't have much they treasure. The gold heirlooms were turned in to pay for a new smart phone or whatever. Books, music, photographs, new toys, aren't "stuff"; they're computer simulations. Clothes aren't classic, long-lasting, natural fiber, high quality....they're for the moment, to be replaced next year. What will the antiques be from this era? Poof. With all that money spent on smart phones, cable TV, music downloads, books on Kindle, photos on the phone, fast food meals, etc, is anything real and lasting? Is there anything that evokes memories and ties us to the past? What about what's being built? ancient Roman construction, Egypt's pyramids, fantastic medieval castles and churches still stand. What's being built today is so shoddy it mostly has to be torn down and built again in twenty (or even less) years.
When archaeologists look back on us from the future (if there is a future) they will see a civilization that declined so badly and accomplished so little of value, that it left nothing behind.
When the globalist nightmare comes tumbling down, so what? Maybe when people return to tribes and communities and extended families and local economies we can start all over. Gosh, I hope so.
“It’ll take me a couple of years to get there, but my next stop will be a South Seas island, or maybe Panama. I may change my plans if the US miraculously becomes business-friendly, but I don’t see that happening.”
keep in touch along the way. I’ve prepared for three years for just that and have developed deep information and contacts.
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