Posted on 11/05/2015 2:55:26 AM PST by expat_panama
The Economy Is Up, but Pay Is NotÂ, So sayeth Steven Greenhouse in the New York Times this past weekend in a piece titled, The Mystery of the Vanishing Pay Raise. Well, consider this mystery solved.
To Greenhouse, and to Jared Bernstein as well, the economy is, as ever, defective. While unemployment has dropped to 5.1 percent from near 10 percent in 2009, wages haven't accelerated upward, as many had expected. The Greenhouse piece has a chart showing average hourly wages rising from $24.66 in 2009 to $25.09 today. Bernstein presents his own, even scarier, chart,,,
[snip].
But their basic conclusion is just wrong.
Here is my version of Jared’s chart, using data from the Current Employment Survey on the hourly wages of production and nonsupervisory workers (seasonally adjusted):
Look at that decline over 33 years! But Jared's chart, and mine, shows growth rates for nominal pay. While these rates are declining, the careful observer will note that the trend line is above zero over the whole period, meaning that nominal pay grew every year.
[snip] 
...real pay growth has also increased.
And it has. The blue line in the chart below shows how real (inflation-adjusted) average hourly pay has grown over time, using the inflation adjustment that Bernstein tends to prefer and that Greenhouse uses in his chart (the CPI-U-RSÂ). First, note that the line shows that average hourly pay is about 11 percent higher than at the beginning of 1982, and it has been rising â€with some pausesâ€since 1996. Not such a scary chart anymore.
The dark black vertical line indicates the start of 2009, and it is clear that real pay has stagnated between then and now...
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Agreed. We really need to forget the 'wages' and start considering 'total compensation'.
While unemployment has dropped to 5.1 i stopped reading right there
Nearly 1/3 of adults are unemployed and have quit looking for a job and the unemployment numbers are 5.1%....BS!
It would be interesting to see the average wage normalized for labor participation rate included for the private sector (no govt sector jobs)and excluding welfare payments. That would give a truer median wage paid to working age Americans in the wealth-generating part of our economy. If this was done, I believe the result would be frightening.
Back in the day TV was free, radio was free and your "communications" bill was for a one land line. Hardware consisted of a phone or two so durable they lasted decades.
Now there is the data, phone and cable bills plus cellular. Phones need to be upgraded every couple of years same with computers and software. All of this adds up do hundreds of dollars each month.
Salaries haven't kept up with the expenses of the latest technology.
Raises are hard to come by, no question. On the other side, my corp is raising all entry level positions to the equivalent of $15/hour (I wish I was kidding, I’m not).
whoa, nothing like a good laugh to begin the day! [wiping tears of laughter] Seriously. [struggling] No, seriously, if you really think it'll make u rich u can always try and live tech-free for a while but personally I don't recommend it.
Huh, fired all the Indians and kept all the chiefs on, eh?
There are more unemployed Indians this week... +16,000
Jobless Claims Jumped Last Week
http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2015/11/05/weekly-jobless-claims-rosefell-by-x000/?intcmp=bigtopmarketfeatures
Please tell me how that would work
...for the private sector (no govt sector jobs)...
Very important point, controversial too. Wages for top rung positions are much lower w/ the feds than in the private sector, it's like how Rush says he'd never run for president because he doesn't want the pay cut. Lower level employees get more w/ the gov't tho (from here):
Yet somehow we still communicated just fine.
(Oh, also add in a newspaper subscription for most households.)
Soon, everybody will want/need a holographic home video system, every phone convo will include 2-way video (I know that's available now but it's on-demand)
Meanwhile, as we get more and more plugged in, the Big Brother fedguv is tracking me everywhere I go and monitoring everything I do.
Public employees are getting raises, incredible defined benefit pensions, limited contributions to their healthcare.
The private sector pays for this by not receiving wage hikes and higher taxes to fund the bloated poublic payroll and retirees.
That is true and somehow it's got to be tossed in the mix. Incomes are up, the economy's expanding, employment's up, and with the growing population we're ending up w/ more folks w/o jobs than ever:
I don’t buy the argument that six point jump was due to dumping low-cost employees and keeping the expensive managers. I’ve been through LOTS of layoffs at companies in my career and the most expensive people are always given the heave-ho first.
With such a huge population (statistics sense), it’s almost impossible to move an average that amount at once. Much more plausible is govt cooking the books. Obama has done that a lot—just look at the inflation numbers.
You’re right, but didn’t go far enough. Since we are all saddled with these enormous monthly technology expenses, we need a new middle class entitlement to pay for them. Who will buy my vote next year with the Free Middle Class Internet and Cellular Service Act? Going once, going twice...
Are you unable to work?
I would have $3600.00 more money in my pocket every year without all of these extra “communications” bills.
I have not had a pay raise in six years. My health insurance has increased, so has food and energy. To top it all off, the FED has decreased the value of the dollar.
I really don’t see how things are rosy.
Either you're intentionally harming yourself or there's something you're receiving for the $3.6K that's more valualbe to you than the bux. My guess is ou're better off.
In some jobs/industries the pay was going down the crapper many years ago,even before Obamanomics.
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