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In 1982, I was paid $16.67/hr as a bricklayer (Local 13, Newark, NJ) with $5/hr in benefits and $1/hr in vacation pay. ($22.67/hr total)

According to http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ the purchasing power of my 1982 dollar is equal to $2.52 – a cumulative rate of inflation of 151.6%, yet the average wage is the same as 1982. Using that same calculator, the $22.57/hr in 1982 should be $57.05/hr in 2017, without any increase in my standard of living. This is so sad.

More sad, is that 34 years later, bricklayers get an average of 22.50/hr for union and non-union.

This is in part due to illegal immigration. The law of supply and demand applies to labor, as well. The argument is that no Americans want the jobs that illegals will do.

Conversely, if there were no illegals, wages would rise with corporate needs and the workforce need would be fulfilled.

[The law of supply and demand also debunks the feminist argument of unequal pay, too. No company would ever hire a man, if women did the same amount of work for less.]

Not everybody is suited for college. Trade schools and trade crafts were and still could be important – provided you could make a decent living without every year whittling away at your standard of living because wages do not keep up with the cost of living.

[On a side note: all of my Union Dues went to support Democrats and the Pension charged me so much for managing my account that there is no money left in my retirement account.] Nobody will go to jail for robbing me and most of my Union brothers of our pensions. It is just the Democrat way.