A sad statistic? Median usual weekly real earnings from Jan 1980 to Dec 2018

Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings: Wage and salary workers: 16 years and over;


https://alfred.stlouisfed.org/serie...tm_term=related_resources&utm_campaign=Alfred

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January 1980; $355/week
December 2018; $355/week

NOTE: Half the workers earned below MEDIAN

THUS, NO CHANGE!

But!

How Many Hours a Week Is a Full-Time Job?
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-many-hours-a-week-is-full...
Traditional Standard. The standard for full-time employment was typically 40 hours a week in the past. However, many employers now consider employees as full-time when they work fewer hours (i.e., over 30 hours, 35 hours, or 37.5 hours). Because there are no laws regulating full-time employment for compensation and benefits purposes,..

THUS, weekly hours have generally been reduced.

And

"Usual weekly earnings represent earnings before taxes and other deductions and include any overtime pay, commissions, or tips usually received."

THUS, since 1980, marginal taxes rates have been lowered, however, FICA tax deductions have increased from;

a. 6.13% on first $25,900, (near $80,000 in today's dollar), and prior to 1991, Social Security and Medicare contributions were combined in a single tax

To

b. 6.2% on first $127,200, PLUS Gross X 1.45%


CONCLUSION; Assuming Trump's tax cuts have NOT or have slightly/significantly increased Median weekly NET earnings, IMO, still a sad statistic.

 

I'm not done!

Back in 1981/82/83, seasonally, I was earning $600 - $700 a week (nominal), 50 - 60 hours weekly. In today's dollar; approx. $1,700 a week. In fact, back then, mom was a K-6 teacher, and from May to August, my weekly earnings were higher than hers, and thank you dad for your connections.

Also, since 1994, I've climbed the corporate ladder, and my earnings have steadily risen above inflation, in other words; Since the 80's, I haven't been plucking chickens so to speak. .

Today, nearly 80 million workers earn less than the Median wage, and/or, have earned less than the Median wage.

For anyone's info, I started posting on several sites/forums when I was working in Libya, and HAVE BEEN, thus, since 2007, to my knowledge, not one Republican has ever "alerted" anyone about our historical real median wage, and for that reason, I'm guessing said 80 million workers ARE overwhelmingly "whining, bitching, anti-capitalistic/wealth LIBERALS", am I right?

 

Hell, I was making $7.25 an hr back in 1972. Gas was 25 cents a gallon and white castles a nickel..

 

"Units: 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars," That says it all.

 

That says it all;

PCE and CPI Inflation: What’s the Difference?

There are two common measures of inflation in the US today: the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index (PCE) issued by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The CPI probably gets more press, in that it is used to adjust social security payments and is also the reference rate for some financial contracts, such as Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) and inflation swaps. The Federal Reserve, however, states its goal for inflation in terms of the PCE.

The two measures, though following broadly similar trends, are certainly not identical. In general, the CPI tends to report somewhat higher inflation. Since 2000, prices as measured by the CPI have risen by 39 percent, while those measured by the PCE have risen by 31 percent, leading to differing average annual inflation rates of 2.4 and 1.9 percent. In this century, then, CPI inflation has run about half a percentage point higher than PCE inflation. When calculated from 1960 the difference is almost the same, 3.9 percent for the CPI and 3.4 percent for the PCE. Since 2008, however, the difference has been smaller, 1.7 percent and 1.4 percent.

https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsro...417-pce-and-cpi-inflation-whats-the-differenc

 

That's why it is the "median wage". Half the workers will always earn less than the median wage.

 

It is misleading. Most of us are not used to thinking in terms of 1982 dollars. Real wages have not gone up. That is a fact. However, there is no reason why they should .

 

Ha ha, I remember making the min wage, 1.65 per hour, and gas was a quarter a gallon, a bit higher if you got it at a full service gas station. We had one self serve station here back then with most gas stations being full service. Pull in, tell em how much you want in gas, and besides pumping your gas, they would check your engine oil level, and wash your bugged up windshield. ha ha. If you had a low tire, they would pump that back up too.

Thing is, If I had to, I could have actually survived on a buck sixty five an hour, with a 40 hour weeks, paid rent, paid the electrical bill and even eaten decently, if I could cook and stay away from convenience foods, processed foods. So, if we adjusted up the min wage just for inflation since say, 1968, it would probably be around 12 bucks an hour today. But with all of the modern requirements, could anyone live and survive on 12 bucks an hour today?

As a side note, I still remember way back then when people were talking about the future and how any how per week we would be working, there were estimates that said it would be 15 to 20 hours a week, making in wages what 40 hours would bring a worker back then. For the productivity would have grown so much, with techno advance in manufacturing that this is all that the average factory worker would be required to work. ha ha... Well, that was back when it was assumed that the corporation would share the gains in worker productivity with the workers!! And back then, that was not a weird idea, for this was before neoliberal capitalism took over, and sent all rewards to the very top. ha ha

 

How many multiples of 100% has the average corporate CEO's salary increased since 1980???In 1980 the 401kwas passed into law and within eight years well over 100,000 pension plans were cancelled by companies and the savings from no longer funding them was split up between company executives and boards of directors.Creating the gigantic salary we see today between CEO's and their rank and file employees.That spelled the end of the American middle class.

 

Yeah, I stumbled across this while responding to a post about private insurance having lower overhead than Medicare.

• Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealthGroup—$279.3 million
• Michael Neidorff, Centene—$170.4 million
• David Cordani, Cigna—$142.5 million
• Mark Bertolini, Aetna—$139 million (5 years; Bertolini started at Aetna in 2011)
• Joseph Swedish, Anthem—$48.3 million (4 years; Swedish started at Anthem in 2013)
• Bruce Broussard, Humana—$42.9 million (4 years; Broussard started at Humana in 2013)
• J. Mario Molina, Molina Healthcare—$42.8 million (Molina was fired in March 2017)

 

And I stumbled across this:

A quarter of 100 prominent healthcare executives gave money to Trump's opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. The rest have not donated to either Clinton or Trump, according to a Modern Healthcare analysis of federal election records. Not a single one financially backed Trump, even though many of them have a history of donating to conservative politicians and causes

https://www.modernhealthcare.com/ar...end-cash-to-hillary-clinton-shun-donald-trump

 

Nice jog apparently you missed the part of Obama care that redefined full time for purposes of the ACA as 30 hours a week.

 

Now that's a wonderful statistic - has no relationship to the topic, but I guess it makes you feel better.

 

I never worked minimum wage....my Uncle, a mechanic, paid me less than minimum wage, however, his 1971 Firebird made me a popular/wanted guy so to speak.

Did yesterday's minimum wage bought more goods than today's minimum wage?

I'd say so.

 

The FED is consistent at 35 hours.

 

Yes it did!

1980 minimum wage; $3.10 + annual inflation rate = $9.01, end of 2018

Online Inflation Calculators show $9.50

Thus, yesterday's minimum wage bought more goods than today's minimum wage.

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-inflation-rate-history-by-year-and-forecast-3306093

 

Your silly chart only goes thru 2015......wow, just wow.

 

Yes average wages have stagnated, I need to look no further than packing plants to see this. With the influx of illegal immigrants willing to work for less why would it rise? Wages on kill floors nation wide have not risen significantly since the 80s simply because they are being filled with illegal workers.

 

Wrong! It was updated Jan 17, 2019

https://alfred.stlouisfed.org/serie...tm_term=related_resources&utm_campaign=Alfred

Then, Edit Graph to MAX

Nice try

 

Tighter labor markets and more productivity and more skilled jobs. And last jobs report said wages are markedly out pacing inflation.

 

Average wages have not stagnated.....Google Average Wage versus Median Wage

 

. Went from a company pension plan in the 1980's and never looked back. Well be set quite nicely when I retire very shortly.

 

The last forty years, with a little lead time, comprises Nixon's infamous visit to China, the subsequent ramp up of globalism, the decimation of manufacturing in the USA and hard times for the USA's working people, with the congress and all administrations until Trump complicit in it.

 

You are the EXCEPTION rather that the rule. Most workers have been SCREWED by 401k's.