The Myth of Stagnant Wages

This is nonsense. wages have been pretty much stagnant for years. You're argument is based primarily on the premise of "if wages were stagnant for this long wouldn't people have gotten angry by now?" That's a highly flawed argument.

Here's an example: My father got his first real job in 1972, 3 years out of high school. He had no college education. The job was as a mechanic with the local power utility where I live. He was paid around 25,000 dollars per year at that time. He bought his first house soon after...for about 30,000 dollars.

I recently finished graduate school and got an MA. The university is ranked 4th worldwide. I've yet to be offered a job with a salary more than 45,000 dollars. Prior to graduate school I worked in the construction industry for a union wage. I was making around 35,000 a year.

The average price of houses in my area (same town my dad bought his first house in) is now about 340,000 dollars. even with an MA degree, time in the military and experience I still have absolutely no chance of ever buying a house at the wages I've previously earned and even the wages I've been offered recently.

Thank about how far a 25K a year wage would get you in 1972....then consider what you can do with 35k a year TODAY. There is no comparison.

And benefits??? are you kidding me?? The percentage of jobs offering benefits continues to decline each year.

The only thing I can draw from this article is that the author must be doing ok financially and happy with his wage....therefore any discussion about wages being stagnant must be wrong.

Daniel of NY 3:49PM January 09, 2010

sres below broader doi

derickastr of HI 12:38AM November 24, 2009

I have worked in the software industry for 17 years - giving up the best years of my life working 70 hours a week building an industry for other people to work in. I make less now than when I started. Meanwhile prices have gone up 64%. And the industry is trying to push wages down through mass immigration. REAL wages have been falling for decades. Congress however, gets a $5000-per year automatic cost of living increase EVERY YEAR. If people don't have money to spend, the economy isn't going to do well. We need to pay people MORE not LESS.

Bobo of CA 2:23PM July 01, 2009

If supply side economics was so good for the working class then why have we had to have stimulus checks in 2001, 2003, 2008 to prop up a faltering economy? That is proof positive that the working class (bulk of consumers) is not earning a living wage. There is no respect for a person who works hard and at the bottom of the economic food chain. Case in point: Now days a journeyman machinist with countless hours of tech school training and highly skilled and capable of generating a lot of money for the employer is offered a measily $12 bucks per hour. They were earning that in 1980! People are learning the reality of it- you can make just as much waiting on tables. People working hard work in harsh environments and having shortened lives and; breaking down their bodies are done the unjustice of having to work until they die and not being paid a fair wage for an honest hard-day's work. Education is invaluable to higher wage jobs but some people are just better suited for working with their hands (and backs) than holding a degree and pushing a pencil, if everyone got a degree that would produce a glut in those jobs and drive the wages down also. I say give labor it's due, regardless of what you do for a living, that is the only way to maintain our standard of living and not turn the U.S. into a third-world country. I think we need a resurgence of the unions- and in the white-collar fields this time as they are getting screwed as well.

Greg of IL 5:03PM February 13, 2009