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Over the last couple of centuries there has been a steady increase in wages for both unskilled workers and production workers. A lot of this growth is a result of the increases in worker productivity due the industrial revolution of the late 1770s and 1800s. However, over the last 40 years, this long-term growth has stopped or slowed down even though the GDP per person continues to grow. At the same time, the growth rate of GDP per worker has slowed compared to the overall growth of the economy.
From 1973 to 2011, worker productivity grew 80 percent, while median hourly compensation, after inflation, grew by just one-eighth that amount, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research group. And since 2000, productivity has risen 23 percent while real hourly pay has essentially stagnated.
Not on a thread that doesn't ask for it. The original post asked for wages, not inflation adjusted wages, not blue wages, green wages, or orange wages. Wages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 313Weather
Ever heard of inflation?
Irrelevant. The original post did not ask about inflation adjusted wages.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I was making $657/month at my first real job in 1976, and in 1978 got a good promotion to almost double that. At the time a new car was under $3,000, and we bought our first house for $50,000 in a nice area in CA east of San Francisco. Now a decent car is over $20,000 now, our current house is worth close to $600,000. I make just under 6 figures and we are much better off than back then with decent savings and home equity, a retirement plan that I can start collecting in a few years. You can beat inflation but it requires constant personal growth at work with promotions, and a job that survives recessions with at lest minimal annual raises. Where I work now
there have been some furloughs and even layoffs, back in 2009, but we still get performance based annual raises, that have ranges from 2-4 over the lean years.
Not on a thread that doesn't ask for it. The original post asked for wages, not inflation adjusted wages, not blue wages, green wages, or orange wages. Wages.
Irrelevant. The original post did not ask about inflation adjusted wages.
It shows wages in 2011 constant dollars raising for the last 20 years(1993-present). The exception is manufacturing, which is the same as 1993.
I'm not sure what's your point. There was also that huge plunge in wages during the 1970s and 1980s.
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