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If you’ve ever sat down to have a conversation with anyone a few decades older than you, there’s no doubt that you’ve had the inevitable conversation about just how inexpensive things used to be. You could get meals for a dollar, rent was negligible, and gas was….okay, well, gas was priced about the same, but that’s beside the point. These numbers made sense though because they corresponded with the much lower wages at the time. If we were to make 1980s money today with 2016 retail pricing, we’d be in real trouble.
As it turns out, that’s exactly what’s happening to Millennial workers. We’re not constantly talking about how thin we’re stretched financially because we like to complain or that we’re lazy and don’t want to work – it’s that Millennial wages are the same today as they were in the 1980’s. No joke. According to a new study by the Center for American Progress, 30-year-olds today make around the same as they would have in 1984. This is even more shocking when you take into account that Millennials today are 50% more likely to have a college degree and the economy is much better than it was in 1984 – 70% better.
In 1984, 30-year-olds could be expected to make an hourly wage of around $18.99, which with the much lower cost of living really isn’t too shabby. While this went up to $20.63 in 2004, we’re now right back where we started at an hourly rate of $19.32. Woof. So the next time you’re at brunch and that one friend absolutely insists on splitting the check by what you ordered, maybe cut her a bit of slack – I hear bottomless mimosas in the 1980s were a lot cheaper. .
[via Jezebel]
Image via Shutterstock
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Steph W.
Steph W. is a new Master's degree graduate with an intern's salary and six-figure taste. She realizes her expectations far exceed reality, so she spends her days pinning away Loubs she pretends are in her physical closet instead of her virtual one. Her hobbies include attempting to trapping her boyfriend into marriage before he finds out how insane she is and pretending that Black Box wine tastes as good as the kind she could afford when she was gainfully employed. Send her tips for getting out of student debt at recruitchairtsm@gmail.com
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The numbers your linked Jezebel article is referencing are all inflation adjusted, which you can clearly see if you actually go look at the first note on figure 1 of the study (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2016/03/03/131627/when-i-was-your-age/). Jezebel didn’t bother mentioning this crucial fact though, because it’s a shit website. Don’t source it.
Yeah.
BLS says $19/hr today would be worth about $8 in ’84
Which just goes to show how fucking lazy this PGP article is. The level of thinking didn’t even get critical enough to consider how wildly absurd the claim is that people today are making nominally the same amount that they did in 1984, let alone actually go read the source material that clearly states the use of inflation adjusted figures.
Jezebel and critical thinking don’t mix.
Why is PGP writing about Jezebel articles?
Honestly wasn’t expecting much considering the reputation tied to that article image wine girl thing. Gives me flashbacks of kendra
I was a bit worried when I first saw it too.
great fucking non factual post. A+
Let’s also not overlook that this study was commissioned by a group led by John Podesta, who is Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair. Take it with a grain of salt.
At the bottom of the article it also states that the ratio of working vs non working is higher for millennials than it was for 25-34 y/o in since 1980.
So apparently we are still lazy. Good job, everyone.