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Found a 20-year-old pay stub in a box and did the math
I was cleaning out my garage in Portland and found my pay stub from a grocery store job in 2004. I made $7.25 an hour. Adjusted for inflation, that's over $12 an hour today. The new hires at that same store start at $13 now. Basically, the real starting wage has barely moved in two decades. Anyone else find old paperwork that made you realize how stuck wages are?
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wren21712d ago
Read an article last week about factory wages from the 90s. They compared a line worker's pay then to now, and it was almost the same after you account for inflation. My buddy's dad was a machinist and made what would be like 28 bucks an hour today. New guys at that plant start at 22 now. It's crazy how that works across so many jobs.
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wilson.claire12d ago
My uncle was a union electrician in '95 making the equal of $42 an hour. I always figured wages just naturally went up over time, but seeing numbers like that really shows how things have stalled for a lot of people. It's a pretty sobering way to look at it.
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