The Social Security Administration has just released wage statistics for 2013, and the numbers are startling. Last year, 50 percent of all American workers made less than $28,031, and 39 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000. If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks off, you would make $20,000. So the fact that 39 percent of all workers made less than that amount is rather telling. This is more evidence of the declining quality of the jobs in this country. In many homes in America today, both parents are working multiple jobs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet. Our paychecks are stagnant while the cost of living just continues to soar. And the jobs that are being added to the economy pay a lot less than the jobs lost in the last recession. In fact, it has been estimated that the jobs that have been created since the last recession pay an average of 23 percent less than the jobs that were lost. We are witnessing the slow-motion destruction of the middle class, and very few of our leaders seem to care.
The “average” yearly wage in America last year was just $43,041. But after accounting for inflation, that was actually worse than the year before…
American paychecks shrank last year, just-released data show, further eroding the public’s purchasing power, which is so vital to economic growth.
Average pay for 2013 was $43,041 — down $79 from the previous year when measured in 2013 dollars. Worse, average pay fell $508 below the 2007 level, my analysis of the new Social Security Administration data shows.
Flat or declining average pay is a major reason so many Americans feel that the Great Recession never ended for them. A severe job shortage compounds that misery not just for workers but also for businesses trying to profit from selling goods and services.
Average pay declined in 59 of the 60 levels of worker pay the government reports each October.
And please keep in mind that “average pay” is really skewed by the millionaires and billionaires at the top end of the spectrum.
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5 comments:
But we sure don't live like we're broke and I blame that on extended credit. Just look around at all the new vehicles, cell phones, sports arenas, movie theaters, etc. On any given weekend millions are being spent on the ventures. With conditions being so dismal the citizens are not sending the right message by such rampant spending. When potatoes and bean soup become "what's for dinner" then perhaps the income conditions will warrant a further look.
Wal-Mart and Purdue set these low wages around the country.
Some folks can't pay the rent but yet seem to have tickets to every home football and baseball game, team jerseys for every member of the family, two cars, cable an internet as well as cell phones for the whole family, and not to mention other items indicative to being "poor".
I have a small business and see large companies trying to put me out by lobbying for more regulations that I can't pay for.
12:28 some live above our means simply because welfare pay well these days, they have more disposable income than anyone working, free cell phone, housing, food, etc. Vote republican.
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