Report: Many Americans’ Paychecks Have Shrunk Since Recession
Philip Wegmann / @PhilipWegmann / August 12, 2014
Today many Americans are taking home a smaller paycheck than they used to, according to a study released Monday by the United States Conference of Mayors.
According to the report, people who worked in job sectors particularly hard hit by the recession had an average salary of $61,637 before the recession. But when it comes to jobs gained after the downturn, the average wage was $47,171 dollars.
“The wage gap has nearly doubled from one recession to the next.” – United States Conference of Mayors.
Conditions have become worse since the last recession, when the internet bubble burst. At that time, the Conference of Mayors measured the wage gap at 12 percent, about half of today’s 23 percent.
“While the economy is picking up steam,” said Conference president and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, “wage gaps are an alarming trend that must be addressed.”
https://dailysignal.com/2014/08/12/report-many-americans-paychecks-shrunk-since-recession/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
Quite true, many jobs do not pay what they used to. Of course, the opposite is true for municipal workers. They continue to receive raises every year and they also have a gold plated benefits package that far exceeds anything in the private sector.
#1 is correct.
In the old days people took lower paying public sector jobs with the guarantee of a reasonable pension.
During the 80’s and 90 public employees and their unions gamed the political system to allow the spiking of salaries during the two years before an individual retired leading to unsustainable pension payments.
I grew up in a middle class town in Bergen County. A childhood friend joined the PD at age 22, spiked his salary the last two years of employment and retired at age 52 with a $9800 per month pension.
How is that fair or sustainable?
…and public sector workers are arrogant and adamant about their “right” to these raises and benefits even though they have no correlation to the reality of the workplace.
#3 – FYI — In 1985, Federal employees were moved to a 401(k) like retirement plan. Most federal employees have minimal pensions + 401(k) + SSI. Federal employees do NOT have retirement packages like the state and local employees. And federal employees don’t bank their sick days for retirement (they lose all unused sick upon separation from the federal government) and are limited on the amount of vacation time they can have banked at the end of the year (240 hours maximum). If you have more than 240 hours of vacation saved up, you lose it. Federal employees received a 0% pay raise in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 1% in 2014. So, please leave the feds. out of it.
State and local employees are stealing food from the tables of hard working Americans, lining their pockets with expensive pensions based on wages that are above the NJ median household income, and getting almost free healthcare for life compared to the rest of us.
The Village of Ridgewood has given +4% annual wage increases to public safety employees since 2009, versus inflation which is running at less than 2% and the private sector which is seeing wages decline as per the study above. How does this make sense in the real world?