Global Courant 2023-05-31 18:00:00
Boomers ‘never had to fight for jobs’: This student on TikTok says older generations ‘can’t conceptualize’ the inflation struggle – and the comments fully back it up
Since the 1980s, the economy has changed in ways that are simply hard to describe. The real impact of inflation and wage stagnation only becomes clear when you dig deeper into the numbers. That’s exactly what a recent college graduate did when her mother commented on the idea that young workers “expect too much.”
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“I think boomers can’t understand this (struggling) because they’ve never had to fight for jobs,” says Cat, a 21-year-old college student. She recently took to TikTok to explain why older workers might find it hard to empathize with the economic struggles of young people after a conversation with her mother about mismatched expectations. The video has been viewed more than 2.2 million times as of May 30.
Cat says her mother was making $36,000 a year as an entry-level bank clerk in 1980. Meanwhile, the average entry-level worker in America now earns $55,260 a year, according to her calculations. However, adjusted for inflation, the entry-level salary in 1982 — about $33,700 — was closer to $102,200 in today’s dollars.
In fact, a recent college graduate earns only half as much as his or her parents if they graduated 40 years ago. This also applies to low-income workers. The federal minimum hourly wage in the US was $3.10 in 1980 and just $7.25 today. These workers may have doubled their income in 40 years, but it is clear that the cost of living has risen faster.
A dollar in 1980 had the same purchasing power as $3.68 today. To maintain purchasing power – at least by 1980 standards – the minimum wage should have now risen to $11.40.
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Labor has, in fact, been devalued, which is at the root of the frustrations of many younger workers. And TikTok comment sections are one of their favorite places to express these feelings.
Read more: Wealthy young Americans have lost faith in the stock market – and are bet on these 3 assets instead. Get in now for strong tailwinds
Comments agree
“Boomers had the door wide open and then slammed it shut behind them,” said an angry commenter on Cat’s video.
“Everything is going up except our salaries,” said another.
From more than 7,000 comments to the video, most seem to agree completely with Cat’s feelings. Some who claim to be fresh out of college say they earn less than the national average or have been looking for a good job for years.
“The job market hates entry-level workers,” said one commenter who says they’ve been unable to find a job in their industry after graduating two years ago.
What good news
It’s not all doom and gloom for American workers. The median weekly wage for full-time workers was above inflation for the first three months of 2023 and came in at $1,100, according to the latest data of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In addition, the country’s lowest wage earners are seeing faster growth than the top earners. From January 2020 to September 2022, the bottom 10% of American workers have seen their real (inflation-adjusted) wages increase 6.4%according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Add to that a low unemployment rate and it seems that younger, poorer workers may be enjoying a rare period of outperformance over older, wealthier workers.
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This article provides information only and should not be taken as advice. It comes without any kind of warranty.
