I found the onboarding paper of a company I joined in 1991.
As an experienced machinist I started at $20.00 an hour. In NINETEEN NINETY ONE!
At that time we had recently bought a house with 7 acres. Cost $125,000.
A similar place today would run ~ $450,000 today.
Looking for a machinist job currently, advertised pay is between $18 to $25 an hour. With some outliers higher, but more lower too.
After years of training, thousands of dollars in precision tools and experience, and years of inflation, you are supposed to work at the around the same wages as THIRTY YEARS AGO!
Housing has gone up 4 to 5 times what it was then, wages have barely moved.
How the hell is a young person supposed to even start to live an independent life with prices like that.
Federal Minimum wage was $4.25
Federal minimum today, $7.25
Total inflation rate since 1991? 2.46%
So a dollar today is worth 0.44 cents as much as it was in 1991.
Meaning I was starting that job at an equivalent to $49.20
Any machinists out there making fifty bucks an hour?