After adjusting for inflation, wages are higher than at any point in U.S. history, and after adjusting for age and sex, the percentage of the population that is employed is around its peak in U.S. history.
After adjusting for inflation, wages are higher than at any point in U.S. history, and after adjusting for age and sex, the percentage of the population that is employed is around its peak in U.S. history.
According to the BLS, the median wage (as of May 2023) is $23.11. At a 40 hour work week, 50 weeks per year, that’s a $46,110 annual wage.
Median rent for a 2 bedroom apartment (as of Nov 2023 is $1,904. That’s $22,848 annually.
So rent is 22,848/46,110 = 49.6% of income. Traditionally, this would be closer to 30%.
Wealth inequality is the highest it’s ever been. While I admire your optimism, the situation isn’t that great for the majority.
I agree that housing went up more than other parts of the market basket, and that we should build enough to force it down — indeed per your link rent is in fact slowly falling at this point.
Hourly wage is just as useless as unemployed percentages since neither count a large group of people. Unemployed statistics don’t count gig workers, service workers, etc., who are chronically underemployed. But even if you count their hours as a percentage you still would exclude all of the gig workers who are paid per job that can often span multiple hours. But none of that information is tracked, so it can’t be accounted for proportionally. So these stats are purposely worthless and tell the story that the wealthy want to tell so they can keep getting wealthier and pretend they aren’t taking that wealth from everyone else.