this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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I'm calling bullshit on that one.
Everybody's salary except executives has gone down relative to inflation going all the way back the the 80s.
This got passed around as a common fact in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Wages from the early 70s through 2010 or so were flat (not negative, but flat) due to inflation. Things have shifted since then.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
Note that the graph shows median wage; it isn't as affected by a few high earners as average wage would be. The 2010s were a period of relatively low inflation and wages had a chance to catch up a bit.
What is true is that productivity has leaped massively since the 70s, but median wages have only crept up somewhat. The argument needs to shift to be around how the working class was screwed out of their share of productivity improvements. That's not likely to change until we have more unions and overall something closer to Socialism.
Two mitigating factors for me:
Not mine. Every year if I don't get a "cost of living" increase that meets or exceeds inflation, I go complain about it to my boss who then negotiates with HR on my behalf and I get a bigger raise. I'm not gonna let inflation kill my salary, and my boss is not gonna risk me leaving for another company. I do wish they would just give it to me up front and stop making me ask each year. We all know what the outcome is gonna be.
Wow must be nice
I'm not saying that the average wage in the country has not fallen against inflation. Data indicates that it has. But what I'm saying is that In the tech industry, if you provide good value to your company and the managers have half a brain, you should be able to negotiate annual raises to AT LEAST match inflation. If your company won't, consider moving to a new company.
I know this is a privilege that most workers do not have, but this thread is about jobs in tech, where this is a more common case. It's also one of the reasons why the aren't more unions.
It actually hasn't; the data has shifted since this talking point was created. There's still other issues at work, though; the argument needs to be reframed around productivity.
See: https://midwest.social/comment/6656948
This is comment makes me want to move to US. In Canada what you said is so unrealistic
In every country but the US, really. Someday, big tech companies will realise that a person in any other Western country can code just as well for half the price, but for now they won't even consider it cause 'Murica.
They do. They're looking mostly to Eastern Europe. India is the classic place to look, but the quality of the tech education there is mixed (at best). I've worked with a lot of competent people from Romania.
I take it all the important stuff stays in America, though. There's a chance you couldn't even tell I'm Canadian if you met me, but there's still senior devs earning 60k up here.
There are other countries than the US of A.
Isn't the US the one place that actually pays devs properly?
No. Plenty of places pay devs well. Top end jobs are mostly in the US. There are plenty of well paying jobs elsewhere.
And I'm so happy for you, really I am