13 thoughts on “Boomer vs Millennial Job Requirements

  1. OMG. If you’re going to put down “boomers,” at least learn that the start of the boomer generation is 1946, not 1932. Idiot!

    1. The start of the Millennial generation was in the 1980s, not 2012. What’s your point?

      The years of the Olympic performances are immaterial to the argument; they are being used to illustrate the difference in and heightening of expectations across the generational gap, not because either performance is specifically from the generation it’s being held as representative of.

      Dismissing the comparison because it is symbolic rather than literal is an argument against your comprehension of the comparison, not an argument against the comparison itself.

      1. Sure, but their CPI comparisons are also nonsense because they cherry picked the years. The oldest Boomers were 18 in 1964, while the oldest millennials were 40 in 2020.

        Consider a more realistic comparison. Minimum wage in 1964 as the Boomers entered the workforce was $1.25/hr, equivalent to $6.54/hr in 1998 dollars. In 1998 when the Millennials entered the workforce minimum wage was $5.25/hr. So, yeah, your entry level positions in 1998 had effective value about 20% below those same positions in 1998, a far cry from the massive difference the OP manipulated the numbers to show.

        Moving beyond high school, an electrical engineer with a 4 year degree in 1967 could expect to make about $720/month, or about $8640/year. Inflation adjusted that’s equivalent to $45,983/year in 2001. In 2001, an EE with a 4 year degree could expect a starting salary of about $45k/year. That difference is within the error bars of CPI.

        Let’s roll it forward to the tail end of each generation, and look at people entering the workforce with a 4 year degree in 1985 and 2015. In 1985 an electrical engineer could expect a starting salary around $24k, equivalent to about $53k in 2015. In 2015 an electrical engineer could expect a starting salary around $50k. Again, well within the error bars.

        The op was using bad maths to mislead people, clearly demonstrating that they have a specific agenda and don’t care about reality or the truth. But then, people drawing divisive lines (“boomer”, “millennial”) nearly always have a political agenda that benifits from an is vs them mentality.

        Me: elder millennial that trained as an EE and entered the workforce in 2001 as a college dropout with a 1st year salary of $55k. A few months ago I hired a kid right out of school (Gen Z) as an EE, starting salary $90k

        As for media chimp, this “article” has nothing to do with job requirements, good job completely failing at the one thing you contributed (the headline).

        1. OK… here is Gen Z then. The oldest Gen Zrs entered the workforce in 2015. The min wage in 2015 is $7.25 per hour. The minimum wage in 1962 was $1.15 per hour. Calculated for inflation, that is about $9 in 2015 dollars ($10.23 today). So still making more.

          But that’s not all… because while boomers were just starting out, the minimum wage was constantly increasing which for our generation… the minimum wage has been stagnant… so ignoring that fact and simply using a SINGLE minimum wage rate from 1962/63 is disingenuous.

          In 1967, min wage increased AGAIN to $1.40 per hour. That is $9.93 in 2015 and $11.30 today… again… I am only looking at FEDERAL min wage!

          In 1968, it rose again to $1.60 per hour. That is $10.90 in 2015 and $12.39 today. Today… our federal min wage is STILL $7.25 per hour. Has been since 2009. A far cry from what boomers had come to expect which was an update to min wage every couple years or so.

          In 1974, min wage rose to $2.00 per hour. This was their first real fall in wages as that is $9.62 in 2015 and $10.93 in 2021.

          In 1975, they increased min wage to $2.10 which is $9.25 per hour in 2015 and $10.52 in 2021. Another fall but still much more money than what our generation was making. At this point… it’s almost like the oldest baby boomers were no longer in min wage jobs…

          In 1976, they raised it again! To $2.30 per hour. $9.58 in 2015 and $10.89 today. Not a huge raise, but it is practically unheard of today for the federal min wage to be raised 3 years in a row!

          In 1978, it increased yet again to $2.65 per hour. Which is $9.63 in 2015 and $10.95 in 2021.

          1979, raised to $2.90 per hour. $9.47 in 2015, $10.76 today.

          1980, $3.10 per hour. $8.92 in 2015 and $10.14 in 2021. This is when min wage started to fall and it’s also conveniently when most baby boomers were no longer working min wage jobs.

          1981, $3.35 per hour. $8.73 in 2015 and $9.93 today.

          And then no increase in the federal min wage until 1990. Do you know what happened in the period between 1980 and 1990? Reagan happened. And along with Reagan came the union busting and the assault on the average American worker.

          In 1990, min wage increased to $3.80 per hour…. $7.07 in 2015… and $8.04 today. This was the steepest drop in min wage… but it also came at a time when it didn’t affect baby boomers nearly as much anymore. Baby boomers at this time were obtaining more positions of power and doing everything they could to accumulate more wealth in their hands even if it came at the expense of America’s most vulnerable: minimum wage workers.

          1990 to 2000 we would see steady increases in the minimum wage again… but nothing really drastic. Those steady increases would stop again when Bush took presidency. And here we are in modern times with the last minimum wage increase being in 2009.

          So looking back at this data, the biggest benefit that boomers had was a stable minimum wage. A minimum wage that actually matched inflation more or less and that had an increase every few years. Boomers consistently had a min wage that was much higher than the millennial and Gen z min wage. Remember… every dollar that is added to an hourly wage is an extra $2000 every year. It adds up.

          This also isn’t even considering how prevalent unions were when boomers were starting their careers. Having more active unions also meant that most of the jobs in the past provided more benefits than they do today. Those benefits saved workers even more money which meant that workers had even more spending money! People often forget this fact, but the truth is… a lower minimum wage isn’t the only way Gen z and millennials are receiving the short end of the stick when it comes to compensation.

          More active unions also meant that more jobs were actually paying more than minimum wage. 44% of Americans work jobs that are considered low wage today (median of $18,000 annually). This is due to the erosion of worker rights due to union busting practices.

          There is so much to consider when we actually try to gauge how the low wage job market of today compares to the low wage job market of 1968. Looking at JUST minimum wage obviously won’t cut it and saying that it is ONLY a 20% pay difference is a bit disingenuous because you are not taking into account stuff like benefits, the per capita amount of min wage jobs in past and present populations, the cost of necessities like shelter, the portion of people who rented vs. those who owned houses, etc.

        2. Right, except you’re overlooking one major point. It’s fairly common practice in the modern economy for those that haven’t found a stable, sustaining full time career to have to shift career paths every ten to fifteen years. This makes up a significant portion of the Millennial workforce, larger by percentage than the same kind of struggling workers in the Boomer generation. Put simply, they had a far easier time actually getting a foundation to stand on so they could start advancing.

          This means that part of what defines the Millennial experience is being in your fucking forties and STILL having to apply for entry level jobs because the work you did in a different industry 1) wasn’t sustaining you, and 2) doesn’t seem to count for shit with employers despite there being clear transferable skills. It’s TOTALLY reasonable to compare wages in 1964 to wages in 2020 because Millennial workers are stuck still applying for these entry level jobs.

          Clearly you named yourself ‘Reality Check’ because you need one.

        3. Not sure engineering salaries are a good proxy for wages as a whole, though – engineers not only tend to have good starting salaries but also less debt than other high earning jobs where you need an advanced degree to get your *first* job. Case in point: I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree in 1988 (leading edge of GenX, not a Boomer), and married another engineer and bought a house together in 1993. I don’t know how the pandemic and housing boom might have changed things but up to 2020, my engineering colleagues seemed to be buying houses at similar stages in their lives, at the same time that I was hearing complaints from everyone else that home ownership had become an unattainable goal for Millennials and GenZ.

  2. Comparing hourly rates is not comparing apples to apples. For example, payroll tax rates aren’t static. Nor are benefits taken into account. All those affect how much an employee costs.

    1. Employers typically charge customers/clients double, triple or more per hour for labor than they pay their employees to perform said labor. A garage charges 120/hr for labor but only pays the mechanic $35/hr for example. If it isn’t clear cut as such on an invoice for services rendered, the cost will be worked into the fee structure more inconspicuously, but it will be there. Employees do not ‘cost’ money unless they are doing something either grossly negligent, or illegal. They are a source of revenue. This of course does not apply to those on the board of directors – they do cost money, and since they don’t perform any labor and their grossly inflated salaries must come from somewhere, you can guess who foots the bill for their undeserved extravagance.

  3. 25/ hr is the number I came up with to be fair pay right now. But every 15 they give you and don’t give themselves is 15 less into their new kitchen upgrade.. and that’s cool.. the entire future of humanity will just be homeless.. you won’t be alive anyway so what do you care?

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