In 1980, I made $23,409 working at a grocery store

[maxrandb]

Last edited Thu Feb 13, 2025, 05:02 PM - Edit history (1)

I would show you my Social Security Report verifying that is what I made in 1980, but I am pretty sure the South African Nazi and some 19 year old, snot-nosed incel named "Big Balls" already has my data.

That $23,409 per year in 1980 is equivalent to $96,323 per year in 2025 money. I was a high-school graduate, full-time Stock Clerk at Big Bear Supermarkets in Ohio. I had been there 7 years, and I was at the top of the non-department manager, or butcher payscale. Yes, my friends, like Frank Zappa once famously sang; "you could make more money as a butcher, so don't you waste your time on me".

If you want to understand what has happened to the American Labor Market since Saint Ronnie Ray-Gun "aw-shucked" it into trickle-down bullshit, I am your example.

If you really want to understand, the next time you are at Walmart, Kroger, Publix, or your local grocer, find a full-time stock clerk and ask them if they make $96,323 a year? Just be prepared to run.

But it's more than just the wages that have been crushed. I earned time-and-a-half for overtime, double-time on Sundays and Holidays, and even got 8 hours of pay for my birthday, whether I worked that day, or not.

We were offered a nice little pension if you were loyal and worked long enough. We had medical and dental insurance, but I was young and healthy, so I don't know how good it really was. We had the same protections from firing that our main competitor, Kroger, had. You get two official performance write-ups, with chances to improve before they would fire your ass.

We got that labor protection because Kroger had a Union, and Big Bear tried to treat us the same to prevent Big Bear from unionizing.

Here's the thing. There were still a shit-ton of rich/wealthy people in America. The corporate heads and the owner of Big Bear made a lot of money, but it wasn't 300 to 400 times what I made

[Nittersing]

1. When I bought my house in 1985, my neighbor was a retired grocery clerk

He owned a house and raised three children on his salary alone.

[DENVERPOPS]

23. How about this

Yesterday I told a Safeway checker, that In 1979, I lived with a gal who was a Safeway Checker, with five years on the job. She earned 22.00 an hour.......

I asked a Safeway Checker yesterday, how much a checker, after five years, earns. She said between 16.00 to18.00 an hour
She just stopped and stared at me, her mind churning with that fact......

2025 minus 1979 = 46 YEARS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FAR WORSE is HOW MUCH HAS THE COST OF LIVING GONE UP IN THE LAST 46 YEARS............

In 1980, HWBush and his CABAL went all out to destroy the middle and lower classes for EIGHT long years........and the RepubliCONs haven't stopped trying ever since...........

From memory, I could easily list many direct hits on all of us by the RepubliCONS by HW and his CABAL. Which provided a really strong foundation for everything they have accomplished since then.

Some of us here on DU became extremely politically aware of what was happening at that point. Many of us were screaming our heads off, from the rooftops, ever since..........Many Dems told us to get off our fanatical soap boxes. There was even a whole group that called themselves "REAGAN DEMOCRATS"..............

As I have said many many times here, the perfect title for a book about the last 45 years would be:

WHILE THE NATION SLEPT........................

And it wouldn't be just a single book, but a group of books would be needed that would resemble the World Books, or Encyclopedia Brittanica.....

[LeftInTX]

28. What?? I made $100/shift as a registered nurse

in 1985.

I made $19, 000 year as a computer programmer in 1979. Which comes our to $9.50/hr

I never knew a cashier who made $45 K back then. That was managerial salary

[DENVERPOPS]

60. Of course you didn't

know any checker that made 45K back then........

Because the grocery stores didn't allow checkers to work over 20-30 hours a week, so they didn't have to give the checkers one single fringe benefit......No sick days, no holidays, no vacation days, no health insurance, no un-employment benefits, nada

Also, speaking of "contorted" earnings figures........Teachers back then always complained about the amount they earned a year........of course they actually earned that amount for nine months of work, and it was actually eight months they worked, if you deducted the school vacations, holidays, etc.

Back in the day, Nurse's and Teacher's pay was considered by many, "Professional Poverty" especially considering they both required a four year degree.......

Also, consider the 80's, and even beyond......when Reagan Busted Unions across the land in every industry/occupation.......
Pre-Reagan, union Electricians in Denver were earning 22.00 an hour, with 26% in fringe benefits. After Reagan busted the ATC Union, it signaled to almost all union employers that they could do the same with no recourse from the NLRB. Those electricians, a week after Reagan declared war on Unions, with the ATC employees, those same electricians went to 12.00 an hour with NO benefits. That was true of all the trades. They didn't get back to that 22.00 an hour, but with only 18% fringe until sometime in the mid to late 90's.........
It also affected the non-union employees, during that time period, as their wages dropped an equivalent amount, comparable to the Union employees.

[brush]

76. Good point on unions. Shows how much they're needed for workers' rights.

[MuseRider]

70. Registered Nurse here too

but left it long ago for other things.

For our Christmas Bonus for doing 12+hour night shifts we each got an apple.

My BF was a Doctor, already making more money in a year than I would ever make got a bonus of 5 figures and a substantial raise. (more in that raise than a nurse would ever make in years added up)

What you do with your life means it matters to you for all kinds of reasons but to be treated like that makes none of the good parts of the job, and nursing is quite rewarding, seem worth staying in especially if your job actually keeps the darned place in business (try not having real nurses around.....oh yeah I forgot we are trying that now).

[Kali]

56. a cashier in 1979 making 22 an hour?

not in my world

[pnwmom]

65. This 1975 report, just 4 years earlier, tells a very different story. So I'm skeptical about the $22.

Basic rates for grocery store employees averaged
$5.19 on July 1, 1975, and were distributed over a relatively
broad range. Wage rates were highest for cutters in
meat departments and lowest for baggers at checkout
counters. For the two departments permitting comparison,
averages in the meat section were 23 percent above
those in groceries—$6.24 compared with $5.06. These
averages, as well as occupational averages in the survey,
were computed solely from “top” rates for each job
found in individual union agreements within the cities
studied.
For jobs surveyed below the level of department
head, most union agreements provided for automatic
step increases from an entry rate to a top rate in 2 to 3
years. (See table 6.) For department heads, a single rate
usually applied, but where more than one was given in
an agreement, the rates were generally determined by
the sales volume of the store rather than by automatic
progression.
Head meatcutters were the highest paid among grocery
store occupations in most cities in which they were
represented, averaging $7.11 per hour.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/bls/bls_1925_1976.pdf

[Grins]

84. There is no way she made $22/hour in 1979.

Unless you prorated for inflation.
$22 in 1979 is $95 today.

I worked at a large multi-state grocery store 11 years earlier and my hourly pay was $1.25/hour. To go from $1.25 to $22, 1,768%, in eleven years…?

Maybe you meant $2.20…?

[Ocelot II]

2. In 1970 I had a routine clerical job that paid $4 per hour.

It was a union job, so that wage was better than average for the kind of job it was. The equivalent today is $33.50, or almost $70,000 per year. I doubt very much that the same job (which probably doesn't exist now because of computers), or equivalently low-skill work would pay that much now - maybe half as much, even in states like mine that have raised the minimum wage.

[snowybirdie]

3. Damn! I should

have worked at a grocery store. I made all of $19800 as a college educated executive secretary in 1983!

[rubbersole]

11. Yes, but you were smokin' hot.. .🫠

[Wicked Blue]

4. Tax rates were higher for the rich in 1980

Single people earning $108,300.00+ were taxed 70%

Imagine if Musk had to fork over 70% of his income.

[Ocelot II]

6. Not quite accurate - 70% was the top *marginal* tax rate.

That means that only any adjusted gross income over $108,300.00 was taxed at 70%, not the entire amount. The top marginal tax rate for the 2024 tax year is 37% for individual single taxpayers with incomes greater than $609,350. So any of Musk's income greater than $609,350 (which would be most of it) would be taxed at 37%, but he probably attributes almost all of it to corporations and takes business deductions that effectively result in $0 tax.

[Wicked Blue]

8. Thanks for enlightening

Tax stuff gives me a headache

[True Blue American]

34. Until Reagan started

Cutting the top rate and tried to kill Unions.
Musk and Trump are doing the same,only worse.

[Cheezoholic]

51. They are finishing the job ;) n/t

[Bengus81]

69. JFK dropped the top tax rate of 91% down to 70% which I actually agree with

It was passed after his death. Working class people received a tax cut of 4% by 1965 on income of 4K-6K--about $60,000 today He also started the standard deduction at the same time.

[Old Crank]

13. Actually Musk doesn't have much in the way of traditional income

He gets one dollar for one company. I don't know the rest.

The weallthy have ways around needing taxable income like the vast majority.
The one I've heard of lately is buy, borrow and die.
You buy an asset, borrow cash against it,then when you die your estate transfers it tax free to the heirs.

[Ocelot II]

14. Yes. It's all tied up in his corporations, and they avoid taxation

in all sorts of ways. And the rest of us pick up the tab for his generous government contracts.

[Yavin4]

16. They get compensated in shares

And then borrow against those shares to get some liquidity.

[Bengus81]

72. Yeah and are they taxed at all or only at capital gains rates 15% This was a Bush Jr thing if I remember right

Hell...he wanted the capital gains tax taken down to ZERO. He might have if he hadn't fucked up everything else he did.

[Yavin4]

75. Not taxed at all.

It's all borrowed money against their assets.

[slightlv]

41. Unfortunately, that buy, borrow, and die

in another form is all too well known to most common folks, too. That's the one where no matter what you can't make ends meet, so you use your credit card(s) to make up the difference... even if it's just getting cash from your card. Keep doing that until you die; at least YOU never see the bill come due in full. Won't say anything about your kin, tho... (sigh)

In the late 70's, I'd just graduated with a BA in Psychology. Visions of a Masters and a PhD floated excitedly through my head. I'd done some internship at a state hospital, and also with an autistic child for a summer. In one of the few job openings I could find... a halfway house for kids... they could only guarantee 30 hours a week. It was 3.35/hour with no benefits. Suddenly, those visions kinda vanished into thin air. Granted, I'd gotten my degree at the start of MBA madness. But I truly thought by the time I'd graduated, the country would be full and overflowing with MBA's and short people who could help people deal with the stress that comes with those MBA jobs. I was naive enough to believe that eventually the country would turn back around to caring about it's human resources... not just machines. I got hit in the face with the fact the world had changed and moved on, never to look back. So, I took workshops and read everything I could get my hands on and became computer proficient... building them, fixing them, and teaching them. From that, I made a decent career. But, being female, my pay always lagged behind the guys, regardless of what we were doing. Some things never change, it seems.

[malthaussen]

47. When my mother died, I "inherited" her credit card debt of 6k or so...

... it gave me perverse pleasure to write "Cardholder deceased" on the bill and send it back unpaid.

-- Mal

[SWBTATTReg]

53. You don't owe her debt, never did. If they want it paid off, they need to go thru the probate process, and file

a claim against her estate, and proceed like all other creditors are supposed to do. I don't know why they're sending you the statements, you don't owe them a thin dime. It's not your debt.

[malthaussen]

57. Yeah, I'm hip.

It was the first bill after she died, they didn't know she was dead. I just loved sticking it to them, the leeches.

-- Mal

[Mr. Evil]

64. They do that hoping to avoid the legal fees.

Because if they did it the way it's supposed to be done they'd probably end up paying $8000 to collect the $6000 owed to them. So, they try the intimidation factor and if that doesn't work (which, usually it doesn't) they sell it to a collection agency or just write it off.

[IbogaProject]

26. Biggest tax difference is stock buy backs required the corp to do it w post tax money

So that scam of share buy backs as a deductible expense and often never taxed ever after started with the Reagan Administration. Also the Hedge Fund carry forward tax scam also was instituted for "venture capital" but quickly applied to speculative trading and now normal corporate takeovers.

[thatdemguy]

78. yes the top rate was that high but the amount of deductions allowed was crazy

You could deduct every cent of interest paid on any loan, or even credit cards. So your car loan, credit cards everything that had interest was a deduction. It probably also lead to some of the inflation at the time. It meant buying a car at any interest rate did not matter as you got to deduct the interest. So a 5k car cost you 5k and interest was basically given back as a tax break. Everyone bought everything they could on credit, so the price was not as important.

What tax rates are on paper, when everything is a deduction really does not matter, they removed deductions and lowered the paper tax rate. What matters is the effective tax rate.

You can look up historical numbers on effective tax rates and they really have not changed in 50 years. Since 1979 the effective tax rate on the rich is with in 2% of what it was in 2005 per the below link. The lowest quintile has gone from 0% to neg 6.5 in 2005. The middle quintile which probably covers 90% of the middle class has gone from 7.5 to 3%.

https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/effective_rates_0.pdf]

[Ocelot II]

81. I remember the days when you could deduct all interest payments

and how pissed off I was when those deductions were eliminated. I get that it was probably inflationary but it sure helped with a car loan.

[Polybius]

10. $108,300 isn't rich though

I know someone making that in NYC with a wife and kid that can't even afford a house.

[Ocelot II]

27. But in 1980 that was pretty affluent.

And the equivalent in 2024 would be $415,000. That family could afford a house on that salary.

[Polybius]

37. Oh absolutely!

I thought you were talking about 2025, my mistake.

[malthaussen]

45. It's *taxable income*, not net wealth.

And people like Mr Musk hire battalions of accountants who use every trick in or out of the book to reduce that taxable income to the lowest amount possible.

-- Mal

[Silent Type]

5. Those days will never return, unfortunately. It was a time of abundant land, building materials, etc. If it were just

the USA, that would be a problem we can deal with. But it's not. Look at Europe, UK, etc. They have the same issues, though they do have healthcare.

My first job was with state government. I made $776 a month. I could afford a cruddy apartment, nice but cheap car, utilities, etc., plus a guitar.

[KPN]

12. True -- at the same time, the inequities economically today are at an astronomical level. I don't know to what extent

we could return to the relative economic well-being we had prior to the mid to late 80s, but I have zero doubt there's a lot of ground we could cover if tax and economic policy returned to some semblance of the laws, regulation and standards we enjoyed in the 50's through the 70s.

We can make huge adjustments that would improve the lives and economic well-being of probably many millions of, if not most, Americans now.

I agree. There are physical, environmental and other limits to growth. No question. But also a lot of room for improvement.

[WarGamer]

7. Great post...

Disagree slightly about the cause of stagnated wages...

I tend to focus more on the cost of goods.

There's NO REASON for a 99 cent burger from 1999 to be $5.99 today.

Similar to you... in my early 20's I had a great job at 17/hr

almost 40 years later... $17 is STILL a decent wage.

You see... people would be quite happy today if they made $17/hr and gasoling was 79 cents a gallon, rent was 450 and a new Chevy was $7000

[Passages]

9. Excellent post.

We must explain much more effectively how our policies will change people's lives for the better.

I never understood for example, why Biden's administration did not brag and in a big way what Lina Khan and Kanter were working on. They seemed to shy away from it, where it could have demonstrated what a champion she was for working people.

TWO YEARS I waited for them to brag about their anti-trust division. Monopolize and you control the world, she was undoing that.

[Sweet Freedom]

15. In 1987

My rent was $285, my car five-year old car was paid for because it cost $3995, my weekly grocery budget for full meals, snacks and pets was $35 and my student loan debt for a four-year degree was $10K.

[Itchinjim]

17. In 1980 I was 20, and two years out of High School. I was working in a warehouse

Making 9.40 an hour, which is the equivalent of 37.50 in 2024. I had health insurance, 2 weeks of vacation per year, 7 sick days and was paying into the Teamster pension fund. I had a nice car, and was saving $ to put down on a house.
By 1990 I was working retail for minimum wage with absolutely no benefits. No insurance, no vacation, no pension, IRA or 401K. nothing. My savings long gone and driving the same car. It wasn't until 1993 and the Clinton administration that I started to get back on my feet.
Fuck Reagan and the GOP.

[joanbarnes]

18. I remember those days.....

I made a 'living' wage at at union airline, Mr. Barnes as a cable man.

[Comrade Citizen]

19. Wow! That's more than I made in 2024 working as a cleaner/housekeeper/janitor. nt

[MissB]

20. I made $45k a year in 1987 at a grocery store

Large national chain, unionized.

It was also in Alaska, so the wage was naturally higher than the lower 48. I was in high school/just graduated. I’d been on my own from the end of my junior year of high school (great parents.)

I moved down to the lower 48 the following year and started college. Eventually - through job hopping, general indecision about my life and studies, I earned my BS in engineering and got my first “professional” job a decade later in 1997.

Making less than $45k/year.

I mean, it’s all worked out just fine. But it’s amazing to look back.

Unions did good things for middle class workers.

[RussellCattle]

21. Great post highlighting how much we have lost. I have preached this exact thing for years, using my own, very.....

.....similar experience in the seventies. I worked at King Soopers in Denver in 1971, made $3.85 per hour as a journeyman with the RCIA union (Retail Clerks International of America - I still have my card) and was a 24 year old newlywed who felt truly prosperous.For those without a calculator, working full time that was $8008 per year, or the equivalent of $31.33 an hour, or $65,000 per year.

[RussellCattle]

22. On further consideration of what I just wrote above, your $23,000 in 1980, when compared with my $8,000 in 1970.....

......shows just how quickly we were all all beaten down by this patently unfair system.

[turbinetree]

24. I thought I would post this before the the fascists go into complete censorship mode............

Prices and Wages by Decade: 1980-1989

https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1980-1989

as a side note as a former aircraft mechanic I was making around $9.50 per hour............ in 1985..........without overtime I was making around $23,000 per hour that did not include my licenses like Airframe license $ 1.00 and Power Plant license was $1.00...........

[Cirsium]

25. Auto plant 1968

Starting at the plant, unskilled labor, working the line, my income ($300 or so per week) adjusted for inflation would be $187,133.78 today.

Auto assembly line workers starting wages today are $28,280 ($14 or so per hour).

[ck4829]

89. Quite the revelation, especially considering unskilled labor is a myth

[senseandsensibility]

30. Just to verify what you said, just a few years later

in 1984, I had a friend who earned thirty thousand working as a casher at a unionized grocery store in CA. Of course, even then CA was insanely expensive, so he probably could afford a small condo, but that's better than working people in CA can do now. And a year after that, I accepted a teaching job requiring a Masters that paid only 18,000 dollars a year. I couldn't even afford to move out of my parents' house.

[Diamond_Dog]

33. A job requiring a Masters degree for $18,000/yr. That is insane.

[senseandsensibility]

39. Agreed!

We were suffering through Reganomics at the time and there were very few teaching jobs to begin with so you couldn't be picky. The 80's weren't boom times for everyone!

[slightlv]

44. I wrote above about applying for my

first "psych" job after getting my BA. It was 3.35/hour, with no guarantee of work beyond 30 hours a week. It was BA required, MA preferred. Halfway house for kids. This was in the late 70's.

[ProfessorGAC]

55. Believable Though

I changed jobs in '79 for an almost 40% increase, and a supervisor position in R&D.
I still made barely over $20k and I had my MS in chemistry for nearly a year.
No complaints with that company. When I retired from them after 39 years, I made >8x that.
But, I wasn't surprised to see the 20k value.

[Diamond_Dog]

31. Fresh out of college, Mr. Diamond started teaching in a public school in 1970.

He was able to buy a house on a 3-acre suburban lot, and a brand new car, even a brand new lawn tractor, his first year of teaching. I wonder how many first-year teachers can do that today.

I remember, as a kid, we lived down the street from a guy who sold vacuum cleaners at Sears for a living. He bought a nice new 3-bedroom ranch house and supported his wife and son on that job.

[LeftInTX]

36. My husband only earned $8,000 in 1984!

We lived in a roach infested apartment. And I also worked.

I think in 1970, that same district only paid $3,000.

[Hekate]

32. I always knew that "trickle down" meant pissing on the workers. Dems should keep this front & center in ads...

…about the economy — buncha old geezers like us talking about their wages before Reagan, and someone (maybe younger, I don’t know) showing the charts illustrating exactly what you’ve all been saying.

Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich and their ilk really did a number on all of us, and our kids and grandkids don’t even know it could be different, much less that it once was different.

[pansypoo53219]

62. tinkle down. all quid. no quo. we still have zombie reagan + need to kill him.

[Johnny2X2X]

35. I had this discussion with a Conservative friend just a few months ago

Conservative never Trumper.

Here in Michigan, the minimum wage is going up to $12.48 an hour next week. So we were discussin this and he says, "But that's an entry level job, that's not suppoed to be the goal for you to make a living doing."

I've known this friend since the late 80s, we worked at a restaurant together as teenagers when we became friends. I asked him, "So you don't think restaurant and other workers should make as much as you did when you first got a job?" He responded, "I didn't make $12 or $13 an hour, I was making $6 an hour back then, barely enough to pay my car insurance and give me a few bucks spending money."

So flipped my phone on, typed in inflation calculator and showed him that $6 an hour in 1988 is equal to $16.11 an hour today. It's not that he didn't know this, he just never considered it. That $13 an hour is less than he made at 17 while living with his parents still had never occurred to him. I think this was a eureka moment for him and he now gets it.

Wage growth was great under Biden, low wage workers were actually getting ahead as wage growth for them far exceeded inflation. But that is going away now and the time to raise the minimum wage was during this good economy, there will be no desire to raise it when a recession hits. Reaganomics is what happened to working people, and Biden gave us the first break from it in 40 years, but now it's going to come on full tilt again. Got help working people now, many of them voted to give everything they have away.

[slightlv]

48. As 9/11 happened, a coworker and I were looking out our big

picture window in our office. I made the comment that the corporations were really going to go bonkers raising prices now. I said first to happen will be gas prices (that was the day of $5.00/gal regular gas). He argued and said that with wages going up, corporations had to raise their rates to keep up with their profits. I shook my head and asked him, "why?" Reiterated what it was like in his dreamtime of the 1950's and he still couldn't get what I was saying about the inequality. I finally just SMDH and moved back to the TV. I really liked this guy and he was quite a bit older than me, but I was just flabbergasted at his attitudes about things I thought were based both in the constitution and in morality. The comment that healthcare is not a right, nor should it be just blew me away. That's when I learned he was a "libertarian"... tho not the kind I thought about when I heard the word spoken out loud. And believe me, this guy wasn't rich. He was pulling in more than me, granted, tho we were doing the same work... he just had more experience with it than I did. But still... to believe that if you get hurt or get bad sick you don't have a right to see a doctor or go to a hospital just blows my freaking mind. I absolutely do not "get" these people.

[Johnny2X2X]

50. Was playing pool with the same guy this past weekend

We started talking about social security for disabled people, SSDI. He has a developmentally disabled sister, I have a disabled niece, we both have good freinds who are fully disabled.

I mentioned how I think Musk is going to go after people with SSDI. A discussion ensued. I asked, "what would your sister do if she didn't get money from Social Security?" He said, "well, we would have to find a way to take care of her." I said, "What if you weren't around? She would be homeless wouldn't she?" He kind of nodded.

[slightlv]

52. I loved the "he kind of nodded."

So many just don't get it. We couldn't have kept Mom at the Memory Care home if it hadn't been for Medicaid (here in KS it's called KanCare). She lived with us for a little over 2 years, but when she turned around and I saw in her eyes that she didn't recognize my husband anymore, I knew my time of being able to take care of her was at an end. Besides, when she fell, I'd have to call EMS to just help me get her on her feet again. She died on Jan 3. Said she didn't want to live under trump admin again, and by golly... she made that a reality for herself. Some days since then, I wonder if I can blame the loss of my Mom on trump... but then I figure it's just part of the anger part of mourning, and go on.

But I think of all those at the Care Home I met and came into contact with... I know some of them have been pretty much left there to die. I never see anyone come to visit them. Where will they go when the nursing homes shut down? If trump can't even bring down the price of eggs... one of the biggest presidential promises ever... how would he bring down the cost of living in a Care home without having to depend on Medicaid? And, god forbid... did he ever think about them when screeching about social security? I know trumps father had dementia, but the family probably didn't have to worry about any of this. They just bought a live-in nurse to take care of him... which is what they probably do for trump, now, when he's at "home" (wherever that is).

[Devilsun]

38. I earned a pension from my 7 yrs working in the grocery business.

[Mr.Bee]

40. In 1980, I made $23,000

Working graveyard at HP!

[Farmer-Rick]

42. Federal minimum wage is $7 an hour

Do you know of anyone or anywhere where $7.00 an hour would be enough to live on in the US? In TN, they still try to pay you $7 an hour, if they can get away with it.

Yeah, yeah, I know federal minimum wage is really $7.25 an hour. But after taxes, is it really? When the filthy-rich get a million a month, that's without paying any taxes. They get most all that compensation tax free. And if you're self employed, watch your taxes go higher and higher.

It's stagnation. It's what happened to feudalism before capitalism took over and the king's crowns were pulled off, even if they still sat on their thrones. Seems the oligarchs still want to be king.

[Mr.Bee]

74. Frozen.

A strange thing happened in the 1980s. No raises to the minimum wage for nine years froze it at at $3.35. Frozen while CEO compensation increased, raising prices, downsizing and consolidated companies. Thus began the inequality we live in today.

Frozen 9 years during Reagan...
It was raised $.45 by GHW Bush in 1990 to $3.80 an hour ($9.51 in 2025 dollars, woah, what happened?).
Then it was frozen during Bush/Clinton in 1991-1996, 5 years. Then it was frozen during Clinton in 1997 at $5.15 an hour ($10.25 in 2025 dollars). Frozen 10 years!
Then it was raised after ten long years in 2007 to $5.94, 2008 to $6.70, and 2009 to $7.25, where it's been stuck ever since.
Frozen 16 years.
9+5+10+16
That's a total of 40 years, folks!

[Farmer-Rick]

87. Thanks for breaking down the numbers

Our economy is officially stagnant, inefficient and ineffective. It only works for the filthy-rich. The rest of us fight over table scraps. Capitalism at is finest.

[Alliepoo]

43. We worked at Big Bear, too! Town & Country and

Great Eastern. Mr Poo was stock then went to night stock. I worked the deli because I could fit it around my classes at OSU. You’re right- the pay was good and so were the benefits. Nothing in the grocery business would come close to comparing today.

[maxrandb]

68. I started at the Lane Ave store

then went full time at Arcadia and High St.

"O-H"!!!

[Alliepoo]

86. I-O!!! Go Bucks!

[Clouds Passing]

46. "Inflamed Sceptic Big Balls"

[live love laugh]

49. Great topic I'm bookmarking and archiving it.

[Kaleva]

54. My youngest , 29, is a HS dropout who runs his own business ...

and owns his home. He and his wife recently bought 40 acres outside of town where they plan to build a new home soon

[MichMan]

58. Why on earth did you quit?

[maxrandb]

59. Wanted more from life, so I quit and joined the US Navy

Last edited Thu Feb 13, 2025, 11:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Went from making $1,950 a month, to an E1 making $650 a month, but I did get three squares a day, plus Midrats and a nice 3-high coffin-locker rack to sleep in.

It took some time, but I turned that into a 30 year career and eventually earned a commission as an LDO Officer.

Met the women of my dreams and touched every continent.

Turned out to be a wise choice. Big Bear was eventually sold to a NJ Grocery conglomerate that immediately transfered a bunch of debt onto it, and the last Big Bear store closed sometime in the late 90's.

Employees got pennies on the dollar for their pensions.

It really is a sad story of what "unregulated" capitalism did to a lot of regional companies.

Google; "What Happened to Big Bear Supermarkets, Columbus Ohio" for some gory details.

[wolfie001]

61. I remember going to an anti-Walmart on-line board in the 1990s

I'm a retired Union Grocery Worker and back then the vitriol of the WalMart apologists was stunning. So anti-worker. I'd post and post. I'm sure I never changed one person's mind, but I felt the need to hit back. The big one was: "Go get a real job" over and over again. Glad I didn't listen. Like I said, I'm retired. I was working on my plan. The economy was pretty good back when Clinton was Prez. It never really bounced back for the Middle Class ever since that dumbass GWB. It always goes south with repukes.

[Horse with no Name]

63. When we lived in Arizona in the 70's

My mom worked as a stock clerk for Luckys. She made over $20/hr in Arizona.
We moved to Texas in the late 70’s and was offered $5/hr for the same job in Texas at Tom Thumb.
She decided to do something else and was so insulted.
The job in Arizona was a union job and of course, the job in Texas wasn’t.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

66. The wealthier they get these days

the more quickly their greed grows.

[malaise]

67. A great OP

The billionaires yachts are bigger

[sinkingfeeling]

71. It was about that time frame when I began to say greed would destroy America.

[maxrandb]

79. It was also about the time 2,000 radio stations and Faux News

started convincing Americans making $20K-$25K a year, with shitty pensions, crappy benefits and sorry-ass labor protections, that their true enemy was their fellow Americans making $22K-$27K a year with somewhat decent pensions, benefits and labor protections.

The only change they've made to that message is the annual wages, but make on mistake, the MAGAs are pissed at their fellow Americans that are just marginally better off than they are.

If they ever starts asking; "why they are getting fucked over", instead of being angry at their fellow poor and Middle Class Americans, there won't be enough tax cuts for the corporate overlords to afford the security they will need.

[mdbl]

73. Wages are a side-effect of a wall street economy with no societal control

Especially when you're dealing with private equity. They don't care at all about the inhumane effects of their policies - only if it makes them another dime. It's all about greed, not fairness or justice.

[bottomofthehill]

80. $4.44 an hour

I worked at a White Hen Pantry in the early 80’s, starting salary was $3.50 but if you worked the 10pm to 4am shift they paid $4.44 an hour. They kept the hours to 30 per week, but the overnight was fun. Mostly drunk and high people looking for munchies. Some stock work. It was a 24 hour operation not really a 7/11 a little more than that but still a convenience store. I made almost 30 extra dollars a week working midnights.

[GreenWave]

82. I once pumped gas for $0.39 per gallon plus stamps!

There no images for Site gas stations? I guess they went belly up.

[Martin68]

83. Yup. Republicans have been steadily destroying this country since Nixon was elected.

[SpankMe]

85. Interesting analysis

What was your base rate without OT or holiday/shift premiums? $23.4k/yr averages out to over $11/hr for a standard work year, which is pretty dang good considering the federal minimum wage was just $3.10/hr back then. You must have worked pretty hard - lots of OT and holiday work.

Still, at $23k, you could afford a house in the mid-west in those days.

My first job right out of college as an aerospace engineer in 1985 was $36k/year. This is $105k today.

Today, an engineering graduate pulls down $85k-$90k right out of college. So, this is about 20% depressed from my era. With a national median home price in the low $400k's today, an engineer right out of college could just barely afford a house. Barely. Find the highest paying job you can in a low-cost housing area without outrageous property taxes and insurance - and 20% down - and you could just barely make it.

[maxrandb]

88. Started part-time as a cashier at age 16

Cashiers made $4.25 an hour. After graduating from HS, I went full-time as a Stock Clerk. When I left to join the Navy, I was making $11.40 an hour. We tried to not get overtime, because they hated paying it. Usually only happened if our delivery trucks were late, or we were busy and had to go up front to help with bagging, or ringing up groceries.

One of the stores I worked at was in a low income area. A lot of Food Stamp, or ADFC folks were our customers.

Funny, but I always considered that those folks paid my wages. Majority white area too.

Some of those old houses and duplexes in that area are going for over $600K now.

Just looked it up. The average hourly wage for a grocery store stock clerk in Ohio in 2025 is $16.67 an hour.

In 1980, I made the equivalent of $93K a year in today's money. The same job today is making $34.5K a year.

Tell me again how the problem with America is "gubmint" spending.

It almost makes you fucking cry when you realize what's been done to the American worker.

Makes you fucking angry when you realize that a lot of them did it to themselves.