Just under $27k/year

[YoungDemCA]

That's the median wage for the United States. In other words, half of all American workers earned less than that.


http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/central.html

The only reason that median household income has increased in the United States is that there are more two-income (or more) households nowadays.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Can you tell if that's for full-time jobs, or full-time equivalent?

Or does include people who work part-time?

[ananda]

2. Sometimes people are forced into "part-time" jobs by employer tactics.

Meaning: that's all they can get.

We live in a very mean, nasty economic world for ordinary wage-earners.

It appears to be very nice for the rich, corporate, and owning classes
and the politicians and judges they own though.

[HiPointDem]

3. It's all waged/salaried employment, not necessarily full-time.

http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2011

The dataset (derived from payroll tax data)


70% of workers make less than $45K. 105 million out of 151 million workers.

76% make less than $50K.

80% make less than $60K.

91% make less than $90K.

95% make less than $120K.

[YoungDemCA]

4. Self-kick

nt

[slackmaster]

5. That's why it's so important for young people to get a good education

People who use their brains generally do a lot better financially than people who do physical or menial work.

[jeff47]

6. Sure. That's why businesses are so desperate to increase H-1B visas.

A 'good eduction' is not the safety net it once was. Because of a laundry list of issues, including H-1B visas.

[slackmaster]

7. I think part of the problem is that some people believe that education in a specific field...

...should guarantee them a career in that field. That is rarely the case. People have to be flexible and adapt to changing markets.

I studied psychology and ended up in IT. Go figure.

[jeff47]

8. Yeah, that illusion disappeared 10+ years ago.

Now the problem is that some people believe that an education means they should be able to find a better career than working in a big-box store.

There enormous numbers of people with 'good' educations trying, and failing, to find a decent job in any field.

I studied psychology and ended up in IT. Go figure.

Today, that would utterly fail.

I get dozens of resumes of people with CS or IT degrees. I wouldn't bother calling you for an interview unless you had some experience beyond your degree.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some "must have proper degree" moron. My degree's in microbiology. But the only reason my career is in software development is I graduated during the dot-com boom and businesses were desperate enough that one gave me a chance.

Businesses have not been so desperate for a very long time now.

So when you've got a ton of applicants with the "right" degree, there's little reason to consider people with the wrong one. It's a little like getting a job at NASA - they can go ahead and eliminate any new grad who didn't get a 4.0, because that still leaves a large pool of applicants.