Today's Parade Magazine's feature acticle was title "What People Earn". It had some interesting stats for today's workforce.
2002 At a Glance:
Unemployement rate 5.8%
Inflation rate 1.6 %
Median weekly salary for all workers(half earned more, half earned less): $610.00
Median weekly salary for men: $685.00
Median weekly salary for women: $531.00
Average hourly pay for non-supervisory workers: $14.77/hour
There were a couple of other interesting facts.
The total long-term debt of American Households, on average, now adds up to more than 100% of their after-tax income. The highest level on record.
This might answer the question of why workers are willing to work for the wages that employers offer. They simply cannot afford not too.
Another interesting fact is that whitecollar workers went jobless longer last year than crafts workers or laborers, according to the Labor Dept.
I also found it funny that the highest paid people in our country are not politicians, bankers, or Corporate CEO's. Anyone want to take a quess who they are? Entertainers. This includes: Actors, models, movie makers, dancers, singers, and professional atheletes. A few examples listed by Parade:
Yearly Income:
Arnold Schwazeneggar-$35 million
Cameron Diaz-$40 million
Amare Stoudemire(NBA)-$1.9 million
Stephen King-$52.4 million
George Lucas-$200 million
Ozzy Osbourne-$20 million
Koby Bryant(NBA)-$13.5 million
Bill Clinton-$25 million
Gisele Bundchen(Super Model)-$12.5 million
Las Vegas Showgirl-$125,000
Hawaii Kiteboard school owner-$200,000
Sandra Bullock-$30 million
In contrast:
Gen. Tommy Franks Chief, Central Command US Army $145,000
Police Officer(WV)-$28,000
Fire fighter (Detroit) $50,000
School teacher(Maine)-$43,000
Kind of funny what we value in society.
I thought these two were funny:
Utah mink farmer-$68,000
Coordinator for PETA-$25,000
We can all exspect to be working for less in years to come.( Unless of course your a Government Employee )
In almost all cases, the private sector equivilent will make much more than a government employee. I have been a state employee for 10 years. During that time, employee raises have averaged about 1.5% per year. The cost of living has gone up much more than that.