Can we all just assume inflation and not be ridiculous? Jesus.
I’m guessing that my father earned more than I do now back when he was my age, based on the salary information I was able to pull off of the internet (he was an elementary school principal in a rich school district).
But I make a lot more than my mother did. She was a real estate agent, but I don’t think she was all that great at it. There was a moment where she had to deliver pizzas to cover some debt she’d racked up.
I have a lot more disposable income than my parents did, though.
Even after inflation I still made more than my parents did throughout my career. They were paid pretty well though, but they both worked the same job for most of their careers and didn’t really move up the pay scale that way. They still did pretty well for those times though.
My father was a salesman, and a pretty successful one. In both absolute and relative terms, he made more than me, and he stayed at peak earnings for 10 or 15 years up until he retired.
Having no interest in sales, I had a career in faceless middle management salary schedule territory. I pretty much topped out at age 50, got caught in corporate layoffs and never did work my way all the way back.
I believe that news item compared current 30 yr olds’ earnings to their parents at that age, or at least that was the graph/stat in other media pieces on the same study.
If I answer the question it’s either comparing what my late parents made at a much later age since I’m way past 30, or else it’s comparing the late 80’s to ca. late '40’s when we were both 30, so not the point either. I guess a lot of the answers here would have the same apples/oranges issue v the news piece. Which certainly takes inflation into account btw, how could you not?
More relevantly one of my kids happens to be 30 and makes more than I did at 30, another is just past 30 and makes less than I did at that age, the third is mid 20’s and also makes less than I did mid 20’s. The big earner is on a steep up slope since late 20’s but I got on a very steep up slope a little past 30, so we’ll see if he can ‘keep up’. 
I wonder if anyone admits being envious of their kid. But my impression was frankly that my dad actually was. I really don’t feel that way, consciously, hope both of my kids focused on making money blow the doors off what I made; the third is not really focused on money which is OK too.
My parents were dead by the time they would have been my age, but I know all they had was social security, so my husband and I have much more than my parents, or his parents, too.
My dad was retired at the age I am now and my mom did not work outside the home so I certainly have earned income higher than they did at this age. I’m fairly sure that my earned income has been higher than my parents at comparable ages for most of the time I’ve been employed. Their total income, however, was quite a bit higher.
I my first year of my first job, I was earning 75% of what my mother was earning as a school teacher after 30 years teaching. I now make 4 or 5 times what she was making when she retired. And I’m taking into account the changing value of the dollar.
I am astounded that so many are reporting they make about the same or less than their parents did. If we are talking strictly dollars, I think I could work washing dishes or delivering pizzas and earn more than pops ever did. And we weren’t exactly on the dole.
mmm
Some of us are factoring in inflation because we aren’t idiots.
I definitely make more than my mother ever did, probably 4 or 5 times as much. I’m not sure exactly how much Dad made but I’m pretty sure I’m making more than he did at this age.
NO! :mad:
Oh, alright…
In terms of rough standard of living it would have been about the same as my folks in my 30’s, minus me not being fettered down with kids. However in their mid-40’s my folks voluntarily took a moderate step down in income to pursue personal interests. They weren’t wealthy before - they just moved from solid middle-class income to lower middle-class income, with accumulated middle-class assets. Us kids all moving on financially basically enabled the income shift and they got very lucky in their timing and were able to buy a place cheap in what turned out to be a rapidly appreciating market.
So at my current age, I definitely make more than they did at the same age even adjusted for inflation. My financial security is probably no better, but my disposable income is certainly higher.
I make over double what my parents did combined in their peak years (inflation-adjusted). Non-adjusted, just one parent, when they were my age? Probably 10x.
Much less as a salary in unadjusted dollars. As a matter of fact, I don’t know what their exact salaries were when they were my age, but I do know what they were when they retired 10 or so years ago and putting them together it is equal to my current salary. So 10 or so years before that they must have been making much less, although it probably had around the purchasing power I currently have.
I qualify as a salary because they both had good pensions from their public sector jobs, in addition to Social Security, while I will have to rely on my 401K* and whatever remnants of Social Security will be around when I reach 65.
*Whose current performance I can’t complain about but my contribution counts against my salary for the purposes of this calculation whereas the pension does not. If it did have a firm monetary value, then they just might have been making equal to me in unadjusted dollars at my age.
way more. plus I have the advantage of not having to waste it on kids.
I grew up in a small town about 40 miles out from a big city surrounded by farmland. Everyone in town was working class poor. Right now I am making more than both of my parents combined did.
If they had the same jobs out here where we all live now, in a big city, either one would probably have made the same or more than me.
Here is an article on Yahoo News , actually from Wall Street Journal (but, paywalled) stating that “Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds Earn More Than Their Parents” when their parents were their age. I assume they adjusted for inflation, but that is pretty scary.
This is definitely is not the way the poll is going.
Bob
At my age? Shiiiiiit, I make more than they do now.
I probably make 4x what my Dad did at my age (30 years ago). I grew up in a working class family. My wife, who grew up upper middle class, makes considerably less.
I’m not sure it is scary -because other things have changed since 1970. I’d be willing to bet for example, that a higher percentage of 30-year-olds in 1970 were more educated than their parents than today’s 30-year-olds. You kind of expect a teacher to earn more than his unskilled laborer father- it’s not as easy when the father is also a teacher.
My mother was a high school graduate and my father was a HS dropout. I have a bachelor’s degree and accounting for inflation, earn roughly twice what the two of them combined made when they were my age. By the time I was 31, I earned more than either parent did when they retired. My daughter has a master’s degree and makes a little more than I did at her age , while my son with an associate’s degree earns a little less than I did at his age.