[alephnerd]

You can use real median household income [0] and real median personal income [1] to gauge potential salary inflation (real meaning CPI adjusted).

The median American household and American has gotten significantly richer than in 2005, but in the 2020-23 period, income growth slowed due to the pandemic and the subsequent slow restart of the economy.

The last time we saw similar retractions were during recessions like the 1990-93 recession, the Dot Com Bust, and the Great Recession. Turns out the "vibe check" in the early 2020s were right.

Tl;dr - the median American feels poorer in the early 2020s than they did in 2019, but they have much more earning power than they ever did before 2018. I would not be surprised if this played an outsized role in voter dynamics in the 2024 election

[0] - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

[1] - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N

[mitthrowaway2]

(Just an aside that median household income will of course be affected by the changing composition of households towards multi income families.)

[alephnerd]

Hence why I also provided personal income, but both data points show a significant correlation between dual-income households since the 1980s, so that is a moot point.

Also, as at this point 1980 is 45 years ago - almost 2 generations, almost like using the 1960s as a frame of reference in 2005.

At this point we've been a country of dual earners in a household for 2 generations now. It's best to assume that is the default given the overlap.