>Every study I’ve heard about says that relative wages have been steadily decreasing compared to earlier generations
Cite one. There's ample evidence (Census, BLS, FRED, many more) pointing otherwise. For example, here [1] is FRED inflation adjusted median personal income, which is clearly not at all near your claim. Here's [2] FRED inflation adjusted median household income, also no where near your claim.
There are many relevant factors that make this tricky, and pop econ often presents bad data. For example, wages is not total remuneration (which is tracked by BLS) which is not total cost to employ (also tracked by BLS). Both of those include other factors changing over time, such as more vacation, healthcare perks, regulatory requirement changes (FMLA, OSHA, more). So if you're going to talk about wages, you need to address total benefits. Hint: this factor is extremely relevant.
Also, you need to adjust properly for demographics. On average people make more as they age. So as a population ages or gets younger, median and mean wages can change for the entire population, but it's not an accurate comparison: it is possible for every person at every age to make more than a person in a previous generation at that age, yet for the median to decrease, simply because demographics are changing where in careers the median lies. Hint: this factor is relevant.
You also need to be careful if you're talking household wages, since household makeup also changes over time.
When you consider these and other relevant factors, I've seen nothing that points to people being poorer than previous generations in any widespread or wholesale grouping, at any decile of the income breakdown. And I've spent significant time researching this issue.
In fact, if you correct the first order data I just presented from FRED, the modern person makes even more than the FRED graph: the workforce are skewing younger (as Boomers retire), companies are adding more benefits (both to compete and because of legislative requirements), and households are becoming more single person (i.e. single earner), yet the median household income still grows.
Cite one. There's ample evidence (Census, BLS, FRED, many more) pointing otherwise. For example, here [1] is FRED inflation adjusted median personal income, which is clearly not at all near your claim. Here's [2] FRED inflation adjusted median household income, also no where near your claim.
There are many relevant factors that make this tricky, and pop econ often presents bad data. For example, wages is not total remuneration (which is tracked by BLS) which is not total cost to employ (also tracked by BLS). Both of those include other factors changing over time, such as more vacation, healthcare perks, regulatory requirement changes (FMLA, OSHA, more). So if you're going to talk about wages, you need to address total benefits. Hint: this factor is extremely relevant.
Also, you need to adjust properly for demographics. On average people make more as they age. So as a population ages or gets younger, median and mean wages can change for the entire population, but it's not an accurate comparison: it is possible for every person at every age to make more than a person in a previous generation at that age, yet for the median to decrease, simply because demographics are changing where in careers the median lies. Hint: this factor is relevant.
You also need to be careful if you're talking household wages, since household makeup also changes over time.
When you consider these and other relevant factors, I've seen nothing that points to people being poorer than previous generations in any widespread or wholesale grouping, at any decile of the income breakdown. And I've spent significant time researching this issue.
In fact, if you correct the first order data I just presented from FRED, the modern person makes even more than the FRED graph: the workforce are skewing younger (as Boomers retire), companies are adding more benefits (both to compete and because of legislative requirements), and households are becoming more single person (i.e. single earner), yet the median household income still grows.
So, cite your evidence.
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N