I’m not crazy, my wage isn’t any different than my dads…

May 15, 2008

I’ve had this suspicion that something is deeply wrong with the economy.  I make a respectable salary as a geek but with a family and only my income we’re barely scraping it together every month.

So… the study has fallen off of Stats Canada’s web site, and the article by Linda McQuaig has also fallen off the web. However the study is reflected here in this chapter published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Interestingly their analysis is more conservative than other analyses I’ve seen but they still come to the conclusion that there is a big problem here.

Statistics Canada has released a report which shows that I’m not the only one feeling this squeeze.

Linda McQuaig interprets the outcomes here.

Basically it’s confirming my belief that the rise of conservative politics since the 80’s has had a material and dramatically negative impact on incomes for all but the highest tax brackets.

Earnings of full-time full year earners rose for those at the top of the earnings distribution, stagnated for those in the middle and declined for those at the bottom.

That is median income was $41,348 in 1980 and rose an astounding $53.00 in 25 years to $41,401 in 2005.

More bad news comes for women and immigrant workers, women aren’t as badly off as their wage went from 75 cents on the dollar relative to male counterparts to 85 cents on the dollar in 25 years, whereas immigrant wages dropped for men from 85 cents on the dollar to 63 cents on the dollar and immigrant women went from 85 cents on the dollar of comparable female workers to 56 cents on the dollar in 2005.

This can’t be good.