The amount of money most workers want now to accept a job reached a record high this year, a sign that inflation is alive and well at least in the labor market.
According to the latest New York Federal Reserve employment survey released Monday, the average “reservation wage,” or the minimum acceptable salary offer to switch jobs, rose to $78,645 during the second quarter of 2023.
That’s an increase of about 8% from just a year ago and is the highest level ever in a data series that goes back to the beginning of 2014. Over the past three years, which entails the Covid era, the level has risen more than 22%. The number is significant in that wages increasingly have been recognized as a driving force in inflation. While goods prices have abated since pushing overall inflation to its highest level in more than 40 years in mid-2022, other factors continue to keep it well above the Fed’s targeted rate of 2%.
The New York Fed data is consistent with an Atlanta Fed tracker, which shows wages overall rising at a 6% annual rate but job switchers seeing 7% gains.
Employers have been trying to keep pace with the wage demands, pushing the average full-time offer up to $69,475, a 14% surge in the past year. The actual expected annual salary rose to $67,416, a gain of more than $7,000 from a year ago and also a new high.
Though there was a gap between the wage workers wanted and what was offered, satisfaction with compensation and upward mobility increased across the board.
With markets on edge over what the Fed’s next policy step will be, more signs of a tight labor market raise the likelihood that policymakers will keep interest rates higher for longer. At their July meeting, officials noted that wages “were still rising at rates above levels assessed to be consistent with the sustained achievement” of the 2% inflation goal, minutes from the meeting said.
Monday’s survey results also showed some other mixed patterns in the labor market.
Job seekers, or those who have looked for work in the previous four weeks, declined to 19.4% from 24.7% a year ago. That came as job openings fell by 738,000 to 9.58 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The likelihood of switching jobs fell, dropping to 10.6% from 11% a year ago, while expectations of being offered a new job also declined, to 18.7% from 21.1%.
Median rent right now is $2k. Rule of thumb is 1/3 or less of income spent on housing. So that’s $6k a month. With comes out to 72k a year, pretty close.
All these articles act like workers have become so uppity and demanding but all they want is to live reasonably.
72k per year… before tax. I make $85k per year in Colorado, but only take home ~61k (~$2550 per pay check, 24 paychecks per year)
All of our issues right now circle back to housing prices.
Not really, groceries are expensive af too
Every industry is causing inflation via greed rn
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Considering that Elon musk has made $208 billion dollars in the last 7 years that might have something to do with it.
That’s enough money to give every single adult 18 years of age or older in America $1,000 and he would still have at least $40 billion left over, not to mention the 11 billion dollars he started with.
Yeah but that’s HIS money the HE worked HARD for!
/S
I can’t fault a guy for doing (208,000,000,000/7 = 29.71 billion a year / ($7.25*2000 hrs a year * 50 years = $725,000 a lifetime) = 40,979 minimum wage earner’s entire lifetime earnings worth of work a year for 7 straight years on average, can I?
Haven’t read the article but the snippet says it’s the “amount to get someone to switch jobs.” I’m assuming this only applies to a small segment of the population but this news outlet is writing it as if McDonalds employees are demanding $80k salaries.
$2k a month?
Here I am charging $675 a month. Damn! I should raise my rent. I’m kidding. I’m able to cover the house bills. No reason to raise the rent. But damn! $2 k wow!
“Goods prices have abated…” The fuck they have. Also stop blaming inflation on wage increase. Most of it was caused by opportunistic greed of those aforementioned ‘goods prices’.
My groceries for 3 people for one week was 250. That would have been 89 bucks before Covid.
Yup, and my friend working at Kroger sure as shit didn’t get a raise
Maybe they mean the shareholders’ “wages”.
‘Goods’ as in ‘not food or rent’.
I’m in my thirties begging for more than 28,000/y
Seriously I should probably kill myself or become a martyr.
If you’re poor living paycheck to paycheck you essentially just exist to pay tax for war and death. …maybe a few roads if you’re in a predominantly wealthy area.
So for real… It’s more humble and respectable to kill myself then work to pay others to kill other people for me so I can have the “freedom” to be a slave for the war machine. The other choice is claw at and rape other people’s lives working the American game to get rich until I am able to ignore that the modern worlds still run on slavery and manipulation. no good options.
That’s why the youth are hungry to get at all the crooks. Politicians, mob criminals, CEO etc… They all represent the same evil and same tactics.
Please do not become a martyr, there are tons of people that do this every day and unfortunately due to our shitty planet, their cries for help are dampened even after their passing.
I know life seems like it may suck really bad, believe me, I’ve been there, several times. Just hang in there, there is always an opportunity out of this shithole.
Life isn’t about money either, I myself have spent most of my life in poverty having to fight for what I’ve had. Think about the possessions you’d leave behind that money cannot buy. Friends, family, pets, memories. You can’t take what you physically own with you, but you can’t take those things either.
If you need someone to talk to, I am here for you. If you are in distress, please PLEASE seek professional help. I and many others love you and are very proud of you, and even if we do not know you and have never met, we would feel deep regret and sorrow for your loss.
I appreciate it 🙏
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You do get to play a me up man ship.
Your unnecessary details indicate a deep bitterness with several facets.
Person you are responding to wants to die and this is what you feel is an appropriate response.
You spread your misery because you want the world to feel your pain. Karma is at play.
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No mention of corporate greed, I note. Most people aren’t looking to get wealthy, they just want someplace to live not horribly far from work, a reliable way to get to work, to eat moderately decent food, pay our bills, and have a little fun. Corporations are raising prices on all of those, then they complain when we just want to stop treading water.
You nailed it. Most folks just wanna get by without worrying about if they’ll still have a roof over their head in a month. Little things to make life just a bit easier. A shorter commute. A car that doesn’t guzzle gas getting to work. Some time off to rest and relax so they can come back stronger.
But no. We’re worked ‘til we die.
Remote work addresses like, every single one of those things. Strongly recommend it.
My wife and I together make about $85k a year. We struggle, no doubt. Not as much as we could, but to say we’ll be able to retire in 35 years is a joke. We’ve never been able to save. Not because we don’t want to or haven’t tried, but shit is just so god damned expensive.
Must be all that avocado toast
What’s adding to the problem is that more and more companies are outsourcing even basic internal functions to contractors so they don’t have to pay for 401ks and benefits.
It’s getting harder and harder to find full time employment and companies simply will not hire or pretend they are hiring by offering shit jobs with shitty pay and pretending they hired someone followed by listing the same job 3 weeks later.
Eat the rich.
“The number is significant in that
wageshousing prices increasingly have been recognized as a driving force in inflation.”FTFY
Companies should be grateful it’s only $80k
It’s so great to see workers able to demand their worth. This has arguably been the strongest job market in 40 years. Given the population pyramid in most countries, I don’t see this resolving without a concerted effort to drive even higher immigration. Or a recession.
There’s no way I’d change jobs for less than 6 figures.
I’m currently sitting on a soft offer to take on a manager role at my old job. The offer was $92k, I’m pushing for 100k. If not, I’ll keep my happy ass as an independent contractor. The only reason I’m willing to take the pay cut is for a work-life balance, and benefits.
They fucking should!
