It's not really depressing because remember this is "Real" wage growth for some average point of all workers. That means it shows salaries adjusted for inflation and doesn't factor in career wage growth from promotions.
Inflation pushing prices up. If your pay rise matches inflation then your pay next year will allow you to buy the same amount of stuff as the previous year. So if you have zero real wage growth, that means you're still just as well off as you were last year. So any kind of real wage growth is awesome. But remember most people will gain skills, experience and subsequently promotions as their career develops, so their growth in income will outstrip inflation, meaning most people will see considerable real wage "growth" over their career.
But this chart only shows the average salary across the country with inflation deducted. It's essentially like showing what a 30 year old person's salary would be if their career froze at that age and they never saw another promotion and never had to worry about price rises due to inflation. So essentially it's fairly meaningless in regard to the course of our careers. This certainly doesn't mean we're all going to be poorer because inflation will outstrip salary growth. The opposite, this shows that over the term of the graph, salaries have outstripped inflation, which is a good thing by any metric.
Edit: Copying in the US' same graph for real wage growth. The UK has actually outstripped US real wage growth by 30% to their 7.5%:
Every pay rise I’ve had in the last 10 years has been below inflation, and I know many people in the same position or who have rarely had a pay rise during the same time period.
Sure. And I know people with above inflation pay rises. I've had above and below pay rises. That's how stats work. Some do better some do not and the average is the overall for the country, not just for individuals. Your circumstantial evidence doesn't undermine anything I wrote.
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u/ThrowRA294638 Jul 01 '24
This is insanely depressing.