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August 24, 2005
Star mathlete
Carol Goar's column today, entitled "Ideas to help young workers," offers the following rather unsurprising ideas to help young workers: "increase the minimum wage," "revamp [i.e., loosen up] the employment insurance system," and "increase unionization among young workers." I don't necessarily disagree — well, I probably do disagree with the last one — I just thought it was an amusingly inevitable conclusion.
Anyway, I come only to nitpick:
Since the mid-'80s, the post-secondary participation rate for 18-to-24-year olds has risen from 16 per cent to 34 per cent. Yet their real wages have dropped by 20 per cent.
Yet they've dropped? Couldn't this wage drop be attributed to the very fact that more people in this age group are in school? Students have always been poor. The question, surely, is what they're earning when they enter the workforce in earnest.
Posted by Chris Selley at August 24, 2005 11:33 PM
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Comments
I think you misunderstand what she's saying.
The 16-34% increase is the nominal wage growth rate which has apparently been lower than the overall inflation rate since the 80's. The real wages to which she is referring are after inflation is taken into account. ie. $6.50 made in the 80's went a lot farther than $6.50 earned today. Hence a drop in real wages (also known as purchasing power).
Yes students have always been poor but the growth in nominal wages has not kept pace with overall inflation creating cheaper labor rates and making today's students comparatively poorer than their 70's brothers.
You could make the reverse argument about oil. Oil is actually cheaper today than it was in the 70's on a "real" price basis.
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