In this chart, the top (orange) line represents the annual earnings of Gen Xers. This age group has been part of Gen X for the entire period shown.
Likewise, the bottom (blue) line represents the annual earnings of Millennials. This age group has been the heart of the Millennials for the entire period shown.
Since Gen Xers are, on average, 15 years older than Millennials, it makes sense that they make more money. But Millennials have been closing the gap. In 2015 they made about 75% as much as Gen X. Today they make 80% as much.
In fact, if you take the person who's right in the middle of each generation and then look at a full generation worth of years (2007-2022) Gen Xers made about $49,000 per year when they were 35 years old in 2007. A 35-year-old Millennial today makes $51,000. (Both numbers are kind of rough, but adjusted for inflation of course.)
These particular wage numbers are solely for full-time workers, but that doesn't matter too much. The unemployment rate of the two generations has been close to identical the entire time.
You can draw your own conclusions from this. But it doesn't really look like Millennials are doing any worse than the generation ahead of them.
POSTSCRIPT: I didn't include Gen Z because none of them were adults during this period. And I didn't include boomers because most of us are now either retired or close to it.
To be fair, the Millennials weren't really adults during that period either...
baDUMdum
Man-children are still adults, just not adulting.
Boomer here -- I year, 5 months, 18 days.
Remarkable how closely these numbers track until the pandemic. But what happened about a year ago that dropped GenX from a $13,000 edge down to $9,000 in only 6 months? Is this a median of all households that includes a big wave of early retirements or something like that? As a boomer I don't have a dog in this fight, just struck by that decline in only the one cohort's earnings.
Except everything is more expensive than when Gen X was where millenials are. I assume the earnings are corrected for inflation.
From the post:
"(Both numbers are kind of rough, but adjusted for inflation of course.)"
Gen X entered the labor force during the post-Savings n' Loan bailout Bush-41 recession. They weren't doing any better than early willenials who got started during the dotcom bustup or later willenials entering the job market during the housing crisis of '07.
I'm confused by these age ranges. A 35-year-old in 2015 would be a young Gen X-er (born 1980) but a 35-year-old in 2022 is a prime Millennial (born 1987). Most would consider a 54-year-old in 2015 a late Boomer (born 1961). I would think the age range you want for Gen X is more like 42-50.
I believe that the current organization of generations by social demographers uses the start of new offspring as the defining end of a generation.
So, Boomers born in 1946 started having children in 1965 > Boomers, therefore, are the 1946-1964 cohort.
By that criteria, Gen X is the 1964-1983 group - not ending in 1980 which is a popular cutoff.
The Millenials are 1984-2002, and Z is 2003-2021.
Of course, there are personal parameters for all of us. For me, if Vietnam wasn't a part of your life, one way or another, you aren't a Boomer.
Boomers remember Vietnam and the Moon Landing.
GenX remembers the cold war.
Millennials remember 9/11.
Zoomers remember NeekoLUL.
Remember what they took from us (when it turned out she was a trustfund Barbie with a private jet & not a workaday wageslave hungry to take down the cosmopolitan elite).
Millennials incurred a much higher college debt load than Gen X did though, so even with equivalent earnings they're doing much worse.
What about all the fiftysomethings who still havn't paid off their student loans (according to the onenote pogblasgkers on the #freecollege trip)?