The average salary in the United States was $3,915 in 1947 (in 2012 dollars), with a high income of $10,947. Men earned an average income of $4,985 versus $3,150 for women. Other factors affecting income were education (27% more if completed 8 years of high school), age (48% more at age 45), urban residence (30% more) and occupation.
These days, most people don’t think twice about taking a salary holiday. Most of us are happy to take off a week, two weeks or even more. That wasn’t the case in 1947 when the average salary was only around $3,000.
Average salary in 1947
While plenty of work on the subject of inflation has been done over the years, I thought it’d be interesting to look back at just how much money people made fifty years ago. If you’re curious about what kind of income would allow someone to live comfortably in the past, you could do far worse than looking at this study as a fairly accurate guideline.
Salary.com’s annual salary survey is intended to provide a snapshot of salary data in major U.S. cities and metropolitan areas. The survey is based on information provided by employees in the past 12 months who have anonymously submitted their salary and job description to us. The results of our survey are compiled through social media and industry blogs, as well as other sources.
The average salary provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a good baseline for determining whether you’re being adequately compensated for your work. Does your day rate fall within the mean? If so, that’s a fairly competitive wage. If not, you may want to consider how to renegotiate your compensation or where to look for similar jobs that pay more.
Inflation and currency lead to massive differences in what wages are able to buy from year to year. It’s important for us to understand the changes that were happening in our economy and how these issues influenced the design community. That way we can better understand how these interrelated factors affected design culture.
Pretty interesting article. A lot of things have statistically remained the same.
In addition to the information compiled above, this article also highlights the growing trend of college students and recent graduates working jobs unrelated to their field of study. This is a similar trend that happens when the economy is in a recession and because of that, we are seeing more students either working part time or picking up an extra job to get them through college.
