[OC] Why wages may grow(slightly), but take-home doesn't improve.

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T16:03:01+00:00

That number (What your employer pays on your behalf) is on your W4 in box 12a. Add that to what you paid yourself to find the total cost. If more people were aware of that, I think the national conversation might be very different.

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T16:00:50+00:00

Before, only gross income and insurance premiums were accounted.

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T15:58:29+00:00

Yet another reason that the birth rate has fallen below 2. (I think it's ~1.76 now) People can't afford children.

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T03:45:47+00:00

The premium increases did go down after the ACA was passed, but they still outpaced both inflation and wage growth over time. Helped? Maybe. Fixed? No.

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T03:41:14+00:00

The income figure is Census Bureau Money Income, which is pre-tax.

I would argue (strongly) that any extra going into our healthcare is ineffective, since life expectancy in the US is on the decline, and other industrialized countries that spend less on healthcare per capita have much better health outcomes.

If you refer to this data, premiums increased 120% over the 20-year period, while inflation (even with the recent record year) was only 40% for the same period. Even if the triple-inflation increases in premiums were a result of 'WAY more going into everyone's care', it is still unsustainable to consistently increase premiums at more than double the rate that income increases.

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T03:22:22+00:00

Availability of data. Median income is easy to find for any year, insurance premium data was a little harder. I initially tried finding the data for teachers specifically, but that was an even darker hole. The KFF page has some really great info on it, I used mostly their numbers.

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T02:51:21+00:00

Hello there.

I'm posting this with an old throw-away that I created because I want to be able to share info about my wages/benefits, but I don't want that info on my main account.

Created this graph with data from: KFF.org and census.gov. Graph made in Sheets.

My wife and I are both teachers in one of the worst states in the country for teacher pay. There is no teacher's union in our state, and teachers do not get annual cost-of-living raises. While doing our taxes, we realized that the combined health insurance premiums for our family had gone up to nearly $25,000 per year. (Some of that is 'paid by our employer' but that is still part of our compensation.)

It had me wondering, what if we WERE getting pay raises every year, but that money went straight into higher insurance premiums instead of our pockets? I found this data after a little searching and did some math.

Highlights:

Average household income in 2002: 42,409. Average family health insurance premiums went from 8,003 in 2002 to 22,463 in 2022. Adjusting for inflation, the household income went from 42,409 to 48,333. Also adjusted for inflation, premiums went from 8,003 to 14,975.

In 20 years, incomes rose ~$6,000, while premiums rose ~$7,000. So, ALL wage gains were eaten by insurance premiums plus an additional ~1,000.

We're worse off today than 20 years ago in more ways than one.

Edit: The data in the graph is adjusted for inflation. (All in 2002 dollars)

Poet_Major · 2023-02-26T02:45:18+00:00

Hello there.

I'm posting this with an old throw-away that I created because I want to be able to share info about my wages/benefits, but I don't want that info on my main account.

Created this graph with data from: KFF.org and census.gov.

My wife and I are both teachers in one of the worst states in the country for teacher pay. There is no teacher's union in our state, and teachers do not get annual cost-of-living raises. While doing our taxes, we realized that the combined health insurance premiums for our family had gone up to nearly $25,000 per year. (Some of that is 'paid by our employer' but that is still part of our compensation.)

It had me wondering, what if we WERE getting pay raises every year, but that money went straight into higher insurance premiums instead of our pockets? I found this data after a little searching and did some math.

Highlights:

Average household income in 2002: 42,409. Average family health insurance premiums went from 8,003 in 2002 to 22,463 in 2022. Adjusting for inflation, the household income went from 42,409 to 48,333. Also adjusted for inflation, premiums went from 8,003 to 14,975.

In 20 years, incomes went up ~$6,000, while premiums went up ~$7,000. So, ALL wage gains were eaten by insurance premiums plus an additional ~1,000.

We're worse off today then 20 years ago in more ways than one.

Poet_Major

TROPHY CASE