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Wait . . . what? American salaries are crashing, along with the stock market?

Photo Above - no, this is NOT the makeup guy for the Hellraiser film. It's an acupuncturist, at an average $100K a year. Probably more in southern California, and less in South Carolina.

American salaries are falling. So says the BBC, in the link below. There’s a similar article in the online WSJ today, but it’s behind their paywall. The WSJ coyly calls declining paychecks a “Wall of Salary Deflation”. Clever.

Let’s settle one misunderstanding right away. This whole pay cut thing started BEFORE inauguration day. In January the stock market was peaking with irrational exuberance over the economic nirvana supposedly accompanying Trump. America's consumption was already declining in 2024. A study by ZipRecruiter found half of American companies were reducing pay. Or at least trying to. 2 million companies use ZipRecruiter to find prospective employees.

In some cases – the lucky ones, people who already HAVE jobs – the recent annual performance review doesn’t reduce pay. It just holds the line, with no annual increase. The UAW with their new $140,000 contract cashed in at the best possible moment, eh? But what are you gonna do, when the president jets out to Detroit in Air Force one, to join striking workers on the picket line? Inflation-enabler-in-chief.

Excessive salaries aren't confined to dropouts whose toolbelt holds only a screwdriver and pliers. Salaries in many lines of work have gotten out of whack. Teachers began quitting to take jobs as Air Traffic Controllers ($124,500). There’s at least one Walmart store manager earning $500,000 annually. The “water chief” of Los Angeles – Janice Quinones – is still on the job, even after draining the reservoirs for “maintenance” during the peak wildfire season. She'd draining the Los Angeles budget of $750,000 a year for her salary. Twice what the president gets. Janise is still on the job. The Fire Chief was fired instead . . .

I don’t think petroleum engineers are overpaid at $138K. Or nuclear plant techs at $100K. Private chefs (average $140K) might start feeling the pain. Lots of acupuncturists and music therapists earn more than $100K. Seriously . . . I am NOT making this up. Some get more than an Air Force fighter pilot. No wonder, as the BBC coyly puts it, US compensation is undergoing a “reset”.

Who’s going to get hurt the worst? Some would say acupuncturists, but that's probably wrong. When holistic shamans and fake reservoir experts are forced out of their jobs, they will still get hired for SOMETHING.

Expect the real pain to fall on fast food workers who saw their minimum wage go ffom $7.50 an hour to $18-$20 an hour during over the past several years. THOSE people have unrealistic expectations about future paycheck gains, given their recent experience. Fast food workers will not only be competing against AI and robots, but also squaring off against the newly unemployed and previously overpaid slackers, named above.

The hilariously overpaid upper-echelon men and women are the REAL cause of America’s inflation. Honestly - $750,000 for some girl who never worked in the water business before - what were we thinking? My head hurts. I need some music therapy. But I'll use YouTube. It doesn't cost $100,000 a year.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

US salaries are falling. Employers say compensation is just 'resetting'

Job Seekers Hit Wall of Salary Deflation

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Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

I can answer the Navy or Airforce pilot bit for you, they are volunteers that enter the services all over the world because they want to become a pilot, they will receive top level training at the expense ultimately of the country's taxpayer, and do that for whatever time period they have to do it or want to do it for to get those pilot qualifications and then they enter the private and commercial sector where they earn big money. One of the best is flying the billionaires private jet, some of the top earners earn more than that LA water chief and tax free and there are many perks on top of it.
On the flip side to go and train yourself and pay to become a pilot is hugely expensive and even more so to do it on multiple types of aircraft it would cost hundreds of thousands to achieve it, join Airforce or Navy and get it for free.
Have a look at just how many Airforce or Navy pilots actually reach retirement age in the service they entered

The other one is Naval ship Captain and 1 st officers etc there are many that move on especially into Captaining those big mega yachts and they like it even more if it is a chartered yacht you would be shocked at their basic salary let alone the perks for the captain's and all the crew.
I will tell you a basic for a junior stewardess or deckhand is on those big yachts somewhere between 4-6000 per month and it's usually tax free as they are paid at sea most of the time and even the bottom tier have loads of additional perks.
It gets better though of it is chartered yacht because of the tips that are the accepted norm ie 20% of the total spend.
Say the charter for the week is $ 2 000 000
(There are a few that cost this and more)
For that you get the yacht and only the yacht) now you have to pay your APA (advance provisioning allowance) that is for your food, drinks, fuel for the yacht to go anywhere, and your port or mooring fees on a $ 2 000 000 charter conservatively about $ 600 000 would be the norm but more likely 800 000 for a week.
So say it was $ 2 800 000 as total spend
for instance expected tip $ 560 000 shared out between the crew so the junior stewardess is probably looking at least about 3-5 k on top. That money is all tax free
In fact you are almost required to make the $ 3 360 000 payment when you book it.
Much the same formula operates on a chartered jet as well

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Avectoijesuismoi I have a cousin who is a graduate of the Air Force academy. Flew bombers. Those are the guys commercial airlines want to hire. Not fighter pilots.

after mustering out, military helicopter pilots can find stead work from the state police, med-evac, and local news stations giving traffic jam updates.

my cousin retired from the USAF after X years, and went to work for united. A few years later he left United, and went BACK to the air force. Don't know why.

The last thing I heard, he was at the Air Force academy as a flight instructor.

he does love to fly.

Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

@SusanInFlorida You are right the airlines want the guys, who have flown the bombers, the big freight transporters, air tankers etc that is why a lot of the fighter pilots also try to get across within the services to do those instead of just the fighters, but even they as fighter pilots get other better paid jobs within aviation, especially with the smaller light jets that have to be landed on short strips around the world, the Navy ones excel at it if they've been carrier based. As for chopper pilots they are also in demand once again ship based ones, high demand for mega yachts with helicopter pads onboard as they know how to land a helicopter on a moving vessel. But in general apart from your list of jobs there are many many more jobs for them in the private sector including tourism, oil rigs, corporate business travel, research work etc. There are many places where the option is helicopter as planes simply can't land there where a helicopter can do it.

SatanBurger · 36-40, F

The hilariously overpaid upper-echelon men and women are the REAL cause of America’s inflation. Honestly - $750,000 for some girl who never worked in the water business before - what were we thinking? My head hurts. I need some music therapy. But I'll use YouTube. It doesn't cost $100,000 a year.

There's a lot of CEOS who make 5,000 to 10,000 a WEEK on average, tons of them but they were saying around 20,000 monthly even and yet I hear no complaints. Only when the working class comes up, we have these types of complaints suddenly.

Why does it matter if a water chief or a walmart employee makes $500,000 yearly?

The average worker at walmart doesn't get that much and jobs are between 16 to 23 hourly for a regular worker depending on department, shift and experience

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@SatanBurger i actually do NOT care about how much some Walmart manager in Los Angeles is paid. That's a publicly held company, and their CEO and shareholders can determine what the manager is worth, and whether nor they work 20 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I DO care about what the "water chief" of Los Angeles paid. I am concerned that we have $750,000 city bureaucrats but are making budget cuts to public schools (I'm also concerned that we can't terminate teachers for bad job performance, only after conviction on felony like sexual misconduct with students).

I can't understand why an air traffic controller is paid more than a navy jet fighter pilot. I can't understand why the US government gives Harvard about a billion dollars a year, when the university is already sitting on a cash pile (endowment) of $50 Billion.

I can't understand why B21 bombers costs $2 billion apiece. america has 800+ military bases around the globe. Why we built a free baseball stadium in Havana while Obama was president. Why farmers are paid to NOT plant crops. Why we have "strategic government reserves" of things like peanut butter and cheese. Why Biden hired 68,000 new IRS agents when a decently programed AI system could uncover more fraud than those gophers will ever find in their lives.

SatanBurger · 36-40, F

@SusanInFlorida Well maybe if all the worlds ceos didn't make 10,000 to 20,000 a month we'd be able to afford paying civil servants more.

ElwoodBlues · M

@SatanBurger And TEACHERS! Teachers should be paid more!!

Wow, @SusanInFlorida why can't you guys hire TEACHERS???

!!! UPDATE !!!

Florida to downgrade graduation requirements

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Mar 17 2025) — A new legislative proposal is set to overhaul public high school graduation requirements in Florida by eliminating the necessity for students to pass Algebra and English exams to earn their diplomas.

Currently, Florida high school students must pass the statewide, standardized grade 10 English Language Arts (ELA) assessment or achieve a concordant score, as well as pass the statewide, standardized Algebra I end-of-course (EOC) assessment or earn a comparative score. These assessments are intended to ensure students have mastered essential skills in English and mathematics before graduating.

Why not pay teachers more, @SusanInFlorida? Why are you lowering educational standards instead of hiring better staff??

acpguy · C

I just retired from having my own business as a consultant, designer and tester in the corrosion field. Almost everyone I did work for were surprised I did not charge any where near as much as others. I always told them my wife said I wasn't worth much so I made it a point to charge only what I was worth. In the end I ended up very happy with plenty enough money.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@acpguy good observation! ("rust never sleeps")

AuRevoir · 36-40, M

The market will balance itself out eventually. Will take 1-2 years. That’s the whole point of reform and balance. It’s to reset the scales properly from the abuse and “hot air” people have been putting stock in.

DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

Now add deportation of non US citizens who were doing all the cheap labor.

This is exactly what THIS administration wants!

Notice the federal minimum wage hasn't gone up since July 2009.

It most certainly won't happen under this administration.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@DeWayfarer The trump administration has (so far) fumbled the 2025 basic roundup of illegal aliens with active felony warrants. there are (according to some sources) about ONE MILLION such people here and there in the USA.

This is 2016 all over again. He wanted to build a wall then. But simply arresting and trial/deportation of known felons seems a bridge too far.

SatanBurger · 36-40, F

@SusanInFlorida He's not arresting anyone with felonies and/or warrants actually. A lot of the victims have been here legally but because of loopholes, it allows ICE to do just deport anyone on a whim. It's much easier to convince others it's right if you make all undocumented people the big baddies that everyone hopes they are. Despite domestic terrorist attacks from white nationalists (some of Trump's largest supporters,) the biggest threat.

dale74 · M

It is a reset the stock market as well as many large businesses have been receiving money that they shouldn't be the Federal reserve has been pumping in up to $600 billion dollars per month into Banks with no accountability for over 12 years

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@dale74 we are agreed. although i share MANY observers concerns that shaky banks are being propped up, and "too big to fail" is distinction nowhere found in the constitution.

The problem is what the government does AFTER a bank fails. At least 4 midsized banks passed away during the biden administration. unless I missed it, the executive management teams of those institutions are largely intact.

a first requirement of FDIC rescue of a bank should be: The CEO and all his/her direct reports must be replaced. The second requirement should probably be: Pay off all the depositors, and hold an auction for the institutions assets: loans, securities, branches, other real estate. Let stronger institutions perform "due diligence" and bid for what they are actually worth, rather than a keep a zombie bank with its discredited executives on life support.

America has too many banks. A drive through any decent sized town will confirm this (we also have too many vacant shopping malls and other buildings, but those aren't being rescued by the FDIC). I'm not necessarily in favor of making the "too big to fail" banks even MORE ginormous, but we will eliminate the moral hazard aspect of the bailout merry go round by making it clear that the CEO and cronies lose their jobs, and everything worked so hard to build is going to be bought at a discount by someone else.

LeopoldBloom · M

Wait until you find out what CEOs make.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@LeopoldBloom i've done columns on this in the past.

the bottom line is: CEOS make what shareholders are willing to pay them. And if the CEO they pick drives a company into insolvency (like happened with Ford, GM, and CJD in the 2000's) there should be no bailout or lifeline, even if the UAW does present a formidable voting block.

I would have been perfectly happy to see Toyota buy GM at auction, and decide which factories would continue, which would be shuttered. Which vehicle makes survive, and which get replaced by something better designed, whether it was designed in Tokyo, Texas, or Detroit.

GM had a huge bailout, and head start on EVs. and they still lost miserably to every other EV maker.

LeopoldBloom · M

@SusanInFlorida Of course they're bailed out when the CEO screws up (and gets a huge severance check anyway). Our system is based on private profit and socialized losses.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@LeopoldBloom i'm old school. government assistance should be reserved for widows and orphans. not people with private jets and mansions.

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

Capitalism means the power and money will own the population; it's okay with that cuz it's not a good thing. They admitted they're no democracy; Republic means you expect war, you don't share fairly - Americans live by death.
No communists to vote for - be evil and own the evil as your purpose!

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