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.