Then and Now
/The world has changed over the past 50 years, and some say jobs were more plentiful and paid more back then versus what they do now.
To put this into perspective, I spoke to a couple who started their first full-time jobs back in 1977 at Bell Labs in Chicago. He was an electrical engineer—tested devices in an “anechoic chamber” that eliminates reflection and external noise caused by electromagnetic waves—and she was a stenographer who used shorthand to quickly write down and transcribe what a person is saying. His income was $23,000 and hers was $18,500. He was not in a union, but she was.
I thought to myself, what would that pay equate to in today’s dollars? So, I did some digging and found that according to the CPI inflation calculator, the average inflation rate of the dollar from 1977 to 2021 (44 years) was 3.45% per year. I then grew the salaries by the inflation rate for 44 years and, with all things being equal, an electrical engineer in 2021 would be earning $102,298 and the stenographer $82,283.
Indeed.com, a company that tracks salaries, posted the 2021 average base salary for an electrical engineer in the U.S. is $93,073…which is close to keeping up with the last 44 years of inflation once bonuses, stock options, etc. are included. Unfortunately, on the other hand, the stenographer no longer has a role in corporations now that computers are equipped with voice recognition that can automatically transcribe as you talk. She’ll have to look for a new vocation.
Stenographers are not alone. Many jobs have or are becoming virtually obsolete, including assembly line workers, cashiers, bank tellers, and travel agents, to name a few. Computers and robotics have not only taken over these jobs, but they have increased productivity at a rate that is steadily outpacing hourly-worker compensation, resulting in income inequality. But, if it were the other way around, and income were to rise faster than productivity, we would become less competitive in the world.
