What your salary has actually been worth, measured against the things that move money.
Your wages
Enter the years your pay changed. The years between fill in at your last salary.
How your pay comparesyour wage growth vs. each benchmark, per year
Your wage in six measuresindexed to your first year = 100
Pay vs. productivity
indexed to your first year = 100
What an hour of work buys
change in purchasing power per hour, first year vs. now
Today's pay in past dollarsyour current salary, CPI-adjusted into each year, priced in that era — latest year highlighted
Year by yeargrey rows carry forward your last salary
What an hour buys: then and nowfirst year of your record vs. latest
The things made by competing labor and capital — food, fuel, screens — got cheaper per hour worked. The things you can't make more of — land, housing, rent, tuition — got dearer, and that's where the gap went. Productivity roughly doubled while the median wage crawled; the difference didn't disappear, it was collected. Companion to The Third Way.