I was looking at old job ads from 2005 and the salary numbers shocked me

I was cleaning out my old files and found a printed job listing from my first office job. The ad was for an assistant manager role in Chicago, and it offered $38,000 a year. I checked a salary site for the same job now, and it's listed at around $65,000. That's a huge jump, but it doesn't feel like it buys as much as it used to. Has anyone else compared old pay to what's normal now?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancycooper11d ago

Yeah, that article's right. The math just doesn't work. My rent in 2005 was $850 for a decent one-bedroom. That same place is over $2,000 now. So the salary doubled, but the rent more than doubled.

jennifer20411d ago

My first apartment in 2010 was $675. I saw it listed last month for $1,900. At this rate, my future retirement plan is just a really nice cardboard box.

nora_park11d ago

Wow, that's a crazy difference. I read an article about how pay has gone up but not kept pace with the cost of living, especially housing. Your old salary sounds about right for back then, but that 65k today probably feels tight in a city like Chicago. It's like the numbers got bigger but the actual buying power shrank. Makes you wonder what things will look like in another twenty years.