The average income of African American males between 20-59

[WIA20XX]

Good discussion so far

 

[JT-Money]

All this.



I already said it before, if more of our young men just worked for ups, FedEx, or got into trucking those salary averages would shoot up in less than 1 generation. Young dudes with ups were making great money YEARS AGO. Before the fight for these recent salary increases.


STEM is where it’s at, but if more dudes literally got into the stuff I mentioned above it would literally change the community in 1 generation.

That STEM ship done sailed.

 

[bourgeoisie tall freak]

I decided during the covid pandemic that I'd rather have continuous employment than jumping from job to job in search of higher pay. I saw too many folks get laid off and since my job kept us employed...I'm just going to thug it out for long run. Pay is above average for the area but not high or anything but benefits and pension are worth it. I have a roof over my head and it feeds my daughter and me so can't complain. Just praying I stay employed until I can retire.

funny you mention covid. the stats shown are for the prime covid era where you acknowledge it was a financially stressed time for the whole world and people and taking it and running with it as an indicator of normal conditions

i don't get the whole point of trying to be deep on this website when people don't read.

but yeah.... happy tuesday yall!

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

And dudes are still expected to pay 100% of the bills

I said this before and I'll keep saying it, I don't know any households where the man pays 100% of the bills. Maybe in an elite area where dudes making $200k salary. You need two working people to really get ahead.

With that said, those numbers are absurdly low. I barely even try and I'm at $60k.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

All by design. There’s been an economic warfare against us for centuries. Black Wall Street, Segregation, the crack epidemic and the prejudice judicial system.

Nah Breh, it's way more to it than that. I ain't saying racism doesn't play a role, but we have got to stop the victim mentality. Dudes simply ain't trying. I'm nobody special, I wasn't a straight A student with 4 extracurricular activities. I didn't go to a big name college, just juco

I started off making $7/hr at a student worker job. Got to $8.50/hr at Walmart, then $10/hr. Got a lil degree using the Pell Grant and got an office job paying $15/hr, then a raise to $18/hr. Got another raise to about $40k. Now I'm at $60k.

If those numbers are real, there's a lot of black men who aren't even trying. Hell warehouses start off at $22.

 

[HoldThisL]

Damn I did not know I was making more than the average, I feel even more grateful for my position.

 

[King Sun]

20–29		25,000
30–39		41,600
40–49		51,000
50–59		47,100

Statistics at a Glance: Earnings of Men Aged 20–59, by Age Group and Race/Ethnicity

Social Security Administration Research, Statistics, and Policy Analysis

www.ssa.gov

This is why it blows my mind when we have political and financial talks with guys on this site and I bring up economics' dudes bring up bootstrap arguments. Just because we are doing well and we know other brehs in our bubble doing good most black people in the US are struggling.

 

[IIVI]

People need to stop talking and claiming they did this and that. It’s honestly a coping mechanism. Walk the walk, don’t talk it.

It’s probably why women have unreal expectations because cats keep gassing shyt up that they didn’t do. It’s got for the worse because people are doing it all online now so everybody reads it, sees their lies and believes it. Then they step into the real world and get exposed.

That’s what I’ve noticed. People talk way too much and have become natural grifters. Meanwhile, other groups put their head down and actually go out there to get it done. That shows up in the actual, real statistics.

In the modern world with the Internet, a lot of myths get busted leaving only real world results from all the rumors.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

None of those are livable wages. How in the entire fukk are people out here surviving?

I don't think those numbers are accurate.

 

[B86]

I don't think those numbers are accurate.

Yes, they are. Google it.

I was literally asking how are people surviving off those numbers.

 

[WIA20XX]

This is true as well. But still a black man with functioning limbs and a HS diploma or not even that back then had a better shot at a gig that could comfortably support a family (4 or 5 people total not 10 kids) than a dude with a masters in most fields today.

The game has really changed.

White men, post WW2, were working in the only factories left standing in the world's largest economy.

• Population was smaller.
• Women really couldn't work like they do now.
• Not every plot of nearby farmland had a house on it, so to escape Black people, Housing was cheaper.
• Everything was cheaper.

This is the boomer generation. They (the white ones) had it easy.

But the US financed the rebuilding of Europe and Japan.
20 years later, US factories are competing with Europe and Japan.

Then white women got equal rights (thanks Black people) - and they started to compete white men for "good jobs".
So white men were losing jobs to white women, and a white woman is a preferable hire to a Black man in a lot of situations.

Trying to drive a wedge between China and the USSR, Nixon started to open up China.
Clinton then got China into the WTO AND signed NAFTA

So now American workers are competing with China and Mexico. Cats in the Midwest stay blaming illegals, but Ford stay moving factories to Mexico. It's not the lawn care guy's fault that folks don't have a job with benefits...

Throughout all of this - the world has become more financialized

• Can't just buy something once, you gotta buy a subscription
• If the stock market goes up, my paycheck doesn't. But if the market goes down, I might lose my job
• more efficient markets in car insurance, medical insurance, etc
• on and on.

White men have lost a lot since the "good ol days". And when the white man catches a cold, the black man catches cancer.

In this historical context, Black folks need to understand the real constraints of economic life in this country and the world.

Advocating for trades, IT Certs, "group economics", etc - in my view, it just doesn't take into account the actual precarious state of Black America and Black People globally..

 

[jesc07]

I noticed other races list their total compensation (benefits, stocks, etc) as their salary...where we usually just count our actual pay.

 

[IsThatBrothaMouzone?]

I make more than the 20s, 30s and 40s brackets....combined. I've got very little debt...and I'm STILL the poorest in my friend group.

Perspective matters a lot. That's why I catch myself when complaining about flying coach or driving a paid off 7-year old car.

 

[bourgeoisie tall freak]

I don't think those numbers are accurate.

the "median" over a period of time that wasn't covid years is $10K more than what was posted in the OP, for the youngest age group.
median means 50% of the group is above that level. so yeah, this is not the average person in a typical time frame. this was for the year of covid where a lot of people weren't working lol

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

I believe it. Let me tell you about my nephew and my brother in law. My nephew is young 18 just finished high school, my brother in law just got out the pen l. Both of them ask me about how to get into being an electrician. I tell them about the trade school I went to and say I'll write both of them a recommendation letter since I'm a supervisor it will help then. I tell them you'll probably start at $17-19/hr but in 4 years when you become a fresh journeyman you'll be making $30/hr or more and you'll still get a raise every year. Both of them look into it and both of them decide to go work at a fukking warehouse making like $17/hr and are perfectly OK with just sticking it out until they find something else. Brother in law is a supervisor up there works his ass off to make $22/hr and brags about how he gets 80 hours a week 40 of them being OT, and he showed me his paycheck stub and he was looking like when he saw his 80 hour check isn't even what my 40 hour check is. Not to mention I promise they do more actual work than I do.

At the end of the day even if you present the avenue to someone, it ain't gonna make them go get it. Too many young black men are cool with these jobs that pay those meager salaries.

I feel like trades are underpaid. $30/hr ain't really shyt unless you deep in the Midwest cornfields. Don't even think about living near the city on that. The trades at my job was making $50/hr. Average trade earnings should be $45/hr minimum starting at journeyman all the way up to $65/hr after 15 or so years.

But it's definitely a good route, not to mention all the side work you can do. I feel like starting a business as a tradesman is would be easy. People will always need HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical work.