Were you born in the SURVIVAL YEARS - The 1930’s?
Population Count - 122,775,046.

During the first year of the Fair Labor Standards Act, covered workers were provided with a minimum wage of .25 cents per hour based on a 44-hour workweek. This baseline was raised to .40 cents per hour in the second year of the program. The Social Security Act of 1935 created the unemployment compensation program and provided maximum benefits at age 65 to covered workers. Of course, since life expectancy was less than 60, few people lived to “enjoy” Social Security benefits. The average annual salary was around $1,500 and unemployment stood at around 25% in much of the nation. Men worked in blue-collar jobs, or on the farm, and women stayed at home. We were perfectly suited to factory work and the “lucky” men worked in the automobile industry, railroads, steel companies and mines. The rest worked hand-to-mouth.

Were you born in the INDUSTRIAL AGE - The 1940’s?
Population Count - 131,669,275.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor created the American Nursing Association and over 179,000 women enrolled in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. Other women labored in woolen mills to make blankets for our soldiers and in factories to produce munitions and tanks. 1946 marked the official start of the baby boomer generation as men returned home from war and we produced the largest boom in birthrates in the history of the U.S. Because of the G.I. bill, an emphasis was focused on higher education, at least for the men. The Industrial Age was in full swing and the first signs of the emerging, educated White Collar workforce were seen and felt. Minimum wages were raised to .43 cents per hour and new industries, such as the plumbing industry took off as 55% of American homes had indoor plumbing by the ‘40’s. We said hello to IBM.

Were you born in the EMERGING MIDDLE-CLASS BOOMERS’ HAPPY DAYS - The 1950’s?
Population Count - 150,697,361

For the first time, the middle-class dominated the economy and male college graduates were told that by “keeping their noses to the grindstone” they would soon forge their way as leaders of manufacturing firms in our lightening-fast, industrial-based economy. The post-war baby boom continued in full swing. Women were entering college to become teachers or health-care professionals or, simply, to snag better educated husbands than they might otherwise find. The first universal credit card was issued by Diner’s club in 1950 and, thus, began a full-out swing to consumerism as American debt began to rise at an unprecedented rate. The average salary in the 1950’s was $2,992/year – a number that allowed William Levitt (founder of Levittown in Long Island) to build affordable mass housing in the suburbs for the new middle-class. The number of workers providing services began to catch up with the number of workers producing products.

Were you born in the 1960’s when MASS CONSUMERISM exploded?
Population Count - 179,323,175.

TV changed the way we saw the world and it fueled consumer buying to a feverish new pitch. Minimum wages were raised to $1.00 per hour in the ‘60’s and the average American salary was $4730/year. It was in 1964 that the Civil Right Act was enacted, paving a way for certain changes on behalf of the previously completely disenfranchised minority groups in America. More and more women entered the workforce; divorce rates zoomed and married couple households declined. Youth migrated West and the older generation migrated South. We noticed the older generation for the first time as advances in medicine (“better living through chemistry”) began to dramatically increase life expectancy to 65 years. Birth rates began a steady decline. This signaled the start of a decline that continues today.

Great changes occurred in the ‘60’s. Federal spending increased dramatically with the launch of Medicare, food stamps and educational initiatives. Military spending increased. Labor contracts began including cost-of-living clauses. We ended the ‘60’s with uncomfortably high unemployment rates. As for you, if you were born in 1946, the official start of the baby boomer generation, you turned 18 in 1964, the official end of the birth dates for members of this generation. By the end of the 1960’s population reached 200 million people – 84% were white, 11% were black, 4% were Hispanic/Latino and 1% were Asian/Pacific Islanders (source: Pew research)

You were here in the 1970’s – when the WORLD OF WORK CHANGED.
Population Count - 203,302,031.

Apple Computer and Microsoft were founded, 18 year-olds were given the right to vote, computer games flooded the youth market and the microprocessor was developed. Deregulation occurred in the airlines and other industries.

To glide over the ‘70’s in your journey through the world of work is to miss the obvious. For example, did you miss that fact that it was in the ‘70’s when imported manufactured good began to overtake American made products? It was in the ‘70’s that the computer began to change everything, even where workers would sit as they performed work for multi-national companies. Did you miss the changes in world demographics – the time when third world countries outgrew their ability to care for their own populations and what this meant to American labor? Did you miss the fact that our younger population was diminishing even as China, Bangladesh, India and other countries’ populations were exploding? By the end of the 1970’s, average U.S. salaries soared to$7,564.

You were here for MERGER MANIA – The 1980’s.
Population Count - 226,545,805.

IBM introduced its PC model, the MTV generation gradually took over much of TV, layoffs in the manufacturing sector gained national attention as cost-conscious executives quietly outsourced lower-level tech jobs abroad to take advantage of lower wages. The rich grew richer, the poor received more entitlements and the middle-class began to be squeezed. The nation was in recession for the first two years of the ‘80’s and Savings and Loans faltered. Corporate restructurings, fueled by mergers and acquisitions, began in earnest. Microsoft launched Windows, which, as it later turned out, was another world-changing event in our history of work. Bigger houses, larger mortgages, more credit buying, and average wages of $15,757 were the norm.

You were here in the ‘90’s – A DOT.COM STATE OF MIND.
Population Count - 248,709,873.

The Internet moved front and center into our daily lives. Minimum wages were increased to $5.15/hour in 1997. the labor force was revolutionized as the “gold-collar” worker moved center-stage. The Dow jumped thousands of points and the so-called dot.com revolution swept our major cities. Familiar goods disappeared soon to be replaced by more gadgets than most folks would ever need. World markets were linked in ways never anticipated even a few years earlier. Higher-level technology jobs accelerated their march overseas. Small businesses produced 75% of America’s new jobs between 1990 and 1995. The number of women-owned businesses climbed into the lower stratosphere between the beginning and end of the ‘90’s. Small firms began to hire older workers, many of whom preferred part-time work. The 1990’s brought new waves of mergers, acquisitions and hostile takeovers changing the landscape – forever, as it turned out, from one of lifetime employment to one of shorter tenure in our larger corporations. Restructuring resulted in significant employment reductions in manufacturing, banking and finance. The term “rightsizing” became commonplace in our business language. Americans bought many things on margin, including stock and real estate.

The early 21st Century – The age of unprecedented DEMOGRAPHIC & GEOGRAPHIC SHIFTS
Population Count This Year - 300,000,000

We will push out the boundaries of innovation. There are great breakthroughs in bioscience, in life-saving drugs, in other hot new businesses on the immediate horizon. In America, it is the age that will only favor the educated and the skilled. It is a moment when the under-skilled are likely to sink into deeper poverty, when the rich will get richer and when other nations will emerge to take their place at the forefront of history. For better and worse, it is a time when work and society will change in more ways than most imagine. For example, of the 100 million people added to the U.S.A. since the late ‘60’s – 29 million were Latino/Hispanics (53% due to immigration), 12% were Asian/Pacific Islanders and 4 million, or 7%, were black (source Pew Research). As one result, more states will become “majority-minority” states. Our aging nation will find many more mature people in the poor column unless WE CONTINUE TO WORK and, as a result, continue to save for our much older, old-old age. Many of the familiar jobs of the past will no longer exist, technology will replace many workers and the global community will overtake any single country as producers of products.