I didn't expect this result at all; why is the correlation this way??
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Is your net worth (including houses, cars, savings, etc.) currently over $500k? || Have you ever worked a minimum wage job for at least 1 year?
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I bet age is a confounder. Older people are wealthier and also probably more likely to have worked a minimum wage job
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is this true though? older people more likely to work a min wage job?
In 1979, 13.4% of workers earned minimum wage. In 2020 it was 1.5%. So I think older people are much more likely to have had the experience.
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More time spent alive = more chances to have worked in any kind of job, minimum wage or otherwise
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Not sure, but seems likely in the US at least. Many minimum wage jobs are held by teenagers, and teen employment has been falling over time. Also, I believe a smaller % of workers earn minimum wage now than in the past.
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Minimum wage moved up a bunch in 70s and 80s so during this time I bet more places paid minimum wage.
It held steady for about a decade in the oughts so places had to pay more to compete.
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Also Matt Y always posts charts showing that teenage employment used to be much higher in the past and so a lot of the Yes|Yes people could be referring to their summer teen jobs.
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As a cohort effect, I would expect so. Most people who are above 40 today worked min-wage jobs as teens. Most people under 25 (at least in UMC circles) seem not to have, because they were padding university applications or grinding internships or whatever.
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Minimum wage used to be much higher on an inflation adjusted basis.
For an older person 500k isn’t a lot in terms of wealth value. It’s a house plus a few other assets. Even Young people who make six figures usually won’t reach that 500k net worth for a few years after their career starts. This may have more to do with the fact 500k isnt crazy.
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