Twenty years ago, a teenager could work a part-time job and walk away with more than gas money. Today, the math doesn't add up the same way. That was the realization of one parent on r/MiddleClassFinance who compared their own paycheck at 16 to their daughter's today — and the results stopped them cold.
The post was bluntly titled: "My kid's summer job paycheck was smaller than mine at 16 and it made me realize how crazy things got." The parent said they made about $8 an hour in 2005 working at a grocery store.
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Their daughter now earns $9 an hour at a local café. "That sounds fine on paper," they wrote, "until you realize that gas, rent and food prices have tripled since then. With what I made as a teen, I could cover a full tank of gas, a cheap dinner out and still have money left for savings. My daughter fills her car once and half of her paycheck is gone. She jokes she's basically working just to afford iced lattes and gas, but honestly it hit me hard. It feels insane that wages for entry-level jobs barely moved in 20 years while every basic expense exploded."
Other Redditors quickly chimed in with their own comparisons. One remembered a Taco Bell paycheck as a teenager and the gut-punch of watching half disappear into the gas tank. Another noted that back in the late 1990s, gas prices sometimes dipped to 79 cents a gallon — meaning you could fill a Ford Taurus for about twelve bucks.
"At no point does $9 an hour sound good on paper," another wrote, adding that the café wage was only a sliver above the bare minimum in many states. Some even questioned why a teen would take that job at all when national chains like Walmart and Starbucks now start workers at $14 to $15 an hour, with Costco offering $20.
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Others tried to put numbers into perspective. One commenter pointed out that in 2005, the federal minimum wage was $5.15 an hour. At $8, the original poster was nearly three dollars above that floor. Today the federal rate is still stuck at $7.25 — unchanged since 2009 — which means the daughter's $9 an hour is only $1.75 above it. Another commenter said flatly: "That should have set off alarm bells immediately."
The frustration runs deeper than one paycheck. Users swapped stories about how far salaries and housing once stretched compared to now. One said their father earned $40,000 in 1985 and bought a $170,000 house. That same job still pays $40,000 today — but the same house now sells for around $675,000. Another reflected that a six-figure salary used to feel like making it. Now, in many cities, you need closer to $250,000 to have the same lifestyle.
The numbers back them up. In 2005, the median price of an existing single-family home in the U.S. was about $207,000. A typical mortgage payment averaged around $1,100 a month, with interest rates in the 5% to 6% range.
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Today, many markets have doubled or tripled those prices. Mortgage payments in 2025 often exceed $2,000 a month, especially with today's higher interest rates. Rent has climbed in lockstep — average national rent in 2005 was about $700, compared to more than $1,900 today.
Basic costs tell the same story. Gas in 2005 averaged about $2.30 a gallon; today it often hovers around $3.80. A McDonald's value meal cost roughly $4.50 in 2005; now it can push past $10. Yet entry-level wages have barely budged. Adjusted for inflation, the parent's $8 an hour in 2005 would be worth closer to $12 to $14 today. That means their daughter's $9 at the café is effectively a pay cut.
Commenters weren't short on suggestions either. Some recommended babysitting or nannying, which often pays $20 an hour or more. Others said apps like Care.com make finding that kind of work easy. But the thread's main theme wasn't job-hopping advice. It was the shared sense that "starter jobs" don't really start anything anymore.
That sentiment is what gives the original post its sting. A summer job used to offer more than pocket change — it gave teens a chance to save, to feel a bit independent, maybe even to dream of what came next.
Now, as the parent noted, too many are just "working to afford iced lattes and gas." For families comparing paychecks across generations, the math makes one thing clear: when costs triple but wages crawl, something is badly broken.
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