When a Reddit user realized her daughter was making just $1 more per hour than she did in 2005, it hit her hard.
Back in high school, she made $8 an hour working at a grocery store. Now, her daughter works at a local café, earning $9 an hour.
But while the wages are nearly identical, the cost of living today is anything but.
“Starter Jobs” Don’t Start Much Anymore
“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,” she wrote in a recent post on r/MiddleClassFinance.
“My daughter fills her car once and half of her paycheck is gone.”
She shared that her daughter jokes about working just to afford iced lattes and gas, but the parent doesn’t find it funny.
“It feels insane that wages for entry-level jobs barely moved in 20 years while every basic expense exploded,” she wrote. “I’m not even talking about luxury stuff, just basic living costs.”
While some disagreed, many others quickly agreed. One person said, “Lots of people saying why is she working for $9/hr are missing the point. The problem is that these jobs are still out there. Lots of them.”
Another pointed out that this is why the minimum wage should be indexed to inflation. It doesn’t matter in very competitive labor markets, but “where it matters, it matters a lot.”
For one commenter, the disconnect between wages and housing prices was “wild.” They shared that their father earned $40,000 and bought a house for $170,000 in 1985.
That same job, at the same company, still pays $40,000 today, while the house now costs $675,000.
Teens Today Are Getting Priced Out Of Independence
Stories poured in from people comparing their first jobs to today’s reality. One person recalled filling a 16-gallon gas tank for $12 in the late ’90s while earning $5.15 an hour.
Another said they made $10 an hour in 2010 and could afford rent, food, and nights out—working just three days a week.
Now, many teens struggle to cover basics, even while working part-time.
“$9/hr will NOT allow a young person to achieve anything close to [what we did],” one person wrote. “It will hardly allow them to purchase a car outright after a year of saving.”
And while many argued that better-paying jobs exist—like Starbucks, Target or Costco, which offer $15-$20 starting pay—people living in rural areas pushed back.
“All of these ‘just work at Starbucks’ comments are so unhelpful,” one person wrote. “There’s no Starbucks. You’re lucky if there’s a Walmart.”
Systemic Stagnation And Parental Realization
The bigger issue, many noted, is not the job selection but the system itself. “$9/hr isn’t a living wage in any state,” one person wrote, “For decades, minimum wage was a living wage, but a frugal one. It hasn’t gone up in way too long.”
Some parents shared that they’d rather their kids focus on school instead of working for wages that don’t go far.
Others said their teens have found better opportunities babysitting, lifeguarding, or working for chains that pay more and offer benefits.
The thread served as a stark reminder: today’s teens face a drastically different economic reality, and many parents are only now starting to see just how wide the gap has become.