I suspect the person you’re responding to is not really talking about truly low paying jobs - more likely entry level out of college jobs. (Not that I expect those are in aggregate underwater either.)
I remember from even better days than today, but the entry job out of college had become an unpaid internship.
Which effectively limited them to people that already had very stable and financially supportive family situations.
Part of the reason that class mobility is going down. Although I think most of the production in class mobility is due to the disappearance of the high paid blue collar job in manufacturing
Supposedly manufacturing will be re- onshored in the next decade depending on who you talk to. So the tide may be turning?
Meaningless when housing costs have soared. They've made wage gains because it's literally not worth it to work for $8/hr anymore and companies were unable to find workers.
Wages for the lowest quintile have gone up in real terms, meaning adjusted for inflation (including shelter costs). None of your economic beliefs are grounded reality, you just make up beliefs that flatter your politics and downvote everyone who disagrees with you.
It would be good to get real numbers, the problem is inflation does not hit everyone equally; for example my house is paid off, the housing components do not affect me at all. So if they are growing faster than the rest of the basket it does not reflect in my life.
So real gains may or may not exist without looking at the individual or individual cohort you are talking about.
If you're drowning in the ocean 100 ft below the surface, saying you managed to go 80 ft so you're still 20 ft below the surface is remarkably stupid and fails to appreciate the gravity of the situation.
