Why some millennials feel like it’s getting harder to get ahead

In Canada, there’s an idea that if you work hard, you'll get ahead. But at least one group is starting to feel like hard work might not be enough to move up the social status ladder. CBC News’ Stephen Cook explores whether millennials have less opportunity than their parents to get ahead.

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[pedroportillo]

The cost of living has sky rocketed, meanwhile, wages across the board have stagnated.

[alanj]

gee, let's see. Housing costs, child care costs, taxes, severe lack of full time work with benefits. And Millenials haven't even gotten old enough to notice that they're not saving enough for retirement yet.

[carlam]

Jobs that once paid what was considered good middle class wages have been reduced to minimum wage or just slightly above. The cost of living has far exceeded inflation and many workers have seen many years with no cost of living raises and reduced benefits.

There was actually a time in Canada where the majority of Canadians worked 40 hours a week, had the weekend off and went on vacation every year while only 1 person in the household worked. You could have a home, a car in the drive way and a couple of kids and still be able to afford time off and a little get away. The companies that employed you paid into a pension, had a good health benefits so you could look after yourself and your family and they appreciated you and knew you were a big part of what made them successful.

It's hard to believe that was only 50 years ago. It's devastating to see how much all the government parties and divisions dropped the ball and ignored the problems in housing, wages, and healthcare.

[reneeladouceur]

I'm a young Gen X (xennial), and the worst advice I ever received from older generations was to work hard and I would succeed. I just ended up being burnt out.

[ianmaidment]

Everything today is a fight against debt

[MichaelSheaAudio]

Cost of living is way up, but wages are not. The wealth gap only continues to grow as the owner class takes more and more from the working class. We're more productive than ever, but our wages don't reflect that.

For example, the house that I currently live in was purchased by my mother in 1998-1999, for about $150, 000. Today, $150, 000 is equal to $260, 000. Houses on my street are selling for $500, 000-600, 000. Houses, at least in my area, are double what they would have been 25 years ago.

The minimum wage in Ontario in 1999 was supposedly $6.85, which is $11.85 today. So we are actually making more in that respect, but since the cost of living has outpaced the wage increases, it's not good enough. From statistics Canada, the amount of minimum wage workers in Ontario doubled from 2008-2018. Another issue with the minimum wage lagging behind is that everyone's wage lags behind, if you're in the working class. When the minimum wage raises, the people who were making just above minimum wage expect an increase as well, and the people making more than them, and so on.

Hard work doesn't cut it anymore, there is a systemic issue.

[AndyRiot]

The key to making it is to be born into a rich family that can help you acquire property, invest, etc.

[jaykay]

Notice the intentionally vague wording in this survey - "hard work" which could mean anything. They went out of their way to avoid asking *specifically* if jobs/employment led to success. I think that's where a lot of this dissatisfaction comes from.

[ManuFortis]

The thing with the work hard rhetoric, is that my hours have generally been reduced across the board for any job I take, because employers are trying to increase the amount of employees they have to look good in one way, or increase productivity by having more work done in less time otherwise anyways or as well. The end result is I make less per month while making more per hour at less hours per month while doing more work per day.

There is no getting ahead in that, unless you can manage to juggle 3 jobs, because taking 2 is only enough to get by without falling behind badly. Sure, that's still 'working hard', but there is a limit to how hard you can work for so long before you just burn out. And recovering from that level of burn out... it's not easy. I'm still struggling from it, years later. Not as bad as it used to be for me... but still. Can barely bother to drag myself out of bed anymore for even one job, let alone two. And today's economy basically requires you to have 2 jobs and a side gig minimum.

None of this is okay, it is a crime upon humanity itself.

Also, the guy with the floral white shirt and blue hoodie with the headphones. Absolute nimrod. Just intelligent to make words, but not intelligent to understand them well enough to use different words. "Oh, I don't think there's less opportunity. Just less to go around."

That's basically the same damn thing... FFS.

As for the Gini coefficient... I'm not going to say its outright wrong, but I will say that if you look at numbers and other data, then go and compare that to the real world, and things don't seem to match up; it might be time to reassess the numbers and data.

P.S. to the 2 people who already thumbs upped this comment. Yes, I edited my comment, to tame it down. I was pretty angry about this whole situation when I first wrote this. Still am. But I realized some of my words could be mistaken in intent. So I've adjusted it and removed some of it; only for the legal sake. Doesn't mean those things won't happen. Just not being as vocal about it.

[LucianoClassicalGuitar]

I don't really care about moving ahead in the social pyramid. Everyone should be able to have a decent life whether you are cleaning toilets or being a corporate lawyer scamming everyone.

[kaygee]

At no point did this address the actual question of "why"

[nephicus]

Higher education doesn't even mean being more successful anymore. In my personal experience, I got a higher education and suddenly I was 'over qualified' or 'too inexperienced' to get hired. It's honestly one of the worst feelings I've ever gone through, that if I hadn't gone to school, I could've gotten a job and done something.
It's been like this for a while, but it's no longer what you can do or how hard you work, but who you know, that gets you a job or a promotion.

[TheDarkPorkins]

We should be working towards working less.

[ColleenJoudrey]

There is a interconnecting web of issues that led Canada into the mess it's in and hurdling deeper into so there will never be only one answer to help remedy it.

[dennisheyes]

"Hard work will make you irreplaceable at the job you are currently doing. Making companies less likely to promote you to doing something else." - My father. (a boomer that is now retired) That is why you have to leap frog from one company to another to get ahead.

[canuckasaurus]

It's useless to listen to economists on this because all their data and their models are out of date. They are failing to take the temperature of the room right now.

[Its_like_the_T-Rex]

Here's an example of income inequality. My retired landlord raised my rent by 25% making my rent 43% of my income. He told me that this raise will buy him his 5th luxury car. I haven't been able to afford a car for 15 years and I make more than the average household. I work full time and have a side hustle.

[Fenthule]

Wealth inequality has gone DOWN since 2004?? I call total horsesh!t.

[santaclosed]

In US, the total income of high 1% has surpassed the total income of the entire middle class. This should be similar in Canada as well. The percentage of tax paid by super rich people has been declining since 1960 as well as our average wage. So, it’s where comes our disappearing social security and welfare from. On top of it, current inflation has been led by high-income class who injected a crazy amount of money into market. So we have on one side a dwindling middle class who used to be socially and politically well aware and open, on the other side, we have super rich people who have started exerting a huge influence on our political scene for their own profits. So no more policies and politicians for the middle and lower class. Due to this structural changes, privatizing profits and socializing losses becomes a norm in our society. Hence our livelihood becomes tougher and tougher and for the youngsters, even more as they’ve started their life with financially diminished parents with less social welfare. We should feel sorry for our young people for handing them over this kind of society instead of a better one.

[antitheistvegan]

It’s as though we should be preparing for how to grow old in poverty. Impossible not to feel completely deflated and hopeless.