[OC] 25 years of my earnings adjusted for inflation show raises that didn’t increase purchasing power and a late inflection point Visualization

What This Visualization Shows

This data visualization displays "[OC] 25 years of my earnings adjusted for inflation show raises that didn’t increase purchasing power and a late inflection point" and provides a clear visual representation of the underlying data patterns and trends. The visualization focuses on First time posting. A friend suggested this sub might appreciate this, so I’m sharing.

This chart shows **25 years of my earnings adjusted to current-year dollars using U.S. CPI**. Figures are rounded, and job labels generalized to preserve anonymity, but the data and trends are accurate.

A few patterns stood out once everything was converted to real dollars:

* Despite multiple raises and promotions, my inflation-adjusted earnings returned to roughly the same \~$74k level (in today’s dollars) five separate times between 2008 and 2021. * Nominal income growth masked long stretches of **real wage stagnation**. * The most recent upward break represents the first sustained move above a ceiling I had previously hit multiple times. * For additional context, my current salary (\~$106k) has purchasing power roughly equivalent to about **$66k in 2000**, which helped explain why milestone salaries can feel less transformative than expected.

The inflection point coincides with completing a master’s degree and a leadership-focused professional credential. The effect was not immediate, but it aligns with the first sustained break above prior real-income peaks.

Sharing as a single data point rather than a universal claim. Adjusting long time horizons for inflation was clarifying for me, and I hadn’t seen many personal examples visualized over multiple decades.

Happy to clarify methodology if helpful., which allows us to understand complex relationships and insights within the data through visual storytelling.

Deep Dive into the Topic

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