Young Americans’ Wages Gaining on Older Peers in Tightening Job Market

(Bloomberg) -- For the youngest members of the U.S. workforce, 2018 was a good year.

Americans from the ages of 16 to 24 working in full-time positions earned $549 per week on average over the course of the year, according to data on median weekly earnings published Thursday by the Labor Department. That salary was 59 percent of what their older counterparts made, marking the smallest difference in compensation between the two cohorts since 2002.

The shrinking discount probably reflects a tightening job market as employers increasingly find themselves forced to pay up for workers at the bottom of the skill ladder.

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