I’m not in tech, I’m in manufacturing, and I’ve become trapped in my job because wages in the industry have gone down by about 10% in the last year. Thankfully I’m grandfathered in from the relatively high wage I got in the post covid wage rises, but my raises have been sub inflation two years in a row. Even going by the entirely bullshit official government inflation numbers, my real wage has gone down since I started.
Prices on housing and food are so sky high, that I can’t even get approved for a one bedroom apartment or studio despite making $60k, because they’re charging 55% of my after tax wage per month. I don’t live on the coasts, either. The job I came from before this was paying me $21/hr, and is now offering $16/hr, which is literally less than Taco Bell and just above minimum wage. Food and other transient monthly costs are so high now that after feeding my family and paying my bills, I’ll be able to save about $3k this year, down from 8.5k last year.