I was checking out my earnings record on the ssa site and calculated the percent change each year. I’ve had a few career changes, so there are some pretty wild swings in my history. I don’t think that career changes or setbacks are unusual in this day, so I’m curious to see the history of others and if others show as many swings or magnitudes as large as shown here.
How has your income changed over the years?
For reference, I used the SSA data and calculated percent change from previous year’s
Taxed Medicare Earnings. Here are my results:
Work Year | Percent change | Comment |
1 | 0 | |
2 | 5387.2% | |
3 | -25.8% | |
4 | 65.1% | |
5 | -67.8% | |
6 | 14.5% | |
7 | 372.0% | |
8 | 91.5% | |
9 | -24.6% | Grad college/Move |
10 | 81.5% | |
11 | 6.7% | |
12 | 41.1% | |
13 | 62.0% | |
14 | -31.3% | Career Change |
15 | 23.5% | |
16 | 13.6% | |
17 | 14.9% | |
18 | 14.6% | |
19 | -58.6% | Industry Shakeup |
20 | 69.3% | |
21 | -63.9% | Layoff/pre-tire |
22 | -75.3% | Travel |
23 | 1021.2% | Career Change |
24 | 42.7% | |
25 | 54.5% | |
26 | 14.7% | |
27 | 41.6% | Self-employment |
28 | -1.1% | |
29 | 75.6% | Accounting change |
30 | -15.6% | |
31 | -37.2% | Accounting change |