--- title: Here's Who Was Hurt Even Worse Than Millennials by the Great Recession description: Median wages of Generation X have barely recovered and haven't gained the kind of ground that would be expected of this age bracket. authors: - name: Martha C. White role: Writer url: https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/ education: BA, English, Princeton University at_money_since: 2015 articles: 350 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology published: '2016-04-19T14:04:36.000Z' modified: '2016-04-19T14:04:36.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - earning potential - Gen X - Gen Y - Great Recession - income - pubdesk - Raises - Stagnation word_count: 215 canonical: https://money.com/great-recession-impact-gen-x-millennials/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Steve Zahn, Winona Ryder, Janaeane Garafolo and Ethan Hawke in REALITY BITES (1994)](https://img.money.com/2016/04/160419_car_genxstagnation.jpg?crop=0px%2C92px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85) *Steve Zahn, Winona Ryder, Janaeane Garafolo and Ethan Hawke in REALITY BITES (1994)* In the wake of the Great Recession, discussions about the tough job market often centered on millennials and their inability to get their footing during their foundational career-building years. Or analysts discussed the inability of an anemic economy to stimulate meaningful wage growth. Both points were true sources of concern. But they masked a deeper problem affecting one specific subset of Americans, those in their 40s and early 50s, otherwise known as Generation X. This demographic’s labor market travails are often overshadowed by what’s going on with the much larger--and, let's face it, much "sexier"--millennial age bracket. But a look at the median wage earned by Gen X workers compared with the overall workforce shows that the earning power of this age group has barely regained the ground lost during the recession, and they haven't been gaining ground the way they should at this point in their careers. "Gen Xers are worth singling out because they’re in their peak earning years. They’ve now missed out on what should be the biggest raises of their careers," [Quartz](http://qz.com/659388/americans-have-gotten-a-raise-in-the-past-15-years-but-not-since-the-great-recession/) pointed out. ***Calculate:*** [What is my current net worth?](http://test1.calcxml.com/calculators/embedCalcLoader?skn=570&calc=bud07) So even though starting salaries are lower and raises are smaller today than they were before the recession, workers in what should be their best years are the ones who stand the most to lose today. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/great-recession-impact-gen-x-millennials/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Gen X", "item": "https://money.com/gen-x/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's Who Was Hurt Even Worse Than Millennials by the Great Recession" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/great-recession-impact-gen-x-millennials/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/great-recession-impact-gen-x-millennials/", "name": "Here's Who Was Hurt Even Worse Than Millennials by the Great Recession", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-04-19T14:04:36.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/great-recession-impact-gen-x-millennials/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/great-recession-impact-gen-x-millennials/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-04-19T14:04:36.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Here's Who Was Hurt Even Worse Than Millennials by the Great Recession", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/04/160419_car_genxstagnation.jpg?crop=0px%2C92px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "160419_CAR_GenXStagnation" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha C. 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