Troubling divide helps to explain the anxiety among US society that defined 2016 election

Baby boomers in the United States are worse off than their millennial children.

With a median household income of $40,581, millennials earn 20 percent less than boomers did at the same stage of life, despite being better educated, according to a new analysis of Federal Reserve data by t he advocacy group Young Invincibles.

The analysis released on Friday gives concrete details about a troubling generational divide that helps to explain much of the anxiety that defined the 2016 election. Millennials have half the net worth of boomers, their homeownership rate is lower and their student debt higher.

The generational gap is a central dilemma for the incoming presidency of Donald Trump, who essentially pledged a return to the prosperity of the United States after World War II. The analysis also hints at the issues of culture and identity that divided many voters, showing that white millennials, who still earn much more than their black and Latino peers, have seen their incomes plummet the most relative to boomers.

Andrea Ledesma, 28, said her parents owned a house and were raising kids by her age.

Not so for her. Ledesma graduated from college four years ago. After moving through a series of jobs, she now earns $18,000 making pizza at Classic Slice in Milwaukee, shares a two-bedroom apartment with her boyfriend and has $33,000 in student debt.

Her mother Cheryl Romanowski,

I think the opportunities have just been fading away.” Cheryl Romanowski, 55, talking about the life of her 28-year-old daughter

55, was making about $10,000 a year at her age working at a bank without a college education. In today’s dollars, that income would be equal to roughly $19,500.

Romanowski said she envies the choices that her daughter has in life, but she acknowledged that her daughter has it harder than her.

“I think the opportunities have just been fading away,” she said.

Education

The analysis of the Fed data shows the extent of the decline. It compared 25 to 34 year-olds in 2013, the most recent year available, to the same age group in 1989 after adjusting for inflation.

Education does help boost incomes. But the median college-educated millennial with student debt is only earning slightly more than a baby boomer without a degree did in 1989.

The homeownership rate for this age group dipped to 43 percent from 46 percent in 1989, although the rate has improved for millennials with a college degree relative to boomers.

The median net worth of millennials is $10,090, about 56 percent less than it was for boomers.