I graduated from High School in 1981

[Horse with no Name]

Minimum wage was $3.35/hr
27 years later it is only $5.85.
THAT is what is wrong in America.:(

[tekisui]

When I started working in 1996, it was $5.15.

12 years later....$5.85

[devilgrrl]

1. I also graduated in 1981 and most of my classmates are right-wing assholes.

How did our generation get so conservative?

[ikojo]

37. Coming of age during the Reagan era didn't

help that's for sure.

[MsRedacted]

45. I graduated in 1988 -- minimum wage was STILL $3.35 and no one in my

high school or first 2 years of college even thought about the bigger picture. It was all about them -- about getting a job -- about fitting in -- about conformity (and wearing alligator shirts).

Finally by the time I graduated Northwestern in 1992 -- a few people got a wake up call. There were no jobs -- at least none that paid enough would keep you out of living with your parents -- or maybe a fridge box on Lower Wacker Drive.

The few people I knew who actually got corporate jobs worked 24/7.

Most of the people I know my age work 45-60 hours per week and consider that normal.

[WolverineDG]

51. That's what I want to know

I went to a class reunion & one of the guys was blathering on & on about morals & such. I asked "Where the hell were you in high school when X (his name) was pulling down girls' skirts & bragging about his weekend conquests?" :crickets:

dg

[htuttle]

2. Same here

And I don't think $5.85 buys anywhere near what $3.35 bought back then.

[leftofthedial]

3. there should be a MAXIMUM WAGE/INCOME

and it should be indexed to the minimum wage

[Boojatta]

6. Wage and income are two quite different things.

Your plan needs baking.

[leftofthedial]

9. nope.

income from all sources in excess of some multiple of the minimum wage (40X?) is taxed at 100%.

bake for 0 minutes at room temperature.



If we did that, the minimum wage would be somewhere around $25/hr. by this time next week.

[Boojatta]

14. Would some talented people be persuaded to work

extra hours by promises of sex? For example, an old and ugly sole practitioner in criminal law might not be willing to work for nothing and someone accused of a crime might want help even though the lawyer's total income for the year might have already reached the limit.

What if a lot of pilots or air traffic controllers happened to have invested in a particular mutual fund or other investment that did very well by the end of August. Would a lot of poeople have to wait until the following January before taking a plane somewhere?

[leftofthedial]

15. and some other lawyer will take the case

and the airlines will hire more pilots

and so on.

the debate is not the method. it is the multiple.


40X $10 is $400 an hour--way more than pilots make, more than all but a miniscule percentage of lawyers.

[Boojatta]

17. "the airlines will hire more pilots"

How many people are going to train to be pilots to work just from September through December of one year?

[leftofthedial]

18. how many people need a job right now?

Again: pilots DO NOT EARN $400 an hour, so your point is moot.

[Boojatta]

19. "your point is moot"

Didn't you speak of "income from all sources"? Didn't my hypothetical involve investment income?

[leftofthedial]

24. mutual fund? LOL

don't even get me started on the stock market

[leftofthedial]

21. how many employees can tell their boss to fuck off for the three busiest months of the year

and then have a job in February?

nothing prevents the capital gains of pilots from inspiring them to quit flying right now. what's your point?

[Boojatta]

41. Are you suggesting that if a person's income from all sources

for a given calendar year reaches the maximum before the end of the year, then the person would have a choice of either working without pay for the rest of the year or risking job loss? Would job security be lost simply because the person is unwilling to work for nothing?

[Boojatta]

47. Suppose you happen to inherit near the beginning of the year

enough money to make your total income for the year at the maximum allowed level. Would you then have to work for the rest of the year for nothing or risk losing your job? Would the maximum allowed income for one year be enough to live for the rest of your life no matter how young you are and no matter what future currency inflation may be experienced?

[leftofthedial]

52. or, you'd work for your pay all year

and pay 100% tax on inheritence above the maximum amount


or perhaps some limited conditions allow you to spread inheritance or capital gains across multiple years



you wouldn't be working for nothing. You'd be working to keep your job.

[Drifter]

36. I worked for a company ...

where the CEO's salary was directly related to the lowest paid worker in the company.
No one gets a raise unless everyone gets a raise. The company is now employee owned.
I wish I still worked there.

Cheers
Drifter

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

43. Sorry youre off

1) You have just pretty much destroyed the concept of private property (and the concept of privace will be not too far behind)

2) Still wont fix the problem all I have to do is invest my money in foreign markets and let it sit there

[MadMaddie]

4. For approximately 27 years the Republicans have controlled

the countries destiny...that's what's wrong with America.

[El Pinko]

5. What is $5.85/hr in 1981 dollars? Like $1.50?

NT

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. I don't remember 1981 prices very well, except that my housemates and I

paid $270 a month total plus utilities for a three-bedroom apartment on the top floor of triple-decker house. As a graduate student, I lived on about $500 a month. When one housemate got a teaching job that paid $18,000 a year, her first words upon seeing the offer were, "$18,000? What am I going to do with all that money?"

However, I do remember prices from 1968, when the minimum wage was $1.25:

A pair of jeans was $7 for Levi's, $5 for Penney's store brand
Shirts were between $3 and $5. That year, my mom got me an embroidered blouse and told me to be careful with it and wear it only for special occasions, because it cost $13.
A quarter's tuition at the University of Minnesota was $125 for commuters
Tuition, room, and board at my private college alma mater was $2200
You could get a meal at a mom-and-pop restaurant for less than a dollar
Paperback books were 99 cents
Apartments were $50-100 per bedroom
New cars started at $1500
Canned food was less than 50 cents per can, sometimes as cheap as 10 cents
The most expensive meat at the grocery store was $2.98 a pound
If someone built a $50,000 house, you knew they were rich
When moving out of her house, my mom found a postcard I had written from New York in 1973, informing her that I had paid the "outrageous" price of $2.85 for breakfast.

However, some things were more expensive in real terms:

All electronics were more expensive. A component stereo system started at $200. There were no boomboxes at that point, so stereos were major presents from one's parents. The LPs to play on these stereo systems cost $3.98 for stereo, 2.98 for mono.
When calculators were first introduced in the early 1970s, they cost $300
Pantihose were expensive, $2.00 a pair, and they didn't last long.
Plane flights were more expensive, but the service was so much better that yesterday's coach class is closer to today's domestic first class than to today's coach class.


When moving out of her house, my mom found a postcard I had written from New York in 1973, informing her that I had paid the "outrageous" price of $2.85 for breakfast.

On the whole, I think that today's minimum wage would have to be at least $12 an hour to have the same purchasing power that it did in 1968.

If you're interested in yesterday's wages and prices, go to the public library and read old newspapers on microfilm or microfiche.

[El Pinko]

31. Wow, and those were made in the USA then...

"A pair of jeans was $7 for Levi's, $5 for Penney's store brand
Shirts were between $3 and $5. That year, my mom got me an embroidered blouse and told me to be careful with it and wear it only for special "


How were they able to pay the LEVI's CEO's jillion-dollar salary without charging $40 and having them made in Malaysia or Lesotho?

[TheMightyFavog]

32. According to this inflation calculator...

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

What cost $3.35 in 1981 would cost $8.33 in 2007.

Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2007 and 1981,
they would cost you $3.35 and $1.39 respectively.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. It clearly shows that college costs have risen faster than inflation

for both private and public colleges. When I ran my senior year (1972) tuition/room and board charge of $2700, it came out at only about $13,800. Yet that's more like what total costs at a state school would be now.

I blame rising college costs on administrative bloat. Every institution I ever attended or taught at now has more administrators, all of whom need countless assistants, of course, than it did when I was there, anywhere from 15 to 35 years ago.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

44. What cost $5.85 in 2007 would cost $2.35 in 1981.

[angrycarpenter]

7. Greed is whats wrong with America

It is pure naked greed that has made wages so low. That and the perception that the working poor somehow deserve to suffer for the bad choices they have made.That is all the proof we need that there are two Americas. $5.85 is worse than slave wages. It is an insult to every thing that I thought America stood for.

[elizfeelinggreat]

10. Amen

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. Should "bad choices" be rewarded somehow?

I think the minimum wage needs to be adjusted, don't get me wrong but your statement

"That and the perception that the working poor somehow deserve to suffer for the bad choices they have made"

strikes me as very curious.

There is plenty that is wrong with this country - a poorly educated populace for starters, but I just don't get your point. The working poor don't "deserve to suffer" by any stretch but is the alternative; that they perhaps be rewarded for making bad choices at all logical?
$5.85 an hour is not worse than slave wages. NO pay is worse. But it is, after all, the minimum wage, not a target for a career high.

[angrycarpenter]

23. That is the rationale for turning their backs

and not giving a damn. There is are some who believe that if a person is poor they must have done something stupid to get in the situation they are in and therefore deserve the hardship. Well does a single mom who's husband abandoned her and the kids deserve to suffer further? How about the man who was run out of a good job by walmart and has no choice but to work there? Does he deserve that? for many of the people who work minimum wage the bad choices were made for them. Is it fair to blame all poverty on stupidity? Many do. That was the point I was trying to make.

And it is worse than slave wages. Slave owners at least fed and housed their slaves. Try affording rent, utilities, and food on minimum wage it cannot be done without public assistance. The people who pay min. wage are counting on food stamps to keep their employees afloat. Minimum wage costs tax payers billions every year.

[Lorien]

34. There should be such a thing as simple human decency

I often hire day laborers (all legal) to do landscape work around my yard. They get minimum wage through the service I use, but I always give them a cash "tip" on top of that to round up their wages to $12 an hour. When they ask why I always answer "because no man's (or woman's) labor is worth less than that." The minimum wage is highly disrespectful of our fellow humans and needs to be raised to a living wage ASAP!

[TahitiNut]

8. Perspective ...

[Zywiec]

13. Great chart. Are there any others that show the percentage of workers

actually making that wage through the years.

[TahitiNut]

22. Not that I know of.

The chart is mine ... based on DoL data and COLA data. I've only seen occasional analyses that estimate the number of minimum wage workers, but I've never seen any data collections that offered those stats.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Wow, so my perception of the minimum wage in 1968 being worth so much

more in real terms was accurate!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. Class of '68 here

and, if memory serves, a couple years later the minimum for women (yep, this was before equal pay for equal work) was something like $2.35. And gasoline was 35 cents a gallon, a gallon of milk way under a dollar, etc, etc. It appalls me how slowly the minimum wage creeps up--doesn't begin to cope with inflation.

[jimshoes]

12. In 1971 my first factory job paid

$1.75 hr. On the other hand, in 1975 I bought a brand new Monte Carlo for $4950.00. But you are right, wages are not keeping up with prices nowadays.

[rusty quoin]

20. A simple post that says so much. My favorite kind. n/t

[Bosso 63]

27. Another voice form the class of "81"

The problem is deeper than that.
We have become a nation of candy ass wimps, who have allowed ourselves to be controlled by fear.
"If we raise the minimum wage, they will close the factories and move to Mexico. You don't want that do you?"
The collective sheep say "No, we don't want that!"
Then, the factories move to Mexico for awhile, only to move on to Vietnam or China, when the Mexicans start thinking that that they would like to eat three meals a day.
So my fellow Americans, did we learn anything from that? Not so much.
The voices say " Global warming is bad, but if we try to reduce our CO2 emissions, it could damage the economy and you could lose your job. You don't want to lose your job do you?"
The sheep say "No, we don't want that".
"If we don't attack Iraq/n, they will kill your children with nuclear weapons, do you want that?"
And we reply, "No No No".

[msedano]

28. 1963 (Redlands High School, Rah!)

summers between college years i worked at Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana. $3.00 / hr with lots of overtime and graveyard shifts. Put me through two years of college with that minimum wage.

When I was working (i am now retired) I often looked at my paycheck and thought of the terrible math of the hourly worker at $9/hr.

9 X 40 hours X 52 weeks = <$19000 / year, in fact, $18720.

Sheesh.

Here's something from the immigrant experience relating to this.
http://labloga.blogspot.com/2006/04/may-day-2006-review-books-memoir.html


A Day Without An Immigrant: Does The Cost Exceed the Price?
by Michael Sedano

Maria Martinez studied the talón. It was payday. Gross salary at $8.00 an hour for the previous 80 hours came to $640.00. The company took out taxes, leaving her with $499.20 take home. $11,681.28 a year for the three of them. Maria thought long and hard about next week’s “Day without an immigrant” manifestación. All week, the women on the line had argued back and forth about staying out that day. Maria had long ago used up all her sick days and vacation. If she stayed away from el jale on Monday, there would be no pay for those 8 hours. A day without an immigrant would be a day without a paycheck. Maria Martinez calculated her next check would take home $449.28. It would cost her fifty bolas to join la marcha.

Bob Smith heard the rumors. His Vice President of Manufacturing had predicted half the factory wouldn’t show up on Monday. One of the warehouse managers had said the same, maybe half the workers would be absent, and the HR guy was telling workers to request the day off. Bob looked at the HR guy and spat angrily, “I hear you’re telling people to ask for the day off. What the fuck are you trying to do?”

Ben Dejo had planned to take Monday as a vacation day to join the demonstrators. Ben, the HR guy and third generation Chicano, stared across at the company president. “No, Bob, I didn’t tell them anything of the sort. When Eliseo asked me if we should do something, I told him to advise his staff they’d better request the day off, or come back on Tuesday with a doctor’s note.” Ben thought for a moment, then added, “I don’t know why you’re always distorting the shit you hear about me.” Ben had already cancelled his vacation day and would be putting in at least ten hours Monday, May 1, training the ten new employees he’d just hired. All of them immigrants.

Manuelita Ponce felt her heart beating with excitement. She knew she would pass the drug test and would be asked to start her new job on Monday, May 1. The HR guy had pointedly advised her that he expected new employees to report every day, on time. One day late would be OK, but there could not be a second time; if she missed a single day of training, that would be her last day. Losing the job would be that quick. Manuelita had graduated high school almost a year ago and hadn’t found buen trabajo, as her father complained. And now she would be earning $9.00 an hour—a dollar more than her father—and would be able to start paying her share.

Maria Martinez picked at the dry spot on her arm. Doctora Saenz said it was “equis ima” and was made worse by worrying. But what could Maria do, but worry? Fifty dollars would buy four bags of groceries at la Super A. And Marta la Chola said the company couldn’t fire everyone for missing work Monday. But Marta was a citizen and didn’t have to worry about the annual memo from the payroll office asking Maria to verify her Social Security Number. The Chicano in charge of recursos humanos always smiled and told her in his awkward Spanish to make una cita con la Social para averiguar la situación. Same thing he said to everyone who asked about the memo.

“So, Bob, we can’t fire everyone for skipping Monday, can we.” Ben spoke declaratively, hoping the company owner wouldn’t contradict the logic. Ben kept his smile to himself when an exasperated Bob Smith agreed. But Bob kept the door open by saying, “But I’ll remember. We haven’t done anything to these people. Why do they want to harm us?”

“They don’t mean us any harm, Bob, but you know the kind of crap they have to put up with.” Bob grimaced disgustedly at this liberal claptrap. He paid almost a dollar over the minimum wage. And the state didn’t require the company to provide health insurance. But Bob Smith not only provided health insurance, he provided it at no cost to the employees. And he self-insured up to a million dollars. A million dollars a year off the bottom line to pay the health and dental bills his employees accrued. The bitterness welled up. He stared at the Chicano HR guy and shouted, “Do you know we have 253 questionable Social Security numbers? If any of these people don’t show up Monday, they’re fired!”

“Bob, we’ll refer them for clarification, we can’t just fire them.” Ben hoped he didn’t sound desperate. “It's the same thing!” Bob Smith replied.

Monday, May 1, 2006, Manuelita Ponce woke with eager anticipation of her new job. Then she remembered the hurt look on her father’s face when Manuelita informed him she would earn $9.00 an hour and have a raise in 30 days, and paid benefits in 90 days, and another raise. “Maybe,” Manuelita thought, “I should just go to the demonstration and forget about that pinche job?”

Maria Martinez heard El Cucuy de la Mañana remind his listeners that el Cardenal was asking gente to go to work today and come to the parque for the evening demonstration. Tuesday, la Chola would ride everyone who’d come to work Monday. “¡Nacas! Chúntaras!,” Marta the Merciless would rub their faces in it. “Maybe,” Maria thought, “I should take the bus and keep going into downtown. They can’t fire all of us, they wouldn’t. Sabes que, I’ll take along a big bag to collect cans. We’ll survive without the cinquenta bolas.”

Bob Smith stared into the mirror and said aloud, “If they disrupt traffic I’m going to fire all of them.”

Ben Dejo stared into his mirror and repeated the thought that had been recurring with unnerving regularity lately, “Maybe today’s the day I’ll decide to retire.”

[Dukkha]

29. class of 87 STILL $3.35/hr

and $5.35 in 2008 is flat out criminal!

[AwakeAtLast]

48. That was going to be my post.

Except I graduated in '88. :hi:

[Subdivisions]

30. Class of '82. Gas was about a buck and a quarter. And we thought

that was outrageous then!

[Thothmes]

35. Class of 65, gas was 19.9 cents a gallon at the local gas station

Could fill up my Model A Ford for two bucks.

[ikojo]

38. I can still fill my gas tank for a little less than four

bucks....but then again I ride one of these.....

[OneGrassRoot]

39. Me, too...in a suburb, a typical "steel mill" town...

It seems it was around that timeframe that the migration away from where one grew up became necessary due to the job shortages and shift from blue-collar to more white-collar jobs. (now we have less jobs of any collar)

Before this general timeframe, one could rely on being with the same company for most of one's life. Most people lived near where they grew up, raised a family with an extended network around to help out, and felt connected to their community.

That all changed drastically with our age group. Most of us chose to (or had to) move away in order to find work. Our lives developed away from our family and friends (though we certainly made other friends), and as we had children we no longer had a support group as our parents and ancestors had. It made the process of having a family much more taxing and difficult, especially as it required having a two-person income in most cases. Very isolating and rather frightening.

I realize that's a generalization, but it was/is a reality for many starting around the late 70's. It was a new way of life triggered by the changing economy.

What's interesting is that I have noticed the trend of a large percentage of those who moved away are returning if their job/life situations allow. No real comment about this, just an interesting observation in my opinion.

[Thothmes]

40. You are correct in your recollections

I grew up in a small town that was close to National Forests in Southwest Washington State. Almost every one worked for International Paper, or Weyerhauser, or one of the contract logging companies. Almost all had been born within a 30 mile radius. A new family moving into the area was a topic of discussion at the local gin mill on Friday night. That all changed in the late 70s/early 80s The Plywood mill shut down and the Forest Service changed policy concerning logging the National Forests. The area is pretty much void of people these days. A real shame, great place to grow up as a kid.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

42. Yup

"What cost $3.35 in 1981 would cost $8.33 in 2007." - http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Unfortunately the system is rigged even *if* you tied minimum wage to inflation when you stop counting things like gas and food in the inflation index you have created a low wage trap..

[ileus]

46. Everyone sould make 41k a year, no matter where you live.

[taught_me_patience]

50. WTF!?!?!

Is that a maximum or minimum? If its a minimum, then that is the equivalent of $20/hr. If it's a maximum, then it doesn't go very far in Los Angeles, or most cities in America. I'm not spending 80k on education and three years of hell (part-time mba program) to make 41k/yr. Your idea is insane.

[elehhhhna]

49. I made 12K in 1979 and it was the shizzle.

I paid a whopping 240 per month incl. utilities for a Lincoln Park 3rd floor studio. 30-35 bucks for a bus pass. 30 per month for HMO ins., 15 dollar phne bills, cheap cab-rides, & I guesstimated my grocery costs by multipying the number of items on the list by a dollar!

Good times, good times.

[kestrel91316]

53. In CA it's $7-something, IIRC. I pay way more than minimum wage to

even my least experienced newbies, so I wouldn't know.....

Of course, our higher minimum wage isn't enough higher to make up for the fact that a 800 sf 1-BR apartment in a 35-yr-old complex is almost $1250. And there are WAY more expensive places on the west side and over in Hollywood.....

[paparush]

54. Be sure to send that info to your REP.

On a poster board in 2' tall letters!