this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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That generation got paid $45 an hour in today's value.
Federal minimum wage in 1965 was $1.25/h, which is $12.69/h today. Looks like Alaska had the highest state minimum at $2.10, $21.32 today. Or were you taking more average rather than minimum wage?
They never said anything about minimum wage.
In 2023 median hourly wage was $19.24/h, vs in 1979 it was $4.44/h or $19.56/h inflation adjusted. (This data doesn't go back to 1965 unfortunately)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/185335/median-hourly-earnings-of-wage-and-salary-workers/
There is a reason median is used here... If you take into account the massive (and constantly growing) income gap, it's obvious that things have gotten worse for the average American.
You've got it backwards, median takes into account income gap better. Mean would be much higher today because of the increasing income gap. That is why I used the median, so that interesting inequality would be less of a factor.
Idk who's closer, guys. Where the sauce at :u
https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/lislejoem/us-minimum-wage-by-state-from-1968-to-2017
https://www.infoplease.com/business/labor/annual-federal-minimum-wage-rates-1955-2021
They're not talking about "wage", they're talking about "value". I'm assuming "purchasing power".
If you scale it to housing prices, it's even more ridiculous.
Are you thinking of a particular source? I couldn't find substantiation for $45/h.
I calculated this a few years ago, but It shouldnt've changed much. Take the year 1960 or whichever year that you can get all the following reliable information: Minimum wage, and median two bed house cost/sale price, for the specific area or state.
The minimum wage in my area in 1955 was equivalent to double what it is now, and with the housing market (and omitting tax because it's too dynamic) minimum wage then was enough to earn a house's value in four years. To earn the equivalent house's value before tax in the next four years, in my area, minimum wage must more than treble to $45/h. (to get $360,000)
Graphing the min wage with house costs between 1955, 1985 and 2015 shows an exponentially increasing slope which, if no market crash happens, will continue. As it is, factoring the cost of living and taxes, it would take over 100 years to buy a house on $15/h.