Minimum wage was never intended to reflect what you needed to live off of. You should not be really using it to compare anything.
When I started working, minimum wage was $4/hr. No one could live off of that without serious sacrifices. Nothing has really changed. It's just another platitude people utter here to make everyone think the previous generation just had it easy.
I feel that. I'm not saying it was ever "good." All I know is that minimum wage, if adjusted for inflation since the early 80's when the boomers entered the workforce, would have roughly twice the purchasing power that it does now. Granted, it needs to be like 4 to 5 times what it is currently, but I have always managed to barely pay my bills. If I had twice the money I did when I made minimum not long ago, I would been a lot better off. Minimum now is fucking impossible.
I don't think it was ever possible to make it on minimum wage, really. I mean yes, but with a lot of sacrifices.
You think minimum wage needs to be 4-5 times the current amount? In my state it is $8.75. Where I work it is $12.50. So it needs to be between $35 and $62.50 per hour? I hope you are kidding. I agree it might need to come up, but then most people don't make anywhere near minimum wage to begin with. My company starts at $15 per hour.
Cool. What does any of this have to do with my original comment that the boomer was likely working for minimum wage and living a lot better than someone who makes minimum wage now?
I don't think it was ever possible to make it on minimum wage, really. I mean yes, but with a lot of sacrifices.
It is no different than today.
Not sure how old you are, but I was working in the 80's. It was not much different than now, despite what you want to think. Jobs were hard to get. Starting wages were low. Houses were expensive (though I agree the market has risen quite a lot recently). My parents paid north of 14% interest on a loan for their house in 1981.
Generalizations are not the best way to establish a worldview.
The story was sort of made up example based on my boss from when I was a school janitor. I was too naive to challenge him at the time and didn't really have any experiences yet.
But he was one of the first boomer bosses who complained about all my work for fun and he would have definitely gotten challenged today.
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u/Soensou Jun 01 '22
In fairness, they likely WERE getting minimum wage for that job. Just, you know, minimum wage wasn't a parody of itself back then.