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What minimum wage buys, then and now

The federal minimum wage was first set in 1938, at 25 cents an hour. Here's a decade-by-decade look, starting in 1950, at the buying power of minimum wage.
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By Leah Konen, The Fiscal Times

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    379Comments
    Daily Reprieve
    May 7, 2012 12:38PM
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    God forbid "the guys with the ties" take a long needed pay cut to even the field.  There is no reason why they should be making 234x more than the average hard working american.
    Craig Pittman
    May 7, 2012 2:49PM
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    It's sad to watch this country continue to go down the tubes. If your grandparents and great grandparents were alive today, do you think they would have believed what they are witnessing? Unemployment at an all time high, americans living in tents and a wiped out middle class. Those that have jobs are living from pay check to pay check and are barely getting by.

    I sometimes wonder if I am living in third world country at least they get some kind of foreign aid, we get nothing but more of the same broken promises and empty dreams. Nah, this can't be America. Remember it's the "Golden Rule" He That Has The Gold Makes The Rule. The rich keep getting richer and the poor don't get a thing but higher taxes,stress,dispair​ and hopelessness.

    Nah, this can't be America.

    paula from maryland
    May 7, 2012 1:58PM
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    why doesn't the goverment work for min. wage??? we are suckers
    DT89
    May 10, 2012 9:37AM
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    I make a quarter more than minimum wage, work 32-35 hours a week (my job won't give me full time but will let me work the max part time), pay rent of $400 (I have roommates) and utilities of approximately $100. After taxes, I must work about 2.5 weeks to make rent and utilities. I don't drive a car; I ride my bike 6 miles to work and 6 miles back: and that's at 4 in the morning because my shift starts at 5am, somedays at 4am.

     

    I don't blame the government for my situation. I haven't earned my degree yet, I come from an impoverished family and homelessness, and I am 20 credits away from graduating. I have been supporting myself and paying for college tuition myself since I was 18. If anyone is to blame it's my parents who still ask me for money because they can't afford their own bills.

     

    I am not lazy. I refuse to be called lazy. I am working hard. I blame no one.

    itzzbedtime
    May 10, 2012 1:28PM
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    I couldn't imagine having to work making minimum wage. I feel fortunate every day that I have a job and can help support my family. My husband was making really good money up until 2008 when the company he worked for, was sold and shut down. Now he makes 1/2 of what he did but the bills today are still the same. We knew we had to make some financial changes. 

    As Americans, we spend way too much on stuff we don't need. Trust me I would love to get a designer purse or take a vacation to Hawaii, but keeping a roof over our head and funding a retirement plan is much more important to me.



    Michelle D. Francis (xzaviad)
    May 5, 2012 6:56AM
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    I am sorry but rent did not go down.  It has sky rocketed because of high demand.  Here in Colorado you can't get a one bedroom for less than 1k a month.  And when I say one bedroom I mean a efficency with a large closet and not to mention the bathroom only large enough to hold one person.  Gas is $4 a gallon, average $40 a week/ $160 a month.  We are at 1160K.  Then car insurance $50 a month (and that is low balling big time).  We are now at 1210k a month.  Now lets talk utilities.  I use very little electricy, have no air conditioner and in the summer I pay $60 a month.  We are now at 1270K a month.  Ok now lets talk about groceries.  Average one week will be $100 a week, roughly $400 a month.  We are now at 1670K a month.  At 7.50 an hour for 160 hours of work a month that equals $1200 a month.  That leaves a shortage of $470 a month.  God forbid you need to see a doctor or dentist.  So tell me how can anyone live on minimum wage in this economy???????  
    RooneB
    May 10, 2012 9:14PM
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    Bottom line....if you don't make enough to feed your family fresh fruits and vegetables, they get canned foods, that are dented. Bottom line...if you don't make enough to  get your kids regular dental care, they don't see a dentist until it's too late.  Bottom line..I'm tired of hearing how an $8.00  job is robbing my employer, when I'm working three minimum wage jobs and my wife is working two.  We both HAD good paying jobs that gave us a salary that we lived within.  Those jobs are now out of this country because the company wanted to increase THEIR bottom line even more.  I have no sympathy for corporations or the men anbd womaen who run them.  Tell it to someone who cares. 
    CalDart81
    May 7, 2012 5:29PM
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    I'm confused. When people post about a living wage, are they talking about the McD grill cook, fry cooker, order taker, and other non-career path jobs? You know all the jobs that used to be held by high school kids for spending money at the movie theaters? Are these the jobs that eveyone thinks need to support a family?  If so, this country is in so much trouble.
    michael
    May 7, 2012 11:05AM
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    until jobs are brought back to this country things are not going to change-how are jobs going to come back here--only by force !!! unless WE ALL band together and only buy things MADE IN THE USA things will only get worse....i work in a pharmacy and alot of  medications are manufactured in INDIA !!! think about it--when was the last time you looked at a label to see if it was made in the usa ?? as far as CEO of companies--THEY GET A HUGE BONUS FOR KEEPING BUDGETS DOWN---IF THAT ALONE WAS STOPPED THERE WOULD BE MORE JOBS BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE MORE HOURS....i'm tired of doing the work of 3 people and getting paid for 1 so ''guys with the ties'' can live life lovely !!! they put there pants on the same as everyone else-they are no smarter than the next guys they just GOT A BIGGER BREAK IN LIFE [oh and did they work their way to the top or just get in good with someone that gave them the job ]...i think we should have a NATIONAL JOB SWITCH DAY---EVERY MANAGER,SUPERVISOR AND CEO OF EVERY COMPANY SHOULD HAVE TO WORK 1 WEEK AND DO WHAT THE LITTLE GUY DOES FOR THE SAME PAY WE MAKE---THEN LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS !!! JUST SAYIN !!!
    Amy A (nomerci)
    May 10, 2012 11:24AM
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    I'd like to see 2012's comparison.  Gas isn't $2.78/gal (I paid $3.95/gal yesterday).  I went from a $1200/wk job with a company vehicle in 2012 to a minimum wage part-time job making $238/wk that I commute 60 miles to (and 6 months of looking in between).  My house is paid for but I still have taxes, insurance, a vehicle to maintain, food, gas etc.  I'm going under faster than I can count the pennies in my change jar.  I don't think I deserve "more" than I'm worth but it's clear my future isn't dimming every day. Hopefully the stress will kill me off before I'm destitute.
    moriah c
    May 7, 2012 11:30AM
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    Did anyone else catch the fact that this article is suggesting that we're only paying $2.78 a gallon for gas in the 2010's? Anyone paying that? Anyone? At $4.10 a gallon (here in NY state) that's 34 minutes, twice what it was in former decades.
    M59sr
    May 7, 2012 11:19AM
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    I hear this all the time, the people who are saying that hard work and perserverence will get you where you want to go in life. I'd say to them that it is the economy stupid!  They are in the process of creating this global economy crap/aka world government.  Absolutely correct, things started sliding down hill when Reagen became president. I worked heavy industry, started full time in 1974 and for us the bottom fell out in 1981. The company demanded paycuts and the union told us we were saving our jobs. No one believed that most of us were making a wage that was not extravigant , some of the guys on the finishing side was making good money though. They averaged the top paid people in their average and told everyone we were overpaid. I worked 40 plus hours per week, we made ends meet, and had a little left to go to the stores to buy some extras, (the old saying, a little bit of sugar for your tea). They sent the decent paying jobs overseas, and put us down to the level of the rest of the third world countries! It is what it is, household income has flatlined for most people, and prices on EVERYTHING HAS GONE UP DRAMATICALLY!
    Fiero Owner
    May 7, 2012 10:51PM
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    I honestly wish it was a simple as get an education and put more effort into it.  Truth is I have done all that and have recommendations for excellent job performance and even performance awards from my prior employers. I have a Master's in Computer Engineering. But I got laid-off three years ago and since that unfortunate event I have found that there was truth when I was told, to my face by an employee at the state DES that this is not a good time for a degree holding 50-something white male to be looking for work. He was right, three years later I am still looking for work and, needless to say, the unemployment benefits and minimum wage jobs that I have held over the last three years have cost me everything that the prior 30 years in the workplace earned. Home - forclosed, car - repossessed, funiture - sold for pennies on the dollar to buy food. I am a computer professional but this machine is a third hand rebuild from parts I pulled out of a scrap pile. Internet is life for an IT guy so I do keep this running and it provides entertainment (I can't remember the last time our family took in a movie in a theatre) and we have to budget driving so that there is always some in the car for interviews as I am currently back on UEI.

     

    Despite all this I don't feel bad or negative. There is not much further to fall and it doesn't really hurt anymore. I keep on thinking that there is but one direction to go from the bottom. Just need a little put away and our family will start a business of our own. I think there is a market for cedar strip kayaks and that once was a hobby, I think it time to turn it into a business.

    Bachmann Mustgo
    May 10, 2012 8:38PM
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    CEOs' salaries are 400 times what they were in the fifties.  You can try to pin poverty on lazy workers or whatever, but corporations today are obscenely rewarding their leaders at the expense of the rest of us.  They pass the burden on to the consumers so that the psychogreedy fat cats can have that second yacht.  Good thing the right wing is supporting  anti-American corporations...they love your help!
    5rugrat
    May 17, 2012 5:24PM
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    I grew up in the 40's and 50's had a full time or part time job from the time I was 14, so sad to say that I really had more money then than now.  I make more but it does not go very far thanks to our current goverment. 
    RALF (rtabel)
    May 19, 2012 3:19AM
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    you know there used to be a scale of what your work is worth. The ore educated you were the more money you made. Not anymore. Corporations now are laying of folks that make good money and hire people off he street being desperate for work; of course, at a fraction of what their predecessors made. One can't live anymore on the money they pay you, as everything goes up and wages go down.
    I remember back in 2000 I made over 60 k/year and then my job went to India. Subsequently I made about 18 or so Dollars for temping in the same field. Now, after taking less and less desirable jobs over the last few years, just to stay afloat. comparable temp jobs pay about 9 bucks an hour (forget about full-time employment, fool). With rent and everything else going up like we are living in in a boom town, that ain't cutting it. So you smart people out there tell me how to survive on 9 bucks an hour with rent for a **** being 600 bucks a month, plus utils. Oh yeah, and just don't get sick: in this country you'll be left in the cold: Best healh care in the world (if you can afford it!).
    I wish all those people snickering at folks in desperate situations will lose their jobs to a foreign countr and actually have to live like real people do! Y'all come around pretty quickly (after all your **** has been lost) to how bad off we really are in this country!

    CalDart81
    May 10, 2012 6:37PM
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    The problem is not the minimum wage jobs. It's that minimum wage jobs seem to be replacing higher paid jobs in this country. 
    Texican515
    May 7, 2012 3:33PM
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    You people ALMOST got it right for once. But try deducting the taxes like in the real world then recalculate those numbers and see how many more hours and minutes you have to work to pay those same bills.
    Sick Of BS
    May 5, 2012 1:06AM
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    I thought people who live on minimum wage live the high life? At least that's what Fox News keeps telling me. . .
    LuluBlue
    May 10, 2012 6:50PM
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    Things I can no longer afford on my crappy minimum wage job:

    Meat (my diet consists of veggies, rice, eggs and beans for protein)
    My car registration (let alone smogging it)
    Cable, and internet is soon to go (tho how I'm going to find a better job without it is beyond me)
    Clothes, personal or household items (even Goodwill is out of my price range)
    Going out Anywhere for fun Ever (and certainly not to the movies!)
    Any emergency situation whatsoever (e.g., my dog getting sick, car breaking down, etc.), which will wipe me out completely, especially since it'll be virtually impossible for me to get to work.
    A bus pass
    Any medical/dental care for Anything. 
    Glasses (therefore I squint)
    The sad thing is my rent is Dirt Cheap still takes about 3 weeks of work to pay and leaves me broke for the rest of the month.  Yet the companies who cry poor over any and every increase in the minimum (a certain clown comes to mind) continue to make record profits year and year after year, yet I'm accused of "not working hard enough." What a joke. 
    Jmeyers
    May 7, 2012 6:27PM
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    I am 51... worked and went to college... I've been employed in State government for 23 years... Iuse to consider myself middle class? (a dying breed) now I consider myself just the working class... I make less than $40,000 per year but, I have a benefit package... healthcare, retirement etc... over the past 8 years I've only reeived a 3% cost of living increase? While our executives (head of departments) have received an average of 10% each year??? The GOP in our state have increased the teachers and state merit employees contributions in retirement, co-pays, in health insurance, etc... which has led to actually a cut in pay???  I am very fortunate and thankful for my employment... but, I do not understand how the state in which I resiude can support the increases in salary for OUR represenatives, judges, attorney general etc... in one of the poorest states in the Union with the 3rd highest salaries following only California, New York??? and these officials have consistently VOTED themselves increases in salary every year??? Clue lets just say I live in the Heart of Dixie!
    no toothpaste
    May 21, 2012 7:55AM
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    thus proving that in the 50's and 60's it really was 'the good ol days' people had more disposable income and worked less hours.
    widows
    May 5, 2012 4:09AM
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    My grand-daughter works full time as cashier and she is a single mom.She does without a lot herself to give to kids.She don't even have necessities and working all time.I think any place who works people also needs to have health insurance on them also.She said no insurance because she is not a full time worker yet she works 38 and 39 hours a week just under paying for insurance . I told her she needs to find something better; but she has two kids to support and she is terrified to let go of this job for fear she won't get another one.I will keep working trying to help her find out a better way of life out there. 
    Oh well177
    May 15, 2012 6:15AM
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    I have a full time job that pays almost $3 above the minimum wage in my state, am going to community college for nursing and have a scholarship that pays for my tuition, yet I still can't afford to move out of my parent's house. Most of this is because the cost of rent and utilities alone are obscene. Doesn't that tell you that something, somewhere in the economy has gone terribly wrong?
    Reps_and_Dems_Messed_Up_Our_Country
    May 15, 2012 12:31AM
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    “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” 
    ― Charles Bukowski 
    mbojangle
    May 5, 2012 6:15AM
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    To all you good people thats complaining.Think about this , Food stamps , section 8, Free cell phones and the good single parents that refuse to prosecute the other parent, but expect the govenment and family members to take up the slack. Who am I to speak ? The govenment and a family member , because the thousands of dollars I pay in taxes pay for those freebies.
    Ijustwant2behappy
    May 17, 2012 6:42PM
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    I work a job that pays about $2.50 more than the minimum wage and I find myself struggling. I am a single college graduate living in a 1 br apt. in a city in the South,so I feel for people who have families and work for minimum wage. Sometimes I feel like its pointless for me to go to work. I mean, everything I work for, I can get for free if I wanted to. Free food with food stamps, free housing (alot of the free or reduced rent apts look nicer and have more amenities than my $600 a month apt.), some qualify for a free phone, and reduced utilities....I don't have money to enjoy life. I went back to school for a few semesters, but had to let it go, mainly cause I am really tired from working 38-45 hrs a week, which I believe led me to become disinterested in the program.

    I know this is suppose to be temporary, but I've been working for low wages for the last 2 years, since graduation. I worked for minimum wage while in college and I hoped college would have led me to better financial opportunites. I know my money issues have alot to do with my depression because it feels like all I do is work and struggle, work and struggle,etc...I hate asking my parents and my little brother for money! Its really frustrating.

    12 cents
    May 7, 2012 8:27PM
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    In Venezuela, still selling the gasoline to 7 cents a gallon, the university is free to all citizens, free health care.

     

    Why in the world's richest nation we have so few benefits?

    sinisterserenade
    May 10, 2012 2:06PM
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    First, I want to know how they're figuring their movie ticket prices. The cost of a ticket at the AMC theatre near my house has been $9.50 and up since the early 2000's, and this article is saying a ticket is only $7.95? BS! And how about they actually factor in the FULL cost of living in today's society? I make double the minimum wage and can still BARELY afford all my bills, car payment, car insurance, food, gas and other living necessities. I have to work overtime half the time just to afford the basics and still have a little extra in my pocket. Again an MSN "article" is making light of a situation that goes much deeper than they want to probe. Laziness.

    mark jones (markinminn)
    May 19, 2012 2:56AM
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    The minimum wage is a joke!!  For you idiots that think the minimum wage is just for the people that are in training, you evidently haven't ever worked in the service industry.

     

    Get a clue!

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