With inflation in the news, it is becoming a bit more difficult to calculate the current buying power of a dollar when compared to the past. (The Phoenix area where we live has experienced 13% inflation in the past year.)
But this isn’t a post about inflation. Instead, it is a method to help you with your research.
I made $1.80 an hour stuffing envelopes for my first job with a paycheck. I thought I was rich. In today’s money, I would have been making $12.78 per hour. (What is the minimum wage in your area today?) How do I know? Keep reading.
When writing a novel or referring to days gone by in a nonfiction book or article, it is helpful to put things in perspective by doing a little research. First, find out what that item cost in that year. I did a quick search for “gas prices in 1962” and found the answer in seconds. Then go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website for a special calculator. Here is the address: data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl. This site calculates the average Consumer Price Index for a given calendar month and year, using the rate of inflation and other economic factors, and enables you to compare wages, prices, and other things. This index value has been calculated every year since 1913.
A couple of examples:
The “dime novel” of 1915 would cost $2.93 today. (Has the 99¢ ebook become today’s “dime novel”?)
In 1962 the average home cost $15,000; in today’s money, $147,104.
In 1962 the average salary was $6,000; in today’s money, $58,800.
In 1962 the price of gas was 31¢ per gallon; in today’s money, $3.04.
Of course, not everything increased. My first computer cost $3,000 in 1992 ($9,150 in today’s money). Today you can buy a nice one for well under a thousand dollars.
Have fun playing with the numbers!
Your Turn:
What was your hourly wage for your first job with a paycheck? (Dare to tell us when?)
Fun Fridays – September 30, 2022
For those who might be interested, when the National Firearms Act became law in 1934, it mandated a $200 transfer tax for machine guns, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and suppressors. That’s about $4,220 today. The NFA also called for fingerprinting, and a background check (background checks for non-NFA purchases from a federally licensed dealer were introduced in 1968, though verification of the questionnaire used was not required until 1993).
The intent of the NFA was to make weapons that were perceived in broad use by organized crime harder to obtain by choking off easy access, and restricting supply by reducing the number of legally-purchased weapons.
The tax has never changed; what was designed as a roadblock to legal ownership is now no more than an annoyance. (The price of fully automatic weapons went through the roof after the passage of the Wright amendment to the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act in 1986, which closed the books on any newly-made machine guns for general civilian use.)
This isn’t a political statement; I’m commenting on it to point out that the intent of that particular tax was diluted, to say the least, by time.
Oh. Sonnet. Right.
Money ebbs and money flows;
what was this worth yesterday?
Money comes and money goes
and most of mine has gone away.
Cash cows lowing in their fields
are being stalked by bulls and bears;
the price of shares and, yes, bond yields
determine what is left to heirs,
but out here we are bartering:
for travel needs, can offer THIS
for aeroplane I’d be chartering
so I can give Southwest a miss,
and it is kind of a blast,
economy from the mythic past.
While in high school in 1964-65 I earned seventy-five cents an hour bagging groceries at the Circle Supermarket in King George, VA.
My first job was as a carhop in 1970 for 65 cents an hour, plus tips which weren’t taxed. Average tip was a quarter. I was only 14, and I was rolling in the dough. Fun times.
Today’s wage according to the calculator would $4.96. But tips would shared, and taxed. So not much improvement, there.
1979 Dairy Queen – Flipping burgers in the brazier (because I couldn’t make that curl on the top of the cone to save my life 😂) -beginning wage $1.80
Michigan minimum wage was $2.90 in 1979. DQ management said they didn’t have to pay minimum because they’re a restaurant. The only problem was DQ employees didn’t make tips. So the lower wage rule didn’t apply.
Some parents (not my mom) explained the situation to the labor board. New wage $2.92. Oh the conflict . . ..
$1.80 – today is $7.37
$2.92 – today is $11.96
Very handy calculator. Thank you!
That’s so neat! I’ll have to use that since it’s a lot faster than looking through hundreds of documents from the era haha.
https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1880-1889
Above is a good website for historical prices and wages (it even has other time periods) but I used this so much for writing my historical novel.
$3.35/hour
I sliced bread before the sun rose at a local bakery. Divine smells of fresh baked goods remain a weakness for me to this day. So delicious!
At my first job in 1967, I earned $1.05 an hour (working in a Kings Food Host Restaurant, a chain that no longer exists) and I got my meals for half price.
In 1969, I took a job as a waitress in a restaurant in the resort mountain town Estes Park, CO, and I got 25 cents an hour plus tips, and if I stayed through the whole summer season, I got back pay to make it 50 cents an hour for the whole season.
At my first real job in 1968, I made $1.20 an hour at Gino’s. It was like a McDonald’s only owned by Gino Marchetti, a Baltimore Colts football player. We usually didn’t get tips, but one day I got a quarter! Oh my gosh. What a moment! Before I started working at Gino’s, I remember my father paying $2.00 to feed our entire family. This included 8 hamburgers, 4 orders of fries and 4 cokes! Gas was 28 cents a gallon.
From 1968-1969 I worked as a New York City taxi driver, and made about $50 (half the meter + tips) over a 9 hour shift = $5.55/hr. This was enough to let me drive only one or two nights a week and still go to college, pay rent, and sometimes even eat.
Part of what’s hard about this is that not everything goes up at the same rate. According to a quick Google search, the median US home price in 2022 Q1 is about $430,000. That’s nearly 3x what inflating the 1962 price by inflation would predict. I know there are reasons why inflation is calculated the way it is, but it really does not capture the rate of change in certain market segments.
This is such helpful info, Steve! Thank you! My first job was in 1993 and I made $5.00 an hour cleaning the camp where my family lived and worked. Now, when we hire one of our sons to do it, minimum wage is $14.49 an hour. Still, like you said, some things have actually gone down in price. Taking a quick look at the giant cabinet-style TVs that were sold in the 1950s (my grandparents told me they owned the third tv in town and TVs were not even sold in Chelan until the 50s) I’m guessing that my grandfather paid more for his original TV than the streaming TV he bought after he turned 100. And that is without adjusting for inflation at all. Crazy times!
Hi Steve. Thanks for the calculator link. I made $2.25 an hour in 1976 working in a gift shop at the Hyatt Regency in Memphis. I left there in 1977 for a copy clerk job at the newspaper, making $12 an hour, and thought I was rich.
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My first novel takes place 1968-1978 and begins in my hometown before going to Paris’ Sorbonne and Georgetown/D.C. Had to research TONS but it was fun. Risky, but I did it anyway, writing about hiking the Pacific Coast Trail based solely on research. But it is possible. There are hiking posts and organizations and trail info.
Today the thrill was figuring how old each person was
and where they lived at some point.
Chelan. Two apples eaten this week came from there.
My husband did not know how to correctly pronounce it.
I remembered taking the boat to the lake start with the
waterfall on the left and fresh air that 50 years later
is still to be felt even in memory.
In 1968-1969, I was an New York City taxi driver earning around 50 dollars (half the meter plus tips) during a 9-hour shift, which is $5.55/hr. It was enough to allow me to drive just one or two times a week, but I was able to go to school to pay rent and occasionally have food.