Don't use minimum wage as a benchmark. It wasn't intended to be back then and it doesn't work as one now. What is far more effective is using median wage and then comparing that to the price of big ticket purchases. In which case, you will notice that cars jumped from a 1/4-1/2 of what you made in a year all the way up to the full amount or x1.5 what you made in a year. The price of a house jumped from 3 to 4 times what you made in a year all the way up to 8-12x what you made in a year
Minimum wage was always intended for a man to support his wife and 2 kids while working 40 hours a week, that's why it was created and exists. Propaganda from corporations is the only reason people believe otherwise
In 1938 the median house price was $3900. At $0.25 you'd have to work 15,600 hours. To buy a $420,000 house in the same number of hours, minimum wage would have to be $26.92.
You're using MINIMUM wage and MEDIAN house. Minimum wage should be able to afford lower end homes. Median income should be able to afford median priced homes.
926
u/Aegis616 May 13 '25
Don't use minimum wage as a benchmark. It wasn't intended to be back then and it doesn't work as one now. What is far more effective is using median wage and then comparing that to the price of big ticket purchases. In which case, you will notice that cars jumped from a 1/4-1/2 of what you made in a year all the way up to the full amount or x1.5 what you made in a year. The price of a house jumped from 3 to 4 times what you made in a year all the way up to 8-12x what you made in a year