Just to piggyback off your comment, I got wondering how much minimum wage is worth in ounces of gold these days. $15, which is higher than the federal minimum, yields 15 dollars per hour *40 hours a week *52 work weeks in a year makes $31,200 gross income. The current price of gold is $2637/oz, rounded to the nearest whole dollar, according to a quick Google search that brings up daily updates websites (today’s date is 12/21/2024). To get how many ounces of gold a $15/hr minimum wage would get, gross wages and full work weeks, we would divide the yearly income of $31,200 by the price per oz of gold of $2637. 31200/2637 is 11.8 rounded to the nearest tenth. So, $15/hr minimum wage workers are effectively making anywhere from 1/6th to 1/9th of what their 1956 and 1968 compatriots were making. Wow.
Yeah i have those numbers on hand too. The minimum wage in California for select fast food workers is just over 15 ounces which is just barely more than the first established minimum wage after the FLSA was implemented of $.25/hr so minimum wage today earns between 6-15 ounces so that’s 7-14% of what it earned in 1968-1971 and I’ve also done the math to know that it cost more to purchase and maintain a slave before the end of the civil war than minimum wage workers are currently payed in the usa.
Just to piggyback off your comment, I got wondering how much minimum wage is worth in ounces of gold these days. $15, which is higher than the federal minimum, yields 15 dollars per hour *40 hours a week *52 work weeks in a year makes $31,200 gross income. The current price of gold is $2637/oz, rounded to the nearest whole dollar, according to a quick Google search that brings up daily updates websites (today’s date is 12/21/2024). To get how many ounces of gold a $15/hr minimum wage would get, gross wages and full work weeks, we would divide the yearly income of $31,200 by the price per oz of gold of $2637. 31200/2637 is 11.8 rounded to the nearest tenth. So, $15/hr minimum wage workers are effectively making anywhere from 1/6th to 1/9th of what their 1956 and 1968 compatriots were making. Wow.
Yeah i have those numbers on hand too. The minimum wage in California for select fast food workers is just over 15 ounces which is just barely more than the first established minimum wage after the FLSA was implemented of $.25/hr so minimum wage today earns between 6-15 ounces so that’s 7-14% of what it earned in 1968-1971 and I’ve also done the math to know that it cost more to purchase and maintain a slave before the end of the civil war than minimum wage workers are currently payed in the usa.