His father supported a family on a grocery store workers salary?
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ellennyc-1 — 9 years ago(September 05, 2016 04:24 PM)
"around $12/hr" in the early eighties for a entry-level, no experience needed, unskilled job? HAHAHA NO.
You wouldn't get that much TODAY for an entry-level cashier job, anywhere.
Either your memory is seriously faulty or you are straight up lying. You'd get minimum wage at best, IF the job was on the books. -
Beeracuda — 9 years ago(September 06, 2016 01:49 AM)
I never said that they made $12/hour as entry level. Most of them had been working at the store for years. The job was unionized, so they got regular salary increases over the years. I'm not sure what the starting rate was for new hires, but it was nowhere near minimum wage. If I had to guess, I would say they probably started at around $8 hour in the early 80s, which is equivalent to around $20/hour today.
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=8&year1=1982&year2=2016 -
DeltaHomicide — 9 years ago(October 29, 2016 03:12 AM)
In California, before the unions were dismantled, my friend was making $22/hour as a cashier at a supermarket chain (in the early 90's). He had a beautiful, mint-condition 67' Mustang after just graduating high school. It took him only 3 years to make that much, so the other poster you're responding to doesn't know what they're talking about.
There was certainly a time that you could raise a family by being a cashier at a grocery store. -
dan3890-1 — 13 years ago(December 30, 2012 01:00 PM)
and let's don't forget that back in early to mid-sixties, all the cash registers were still mechanical beasts. Electric yes, but if it lost power (very frequent in the south back then) they had to hand cranked. They would actually run by hand crank!
those were the dayslol -
sonofbeach-sheet — 13 years ago(December 31, 2012 10:22 PM)
I guess you're all right. Back in the day, many people worked what would be considered menial jobs today that only teens work part-time and actually owned a house, a car, and raised a family on it. Had a great uncle that was a cook, not a chef, but a common restaurant cook and lived in a fairly nice house. Cooks aren't exactly making $20 or $30 an hour unless they're those offshore or overseas workers.
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Manth_Sigdaw — 12 years ago(August 04, 2013 08:46 PM)
I've always got that impression myself, that right up till the early 80s, people could raise a family and live a decent middle class lifestyle with a minimum wage job, by simply sacking groceries, being an old fashioned milkman, dog catcher, working as a cash register clerk, cook, or something else like that.
But since the mid 1980s to present day, those type of jobs are more for teenagers looking for play money, or the early 20s crowd at the oldest. Ofcourse you still see plenty of people far, far older then that working those jobs today, but it's more of a struggle to live in a decent 1600-2000 sq ft house (or more) in a nice neighborhood and raise a family. Before the mid 80s I guess people just took a long morgage on house or something, had long term payments on their cars. Today you work a job like that full time then you're in the lower middle class bracket or even on the poverty line, just barely getting by. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and those type of jobs in my time and present day were always jobs for teens/early 20s, but it's clear that before say 1982 or so, it was a different story and you could actually raise a family by working minimum wage. -
Kimrubymoon — 9 years ago(June 05, 2016 12:29 AM)
Yes the housing market was much different then and up until maybe the mid 1980's? Then prices just skyrocketed. That along with college tuitions (a friend of mine paid for his entire 4 year college degree from 1986-90 by working as a waiter part time at a middle of the road restaurant). Then add into that all the new gadgets, toys, tv cable and Internet bills, and computers and cell phones kids have come to expect and all the extracurricular activities and probably more I'm not even thinking of..but all those things made it MUCH harder now to raise a family or even support yourself.
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sonofbeach-sheet — 12 years ago(October 08, 2013 07:19 PM)
And back then the managers weren't making much more than the workers. Places like Costco today pay those employees in the teens and 20's, but Wal Mart and the like are still paying minimum wage and don't allow much more than part-time work
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ChrisCuda — 12 years ago(November 16, 2013 02:59 AM)
Jobs paid better back thenI knew checkers who made great money, deli workers, bakers, etc. Hell, I used to seal coat playgrounds after they re-blacktopped them in the summers during college in the 80's.made great money! Plus, think how low their bills would have been. If they bought the house in the 1940's, maybe $5K-$7K tops. Wages being low isn't an issue if your cost of living is affordable.
My folks bought their first house in 1961 for $11K (2400 sq ft). Loans were 15 years so they paid it off in 1976. They were 40 years old & had no more house payment. Dad was making around $20K back then, with no house paymentno car payments. Utilities were cheaper, no cell phone or cable bills like today. I remember him telling me by 1980 he was putting $1K per month into a savings account earning 10% with a daily compound.
People used to live to their meanscredit was tight & expensive. People saved, paid cash & paid things off. -
Kawada_Kira — 11 years ago(March 08, 2015 11:23 PM)
First of all he appeared to be a manager. Secondly, back then life wasn't as expensive as it is today. Real wages have been on the decline since the 1970s, but before that a person could live a decent life on a job that today would pay subsistence wages.
The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of history.
-Mao Zedong -
eddieinportland — 9 years ago(September 06, 2016 07:24 PM)
No these days. Ron's father would be the manager of the store just to have a job that has health care coverage. On top of that. He would have a part time job just to make ends meat. Or he might have a job selling drugs.
Back then. Times were easier.