Prices in 1940 1 1

[Hoghead515]

I been looking through some old issues of The Numismatic Scrapbook Magizene. Its just amazing to look at the prices in 1940 compared to today. Figured Id share this page with whoever wants to see it and finds it amazing as I do. The Gobrecht dollar espically caught my attention. Get a proof for $35.50. Im not very good at math at all but how much would that be comparing it to todays money? I never was good at comparing prices of different time periods. Very cool stuff though. 

 

 

[gmarguli]

We've had 1891.4% inflation since 1940, so that Gobrecht would cost $706.96 in todays dollars. 

[Hoghead515]

On 1/31/2022 at 12:29 PM, gmarguli said:

We've had 1891.4% inflation since 1940, so that Gobrecht would cost $706.96 in todays dollars. 

Thats very neat info. Still super cheap compared to todays. Those guys probably never dreamed they would be up around $30,000 or more. 

[RWB]

The real question is "How long would you have to work in 1940 to earn the money to buy a collector's coin?" How much work did it take to pay your other bills? How many wage earners in a family? Etc., etc. That is, dollar buying power is only indirectly affected by consumer price inflation.

Edited January 31, 2022 by RWB

[Hoghead515]

On 1/31/2022 at 1:23 PM, RWB said:

The real question is "How long would you have to work in 1940 to earn the money to buy a collector's coin?" How much work did it take to pay your other bills? How many wage earners in a family? Etc., etc. That is, dollar buying power is only indirectly affected by consumer price inflation.

Very true. Some people worked all day for a nickle or less. I had a great aunt when I was younger told me she made 25 cents a day in the 1950s working at a sewing factory. 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Hoghead515

[GoldFinger1969]

On 1/31/2022 at 1:53 PM, Hoghead515 said:

Very true. Some people worked all week for a nickle or less. I had a great aunt when I was younger told me she made 25 cents a week in the 1950s working at a sewing factory. 

That seems too low....probably 25 cents an hour.  Nobody was working for less than 1 cent an hour !

[GoldFinger1969]

The Red Book pre-1972 are very interesting to look through.

Remember, prices on most collectible coins and then the precious metals silver/gold coins went up HUGE in the 1960's and 1970's.  Lots of mid-grade coins went up 10- or 20-fold.  Premium-graded or condition coins went up 30- to 100-fold.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime move that many people try to extrapolate to this day.

[Hoghead515]

On 1/31/2022 at 2:02 PM, GoldFinger1969 said:

That seems too low....probably 25 cents an hour.  Nobody was working for less than 1 cent an hour !

It was a day. Im sorry. Got mixed up a little. Thats what she told us when we were kids. Made 25 cents a day at the sewing factory in Olive Hill Ky. I meant to put day instead of week. Got my days and weeks mixed up. Ill go back and edit it. She may have been full of it. She was a talker. 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Hoghead515

[RWB]

Her comment was likely accurate per hour up to WW-II, especially in the factory towns in and near Appalachia. Factory and mine owners knew they had a captive worker population and exploited them to the max. They still do.

Edited February 1, 2022 by RWB

[gmarguli]

On 1/31/2022 at 11:05 AM, Hoghead515 said:

It was a day. Im sorry. Got mixed up a little. Thats what she told us when we were kids. Made 25 cents a day at the sewing factory in Olive Hill Ky. I meant to put day instead of week. Got my days and weeks mixed up. Ill go back and edit it. She may have been full of it. She was a talker. 

Federal minimum wage was 75c/hour in 1950. 

She probably made 25c/day at work while walking there uphill both ways, in the year-round snow, with holes in her shoes...

[Hoghead515]

She was probably feeding us full of it. Talking about the rough old days. It may have been the 40s. My papaw was in WW2 and she was older than him. She was an old lady back when I was a kid. That was the mid 80s. She died in 1992. Heres a picture of her in 1990.  I may have got the time period confused. She was telling me those old hard time stories. Thats just what she told us. Dont know if she was pulling our leg or not. She may have been. I remember her talking about sewing clothes for the military. But that particular factory done that all the way up till it closed about 15 years ago. So not sure if it was war time or not.

[Oldhoopster]

Everything is relative.

I remember when my grandfather bought a new Chrysler in 1973. It was $4000 and he was complaining that was how much he paid for his house in 1936. 

[GoldFinger1969]

On 1/31/2022 at 4:59 PM, gmarguli said:

Federal minimum wage was 75c/hour in 1950.  She probably made 25c/day at work while walking there uphill both ways, in the year-round snow, with holes in her shoes...

Accoding to the BLS Handbook of Labor Statistics, the average textile worker in the U.S. made about $0.42/hour in 1940.  The rate was about $0.45 in the North and $0.37 in the South.

$0.25 an hour -- net -- was possible after taxes and other deductions for smaller mills or companies.

Edited January 31, 2022 by GoldFinger1969

[gmarguli]

FYI, minimum wage started in 1938 at 25c/hour. It was $30c in 1940. 

Year	Minimum Wage
1938	$0.25
1939	$0.30
1940	$0.30
1941	$0.30
1942	$0.30
1943	$0.30
1944	$0.30
1945	$0.40
1946	$0.40
1947	$0.40
1948	$0.40
1949	$0.40
1950	$0.75
1951	$0.75
1952	$0.75
1953	$0.75
1954	$0.75
1955	$0.75
1956	$1.00
1957	$1.00
1958	$1.00
1959	$1.00
1960	$1.00
1961	$1.15
1962	$1.15
1963	$1.25
1964	$1.25
1965	$1.25
1966	$1.25
1967	$1.40
1968	$1.60
1969	$1.60
1970	$1.60
1971	$1.60
1972	$1.60
1973	$1.60
1974	$2.00
1975	$2.10
1976	$2.30
1977	$2.30
1978	$2.65
1979	$2.90
1980	$3.10
1981	$3.35
1982	$3.35
1983	$3.35
1984	$3.35
1985	$3.35
1986	$3.35
1987	$3.35
1988	$3.35
1989	$3.35
1990	$3.80
1991	$4.25
1992	$4.25
1993	$4.25
1994	$4.25
1995	$4.25
1996	$4.75
1997	$5.15
1998	$5.15
1999	$5.15
2000	$5.15
2001	$5.15
2002	$5.15
2003	$5.15
2004	$5.15
2005	$5.15
2006	$5.15
2007	$5.85
2008	$6.55
2009	$7.25
2010	$7.25
2011	$7.25
2012	$7.25
2013	$7.25
2014	$7.25
2015	$7.25
2016	$7.25
2017	$7.25
2018	$7.25
2019	$7.25
2020	$7.25
2021	$7.25
2022	$7.25

 

[Hoghead515]

Id say she was telling us a big one it looks like. I believed that all those years. She was something else. Crazy old bird.  I never did research it so I believed her lie. One of those old timer hard luck stories. When did women start making the same wages? Did they have to get paid a minimum wage?

Edited February 1, 2022 by Hoghead515

[Hoghead515]

Thanks for the info @gmarguli. I know not to believe her now. All these years I believed that lie she told us kids. 

[GoldFinger1969]

On 1/31/2022 at 5:49 PM, Oldhoopster said:

Everything is relative. I remember when my grandfather bought a new Chrysler in 1973. It was $4000 and he was complaining that was how much he paid for his house in 1936. 

$4,000 was big money for a Chrysler back then.  I remember my mother got a Plymouth Duster in 1972 or 1973 for like $2,500.

[GoldFinger1969]

On 1/31/2022 at 7:28 PM, Hoghead515 said:

Thanks for the info @gmarguli. I know not to believe her now. All these years I believed that lie she told us kids. 

She may have been confused.  $0.25/hour net is feasible.  I don't think she meant to "lie" by saying $0.25 a week because that works out to a 1 cent an hour or less....something from the 1600's or so.  

[RWB]

It is easily possible that her old hard time stories were quite accurate. Minimum wage was not well enforced, especially in the south and central states east of the Mississippi. Farms and some other businesses were exempt. My parents and grandparents told of living through the Great Depression, and they were fortunate to have secure jobs - although they had to take 10% to 20% pay cuts. One grandfather was a judge and the other a bank cashier. My mother was a school teacher and was paid $100 a month --- $800 per year, down from $1,000. My father drove heavy road construction equipment and was paid about $85 per month. They lived with his parents (the Judge) on their farm to save money. The south-central core -- southern Missouri and Indiana, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, northern Florida, were especially hard hit because they had little economic diversity, and also refused to benefit from the labor of almost half their populations.

[Hoghead515]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:45 AM, RWB said:

It is easily possible that her old hard time stories were quite accurate. Minimum wage was not well enforced, especially in the south and central states east of the Mississippi. Farms and some other businesses were exempt. My parents and grandparents told of living through the Great Depression, and they were fortunate to have secure jobs - although they had to take 10% to 20% pay cuts. One grandfather was a judge and the other a bank cashier. My mother was a school teacher and was paid $100 a month --- $800 per year, down from $1,000. My father drove heavy road construction equipment and was paid about $85 per month. They lived with his parents (the Judge) on their farm to save money. The south-central core -- southern Missouri and Indiana, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, northern Florida, were especially hard hit because they had little economic diversity, and also refused to benefit from the labor of almost half their populations.

She talked about having to eat possums and things when she was younger. She used to tell us all sorts of stories. She would give us a dollar everytime we went to see her. We loved going to visit her. I remember when I was 12 years old I used to mow her yard $10. It wasnt very big. I thought I was big stuff where I was working and earning my own money. 

 

Where you say minimum wage wasnt enforced very well. I can see that out of this little town. One of the most crooked little towns I ever seen. Wouldnt suprise me at all if that place wasnt paying many of the workers under the table. The chief of police sells drugs. He resigned a few days ago. Maybe the new chief will be better. 

 

[Oldhoopster]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:12 AM, GoldFinger1969 said:

$4,000 was big money for a Chrysler back then.  I remember my mother got a Plymouth Duster in 1972 or 1973 for like $2,500.

Chrysler Newport. It was a boat and a half.  My mom ended up with the car in the early 80s. I would switch between my car (1969 Triumph Spitfire) and the Newport which could have fit the Spitfire in the trunk.  A few years later I occasionally got to drive a tri-axle coal truck and driving the Newport was good experience

[RWB]

Possum, squirrel, racoon, goundhog, rabbit, the occasional wild boar (esp in Arkansas and Louisiana) were common foods for many including in small towns. It was not until WW-II that many south central people got to have a chance for a real paying job - mostly women and blacks -- or to see meaningful amounts of money in their regular pay. There was also resentment of "the Feds" coming in a messing up the cozy traditional community arrangements and "making people feel 'uppity' ".