Fun comparisons around a $1.60 minimum wage in 1968:
- An hour of labor would buy ~4.7 gallons of gasoline. If minimum wage had kept pace, it would be $12.32.
- Average home could be bought with ~15k hours of minimum-wage labor (around 8 years). Had minimum wage kept pace, it would be $14.96.
- Average car price was $2,822. Using this as the sole deflator would put an equivalent minimum wage at $20.89 today.
- The average public university tuition + room & board cost $1,143, which could be earned in 714 hours at minimum wage (this could be physically accomplished in a summer of hard work). If minimum wage had kept pace with these fees, it would be $27.28 per hour. (There are not enough clock hours in a summer break, assuming no sleep, to earn enough at minimum wage to pay for a year of the average public university.)
- An hour of labor would buy ~4.7 gallons of gasoline. If minimum wage had kept pace, it would be $12.32.
- Average home could be bought with ~15k hours of minimum-wage labor (around 8 years). Had minimum wage kept pace, it would be $14.96.
- Average car price was $2,822. Using this as the sole deflator would put an equivalent minimum wage at $20.89 today.
- The average public university tuition + room & board cost $1,143, which could be earned in 714 hours at minimum wage (this could be physically accomplished in a summer of hard work). If minimum wage had kept pace with these fees, it would be $27.28 per hour. (There are not enough clock hours in a summer break, assuming no sleep, to earn enough at minimum wage to pay for a year of the average public university.)