While getting my hair cut today a few started comparing the price per gallon of gas over the years to the minimun wage at that time. I do recall that there have been times when a gallon of gas was near the hourly wage a person could expect to receive. One person said that gas here in Indy in 1973 was .29 cents and I was thinking it higher. Does anyone have some numbers in general from the past?

Thanks,

Dale

Here is a good link:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/fsheets/mgprices.xls

Looks like '73 might have been 39 cents.

In 1973, gas "shot up" to $.39/gallon, and I started driving my Fiat instead of the company car so I could make my sales calls in North Carolina and Virginia. And in a lot of places, they would only sell you 5 gallons or so if they had it. I was making $12000 a year. Now it's over 5 times that much and as a retired person with a small pension, my wife and I both work just to keep up. We're becoming a two class society

The minimum wage in most states is $5.15. Some are a little higher, like Hawaii, Connecticut, Florida, but not more than $1 higher.

My first job paid 90 cents an hour plus tips (waitress in a pre-McDonald's fast food place) right out of high school in 1964. Later I made $1.20 an hour working during Christmas season at a department store and thought I was rich. But I wasn't paying a mortgage, car, insurance for both, maintenance and upkeep for both, tuition for night school, food, utilities, commuting, vet bills for an aged cat. I think gasoline was 29-30 cents a gallon then. Cigarettes were 30 cents a pack, and thank God that's not a habit I picked up. My mother would have beaten the tar out of me. I was more afraid of my mother than of the cancer they could produce.

BTW, these coaches are nicer than the house I grew up in. I would have given my right arm to live in a house as nice as the coaches in these photos.

Circa 1963; I can remember gas wars in the mid 60's when prices dipped as low as .15 cents p/gal. and they were still full service, checking your oil, whisk brooming your floor mats and cleaning your windshield.
I could fill up my 1958 Nash Metropolitian convertible for two bucks and go for a month. Wish I still had it.

Min. wage was around $1.05 here in the deep south but that min. wage stretched a lot further than today's.