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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;doug5353, post: 2091292, member: 73555&quot;]$2 per month is utter nonsense.&nbsp; From the Civil War until the turn of the century, here are rates for some typical skilled and unskilled workers.&nbsp; The end of free slave labor upon Emancipation drove wages higher, and wages soared at the beginning of World War I.&nbsp; These are based on 60-hour work weeks, the norm at the time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the average <b>weekly wage</b> for 60 hours a week:</p><p><br /></p><ul> <li>Occupation 1860,&nbsp; 1870,&nbsp; 1880,&nbsp; 1890</li> <li>blacksmith, 10.68, 18.24, 15.54, 16.26</li> <li>carpenter,&nbsp;&nbsp; 10.92, 24.60, 16.56, 19.32</li> <li>machinist,&nbsp;&nbsp; 9.48, 15.60, 13.62, 14.58</li> <li>laborers,&nbsp;&nbsp; 5.88,&nbsp; 9.36,&nbsp; 8.10,&nbsp; 9.06</li> </ul><p>and these numbers are within a range confirmed by many sources.&nbsp; See Google.&nbsp; In the 1830s and 1840s, even mill workers earned $1.50 to $1.75 per day.&nbsp; Note there were no sales or income taxes at that time, and even the first income tax circa 1913 barely touched the lower and middle classes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Regarding 1890 wages, you can see that a carpenter or machinist averaged about 25c to 30c per hour (based on 60 hours), but with a multiplier of 26.33x (cited above), no such tradesman today would work for (say) $6.60 per hour (well below minimum wage), so that number is suspect also.&nbsp; Post Civil War, there was much more variation in wages (by State) than today; as the frontier moved westward, certain skilled trades demanded substantially higher wages to relocate.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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