I have to write a research paper. Kicking around thesis statement and topic ideas. I think I'm close to having that part sorted out. Curious if anyone here knows about how much an assembly worker made in the 50s and 60s. I ran into this:
"Top CEO salary in America: GM chairman Charlie Wilson is paid $663,000, roughly $5 million in today’s dollars, and about 40 times the annual wage of his average assembly line worker."
So I divided $633,000 by 40 and got $16,575. Ran that through the CPI calculator and discovered that in by 2012 standards $16,575 has the buying power of $157,568.41.
Is this accurate? Seems too good to be true. I do live in homecare for my grandpa, he worked for Ford back then but his memory isn't great. I asked him and he said $5 an hour which is the functional equivalent of $47.53 an hour or 91,257.60 a year. A little bit less insane perhaps but it still seems like too much. I know auto workers were paid well in the past but this well?
I guess i should say this. Im using this as a comparison against something Ford was was doing in the earlier part of the century.
I've run into some interesting Detroit historical info in here. First hand accounts. Thought perhaps someone could shed some light on this for me.