Was there ever a time when the average man could honestly say, "Another day, Another dollar?"

by Synthur

Title says it all, really. Was $365 (or $260, $1/every [modern] workday) ever the average wage in any country that used 'dollars'?

jamesmunger

I believe that in early America that phrase would hold true. I did I quick google search to find some sources on average income in 1780, and it looks like a weekly income of 10-12 dollars a week was fairly typical in 1800. It stands to reason that there would be some lower-class laborers that would make quite a bit less than that. Keeping in mind that many of these workers didn't have regular days off, I'd say its likely many laborers earned roughly a dollar a day.

Sources:

https://www.google.com/search?q=averag+ewages+in+1776+america&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb#channel=sb&q=average+wages+in+1800&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official