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Fifty-Eight an Hour: 1943
June 1943. "Pitcairn, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Bernice Stevens of Braddock, Pa., mother of one child, employed in the engine house of the Pennsylvania Railroad, earns 58 cents per hour. She is cleaning a locomotive with a high pressure nozzle. Her husband is in the Army." Photo by Marjory Collins. View full size.
Smile
A real warm smile for such a gritty job. But, back then, to work on the railroad was a well paying job relatively speaking.
That's one pretty young lady
And she looks way too happy to be making minimum wage. But I imagine in 1943 the memory of tougher times was not exactly dim.
Minimum Wage
That's $7.87 today, according to the BLS inflation calculator.
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