Working Poor

I made $15/hr. in construction in San Diego in the 90s. It was skilled labor too. I use to listen to union guys talking how they were making 30/hr. I think my wife made $40 or more per hour for a drug company, but she worked 70 hours a week because they needed her. It got us out of a financial mess.

But those numbers certainly do not work today. We lived in an apartment and desperately wanted a house. The cost was staggering. One little bungalow I remember was $300,000. What is that same home today...500...600...800?


We were able to move back east, because drug companies paid for the move back then. But there is no way for regular families to live in such communities today with the same wage I was paid. $30/hour is a starting point. And the answer to that problem is more unions.