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Question: “How was it possible that a family could be supported comfortably on a single income in, for example, the 1950s, yet today people struggle with two incomes?”OK. having actually lived in the 1950s and disagreeing with many of the posted answers I will have to answer this, giving real and verifiable examples. In particular, I must respond to an extremely inaccurate and misleading answer posted by Quora writer Heather Johnson.To put things in perspective, I grew up in southeastern and south central Wisconsin. My father was an engineer, i.e., he had a modest middle class income. My mother, although she had worked before marriage, was a housewife and parent without outside income. The family consisted of my parents and six children, all of whom went to college. Everything about our lives was normal mid-western, middle class.Johnson writes: “[A]ppliances were bought on 5yr hire purchase plans. Once you paid it off you kept it for 20 yrs”. NO. Just no!My parents paid cash for every appliance purchase, as did most people in the middle class. Credit cards, other than American Express and Diner’s Club, both for business use, did not exist. Consumer credit did not exist, other than time payments from Sears if you bought their Kenmore brand and small loans at bad terms from Household Finance stores which catered to the improvident. Sensible people never borrowed money. Other than gas cards, there were no non-business credit cards in the 1950s and ‘60s. No one had ever heard the term “Master Card” or the phrase “Minimum Monthly Payment”.Appliances, although well made and, unlike today, designed so that they could be serviced, seldom lasted for “20 years”. A heavily used automatic washing machine or dryer might last 5 to 7 years. A kitchen range might be kept for 10 years, after which maintenance issues involving heating elements, clocks, timers, and switches made replacement likely. Automatic dishwashers and garbage disposers and garage door openers all had limited life spans. Tube type televisions in the 1950s ran hot, needed frequent service, and lasted no more than 5 years before needing to be replaced.Johnson writes: “Houses were small…a kitchen resembling a walk-in closet.”NO. This is the house my family lived in in the 1950s.It had a very large kitchen, a separate formal dining room, a living room with masonry fireplace, 3 large bedrooms all with closets, a closed in porch, solid oak floors throughout, a full basement, a cedar shingle roof, and a separate garage, all on a large wooded lot on a quiet street. The quality throughout was far higher than that which one can buy today. There were two Bell System dial telephones, one in a telephone alcove in the dining room and one in my parent’s bedroom.It was a typical middle class home.In 1962 my father had this built.It had a large kitchen, with a dish washer (!), formal dining room, living room, two masonry fireplaces, family room, office, laundry room, four large bedrooms, 2 and ½ baths, hardwood floors, full finished basement (with a bar and a pool table), two car attached garage, patio, breezeway, all on a two acre wooded lot with a view. Again there were two dial telephones, one of which was in my parent’s bedroom. This was a very typical home for a middle class salaried employee. In the 1950s American middle class families did not live in tiny shacks.Johnson claims that Americans in the 1950s: “[B]ought one car and maintained it for decades.” NO! Cars did not last for “decades”.In the 1950s a car was considered old at 60,000 miles when it was traded in on a new model. It was unheard of to own a car whose odometer had turned over from 99,999 to 0. The odometers did not even have a 100,000 mile dial. Most people traded in their cars every 3 to at most 5 years. Many car guys had arrangements with their car dealer wherein they would trade in their car every 2 years for a new version of the same make and model for a fixed amount of money. These are some of the cars my father owned in the 1950s. Note the upward mobility shown by the car models over the years.And from 1958 on, like many middle class American families, we had two cars, one for my father and the other shared by my mother and the children. They always paid cash for their cars, regarding auto loans as wasteful.This was my mother’s car.Johnson writes: “You had a modest closet consisting of one Sunday best outfit, 2 work outfits and 2 casual outfits.NO! My father wore suits to work and casual slacks and golf shirts on the golf course. I never saw him in a t-shirt or a pair of jeans. My mother dressed nicely, owned a few outfits by Dior and Balenciaga and Chanel and had a seldom worn mink stole. Although she knew how to dress well, this was not unusual or extravagant for the wife of a salaried engineer. In the 1950s and ’60s one dressed up to go shopping downtown or out to dinner or take an airline flight.Johnson claimed: “You ate out infrequently”.Not exactly. Fast food joints did not exist. Nor did family casual restaurants, aside from Italian pizzerias or the Friday fish fry at the neighborhood bar. Families seldom went out to dinner with the children. But my father frequently took my mother out on Friday nights to a nice supper club with dancing afterwards.My family in the 1950s lived this way while my parents, after having struggled through the depression and war years, paid off a mortgage, paid for parochial school for the children, sent six children to college, had no debt, and invested enough money in the stock market to be well off in retirement. Unlike what Johnson implies, the American middle class in the 1950s did not live in some sort of austere deprived poverty.OK, how was that possible? The economic system of the post-war period was different.Unlike today where all of the gains in productivity in the economy are directed to the 1%, from 1945 to 1980 productivity gains were shared and enjoyed by all segments of the working classes.Employment was secure. If you were employed and did your job well you did not have to worry that you would lose your job to a KKR or Bain Capital leveraged buyout scheme or some balance sheet manipulator’s desire to create paper “share holder value” or enhance his own stock options. The term “down sizing” had not been thought of. Looting of pension funds, a standard tactic of leveraged buyouts today, would have been a criminal offense in the 1950s and 1960s..The forty hour week was the norm. Workers were not expected to either work when they were not being paid or take work home. Blue collar workers got overtime for anything beyond 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. And that overtime was enough to allow my wife’s machinist father to pay off the mortgage of a new house in five years.Medical costs were reasonable. Hospitals were run by religious orders or owned by municipalities, not predatory corporations. The cost of having a baby, including days recovering in a pleasant sun lit room, was ~$250.Companies paid good wages and salaries and all good companies included medical insurance and defined benefit pensions.Employment included paid vacation time.Unions insured safe working conditions and good wages for working men. In the 1950s more than 30% of the jobs were unionized. (Today that figure is 11%, and most of those are public employees, i.e., cops and teachers.) Those union wages set a floor that kept up the wages of non-union workers and white collar employees.Union Pensions allowed comfortable retirements. I will describe for example the work and retirement history of a friend with whom we discussed work in the 1960s yesterday: Went to work in the late 1960s immediately after high school for an automobile manufacturer. Worked as a sweeper, i.e., a janitor. Retired after 30 years, and not yet 50 years old, on generous full pension. Pension includes excellent medial coverage from Kaiser-Permanente. Has been retired for 20 years. Owns, for personal use, a home in Florida and a condominium in Colorado, and farm land in Wisconsin. Travels.The public schools were good and staffed with good teachers. The courses included typing and secretarial skills and mechanical trades as well as academics. Thus, students graduated prepared either for college or for a trade.The cost of higher education was reasonable and a college education was easily affordable, especially at one of the excellent land grant universities, by anyone in the middle class or skilled blue collar class who qualified.Savings and Loan Associations and the post-war GI Bill offered affordable home mortgages while not lending either to speculators or those who were trying to live beyond their means, thus adding to both the growth and stability of home ownership. For a fixed rate 20 year mortgage the interest rate was ~4.5% in the 1950s and ~5.5% in the 1960s.Public transportation was better and far more extensive than today, offering an alternative to private cars.Work was closer to home seriously reducing commuting time and expenses for those who chose to drive to work.Americans who were adults in the 1950s had lived through the Great Depression. That taught those who were intelligent the value of savings and the danger of debt. Thus, they avoided consumer loans, paid cash for appliances and cars, put a large down payment on their homes, paid off mortgages quickly, lived within their means, and saved and/or invested.Finally, one must not forget that in the 1950s, because much of Europe had not yet recovered from the devastation of the war, American industry was given an extremely profitable decade and the American dollar was substantially overvalued making imports of goods to the United States, or travel by Americans to Europe, extremely inexpensive.The 1950s and 1960s were different. The American middle class in those decades did not live simple austere pleasureless lives. Nor did they lack nice things. But the difference was caused: 1) by a “Depression Mentality” which taught those who experienced the depression to avoid the debt trap, and 2) by structural differences in government regulations, differences in the tax system and who it was designed to serve, differences in business ethics, and differences in the economy. The different type of government in the 1950s and ’60s and different economy in that era allowed middle class families in the 1950s and 1960s to live nicely on one earner’s salary.As Quora writer Denis O’Sullivan said in the comments (see below): “ The old tradition of the poor getting poorer returned in the 1980′s. It was a good run from 1940 to about 1980 for both blue and white collar employees.”Note re wages and prices in the 1950s: In 1957 the Federal Minimum Wage was $1.00 per hour. Adjusted simply for inflation that would be $9.20 today. The Georgia State Minimum Wage today is $5.15…half of what adjusted for inflation the Federal Minimum Wage was in 1957. The median income for an engineer with 10 years experience in 1957 was $10,000. Beginning pharmacists earned $125 per week or $6,500 per year. In 1955 the median income of a physician in general practice was $15,000. In 1957 a classroom teacher in a city of 50,000 earned $4,500 per year. The hourly wage for an automobile assembly line worker worker was $2.27 per hour, for a tool and die worker $2.95 per hour or $118 for a 40 hour week. The price for the 1950 Ford Deluxe V8 shown in the above photos was ~ $1,100. The 1953 Nash Ambassador sold for $3,100, the 1958 Oldsmobile $4,200. The two story colonial house shown in the photos sold for $17,500 in 1957. It was originally built in 1937. The 1962 house with attached garage was built for $34,000. In 1950 an Admiral black and white console television with radio and phonograph cost $500. In 1954 a top-of-the-line Admiral Dual-Temp two door refrigerator-freezer cost ~$500.Note re union wages in the 1950s: In unionized plants workers were paid time and one-half for hours worked over 40 hours per week and double time for working on holidays. Overtime was available based on seniority. My wife’s father was a skilled machinist at an automobile plant. Having started his employment there as a young man before enlisting in WWII, he was one of the 6 most senior employees in a factory of thousands of workers. He, thus, could bid for and get well paid overtime work whenever he wanted. One year he worked every day of the week including Saturdays and Sundays and Holidays for at least 8 hours per day, taking off only for one day, Christmas. By doing so he paid off the mortgage on a new home in five years. The UAW Pension allowed one to retire after 30 years regardless of age at full pension. That pension included full medical coverage including eyeglasses and dental care.Note re charge plates: The embossed aluminum charge pates issued by some department stores,gasoline station charge plates, Diners’ Club cards, and American Express cards used in the 1950s and ’60s were not credit cards as we use the terms today. These cards had to be paid off in full monthly. Diners’ Club and American Express cards, which were printed on paper with typed in names and addresses, were for business, not personal, use and were only available to the trustworthy and wealthy.Note that the above card from 1955 is described as a CREDIT IDENTIFICATION CARD. It was a card that informed the merchant that the holder’s income and reputation for paying his bills had been verified. Merchants and restaurants who accepted charge card placed the sticker(s) for the card(s) they accepted on the entry door. But you could not trust that. Restaurant owners would terminate their contract with the credit card issuer without removing those stickers.Department store plates could only be used at one store or one association of stores. They were often limited to a relatively small amount, often $50 or less. These were in use into the 1970s. Gas station cards, of course, could only be used at named gas stations. Sears did offer a “Revolving Credit Account” to holders of its charge cards. But these, again, could only be used for purchases at Sears stores. The Sears Roebuck and Co. card eventually became the Discover Card. The first actual Credit Card was the Master Card. (known as Interbank from 1966–1969 and Master Charge from 1969–1979). The first Interbank Cards were issued in 1958 to a restricted group. Charge Cards were not widely distributed until well into the 1970s. And even in the ’70s one had to check with restaurant servers before ordering to determine if your card or any card was valid at that restaurant. Many businesses refused to accept charge card purchases below a set amount.As late as the 1970s women desiring a Department Store Charge Plate had to get it in their husband’s name and the application needed his approval and signature, regardless of the wife’s employment or income. My wife encountered this when she applied for an account at Charles A. Stevens, a woman’s fine clothing store in the Chicago Loop, and was told she needed my approval and signature although she had a better job and higher salary than I did!Note re Changes in Relative Costs: In the 1960s my best friend’s father was a factory worker at the big dirty, but unionized, Fairbanks-Morse plant. My blue collar family friend could afford to take flying lessons and, before he was allowed to drive a car, had a private pilot’s license and enough flying hours by the time we were in high school to have both an instrument rating and a dual engine rating.As teenagers we were allowed and could afford to rent and fly aircraft, usually a Cessna, over Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, sometimes taking our dates out for night flights. We were high school students, and we paid for those flights with our own earnings from part time or summer jobs. Today flying lessons and airplane rentals are only available to the rich.Life was very different in the 1950s and 1960s.

The life of a screenwriter. It's a grind. Now, before we can talk about how challenging the screenwriter's journey truly is, and how screenwriters can survive the grind, we have to set the context.There are roughly three tiers of professional screenwriters in the film and television industry. Those within each have a different definition of the “grind.” Below we'll start from the top and work our way down.1. One PercentersThese are the Aaron Sorkins, David Koepps, Terry Rossios, Joss Whedons, Simon Kindbergs, and so many more. They are the elite. The ones the studios go to with their hottest properties and franchises. If they're not making the six-figure uncredited rewrite deals, they're making the seven-figure big assignments. Needless to say, they're not grinding it out as much as the rest.2. White Collar ScreenwritersThese are the screenwriters that are getting the middle of the line jobs. They've had some hits — and some misses — but they keep getting hired. They’re making those high five-figure assignments that are just on the cusp of six-figure paychecks, or they’re making those low six-figure deals — depending on the contract and how the payout is structured (it’s not all guaranteed money). They’re working. They’re pitching. Maybe they’re dancing between film and television assignments, writing more mid-level features, or living somewhat comfortably in between more substantial paychecks spread out year to year. It may be a grind for some of them as they battle it out to attain those coveted assignments, but it’s a more comfortable grind to be sure.3. Blue Collar ScreenwritersThese are the screenwriters that have managed to break through that barrier most novice screenwriters feel is impenetrable. They’ve gotten some meetings. They’ve likely attained representation. They’ve had some options and maybe some paid assignments that were never produced — usually mid to low five-figure deals. Some have even had some produced work with a name cast. However, the jobs are few and far between, and the paychecks are nowhere near that of “white collar” screenwriters. One year might give them hope until they see another year, or two, or three go by without any deals. They’re not quitting their day jobs. They’re not going all in. They grind away trying to keep any spark they had going.And then there’s the rest. The novice screenwriters that are still pounding on that seemingly impenetrable barrier, awaiting any scraps — query email replies, phone calls, contest wins, anyone in the business willing to read their script(s), etc.Yes, it truly is a grind.While it’s great to listen to the advice from the screenwriters in those top tiers, it’s all too often hopeless in the end as you return to the constant rejection, the constant state of helplessness, the continuous insecurities, etc.After what you feel is an amazing writing session for your latest script, you find yourself returning to the daily grind of day jobs, at home with the kids, or alone in your apartment, wondering when, how, and why.When is it going to happen finally? When will the powers that be take you seriously and read your scripts? When will one of those scripts finally draw interest?How can you make it happen? How can you finally get that foot in the door?Why isn’t it happening? Why has it been X number of years with X number of scripts without anyone taking notice?The context of their situation defines the life and grind of a screenwriter. One percenters are called just that because they represent a small faction — the elite best of the best (to steal a line from Top Gun). White collar screenwriters represent a few percentage marks just below those elite, while blue collar and novice screenwriters make up the majority beyond. Tens of thousands — hundreds of thousands — chasing that dream. The dream of making a living doing what they love to do.So how do you cope? How do you persevere through the constant rejection and silence from the powers that be? How do you know when enough is enough? How do you know when to quit?If you look at any major movie star, sports figure, or successful businessperson, they all have one thing in common — they’ve failed. Time and time again, well before any success came their way.If that’s not good enough to get some hope flowing through your veins again, here’s a little science to back this notion up.Brian Lucas and Loran Nordgren conducted a study that was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. They wrote, “People consistently underestimate the value of persisting on creative tasks… adjusting beliefs about the value of persistence may promote creativity by reducing the possibility that people quit too early, leaving their best ideas undiscovered.”Their best ideas undiscovered. Imagine if Quentin Tarantino, back in the late eighties and early nineties, decided that the video store was a more reliable venture than dreams of Hollywood. No Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained, etc. Sure, that’s a tall order comparison there, but consider the thought.Back to the study, Lucas and Nordgren demonstrated the notion of quitting too early in seven studies. The first featured twenty-four university students instructed to "generate as many original ideas for things to eat or drink at a Thanksgiving dinner.” The students were notified that their answers would be rated for originality by outside judges, and those rated as above average would earn a raffle ticket into a $50 lottery.The participants were allowed to generate ideas for ten minutes. After that time they took a short break and were then asked how many more original ideas they would be able to come up with in another ten-minute session.This second session represented persisting, as opposed to quitting after the first. The researchers underestimated the number of ideas that were conjured in that second session. Even more interesting is that the judges found "the ideas generated while persisting were significantly more original than ideas generated initially."Don’t. Ever. Quit."Creative thought is a trial-and-error process that generally produces a series of failed associations before a creative solution emerges," the researchers noted.ScreenCraft covers inspiration well with How to Find Creative Inspiration. Accompany that with never giving up on any given creative task or pursuit at hand.To quote Thomas Edison: "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."Still not good enough? Do you still feel that the screenwriting grind may be getting the best of you?I’m going to step forward and offer some real-world perspective. Something that may be more accessible, more tangible, and more easy to digest beyond the six to seven figure deals and multiple credits on IMDB.Allow me to step up to the podium now.My name is Ken Miyamoto, and I’m a blue-collar screenwriter.I was fortunate enough to work as a studio liaison at Sony Studios, working with incoming film and television productions. I then made it into what I felt was my dream job at the time — studio script reader. It proved to be my greatest education in screenwriting.After grinding and grinding away, despite the connections that I had made, nothing was happening for my own screenwriting. It was demoralizing.After years of trying to make this dream come true, I was so very close to calling it quits. But I never did. I eventually saw one of my scripts make its way to Paramount, after endless rejection beforehand. While the script wasn’t picked up, it nabbed me a manager. Before I knew it, we took the script wide, leading to multiple meetings at Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks, and Disney, all of whom were interested in my work.Don’t. Ever. Quit.The script wasn’t picked up, and I later moved back to my home state of Wisconsin to raise my newborn son close to family with my wife. I had a manager and didn’t feel the need to be in Los Angeles anymore. Priorities change when a child comes into the world.I had nothing for a year. I believed that I had made a fateful decision leaving Los Angeles and that after seven years plus pursuing this dream full force, it was time to move on.Until, suddenly, my second script was picked up by Lionsgate. My first paid gig.Don’t. Ever. Quit.Nothing came of it though. Three years went by. Three years. My manager and I had gone our separate ways. I was still writing, but nothing was happening. I entered all of my scripts into a major screenwriting contest — even the first two that garnered me a manager, studio meetings, and eventually my Lionsgate deal. Not one of the scripts I entered made it into the quarterfinals.I remember, devastated, telling my wife, “I’ve never wanted to quit more than today.”Until a chance email came from a Los Angeles producer that was from Wisconsin. I was heading a screenwriting support group at the time, and he had offered his guidance if need be. The conversation led to my own work, he read some scripts, liked what he saw, and then against all odds, he offered me my first studio writing assignment.Just when I thought my luck was changing for the better once again, the project was canceled. However, he offered me another a few months later, garnering me my biggest paycheck in my screenwriting career (blue collar money, mind you… but good). After months and months of delayed production, the film was quickly cast with name actors, and suddenly, four years after that first deal with Lionsgate and five years after leaving Los Angeles behind, I was flown to Los Angeles to be on set.Here I was, years removed from living in Los Angeles, a work-from-home father that was ready to quit it all for good and move on, and now I’m on the set of a miniseries hearing my words spoken by actors and seeing the action that I wrote come to life before my eyes. And later, I sat down with my family and watched my script (or at least a version of it) unfold before our eyes. More importantly, I saw my first onscreen credit.Don’t. Ever. Quit.You see, persistence is necessary. It’s required.It’s often very misleading when we hear stories about screenwriters that have sold their “first script” for major six-figure deals. The truth is, that screenwriter had likely been living the screenwriter grind for years upon years prior to that deal — but they never quit.Dreams and aspirations will never be attained in the ways that we’d prefer them to. That’s not how life works, and that’s certainly not how the film and television industry works.All too often, the power is not in our hands once that script is handed forward. It’s all about being at the right time, at the right place, with the right person that is ready and able to pull the trigger and make your dream of becoming a professional screenwriter come true.How many studios passed on Star Wars? All of them. How many studios passed on Good Will Hunting? All of them.The only thing that screenwriters can control is their ability to hone their art and craft and persevere through all of the rejection, and to learn from that rejection. To stack their deck with amazing scripts. To not just write for themselves, but to be smart enough to write for the powers that be as well, finding a hybrid of what they're willing to consider and what kind of writer you want to be.Life takes us where we need to go. Trust it. Believe that any rejection can only make you stronger and only make you want it more. And who knows where life takes you? It’s no secret that we can’t all be Aaron Sorkin. We can’t all be one percenters. Odds state that it cannot happen to us all. Even becoming a white collar or blue collar screenwriter is challenging to achieve for most.But the key to getting through the grind of life as a screenwriter is to simply say, “Why can’t it be me?”And for those that may not make it in the end, know that you are doing what most people in the world are not — you’re trying. Most people find a job to pay the bills, raise a family, and then they die. And chances are when they do they have that regret of never trying to achieve that dream they once held so high, sadly and all too often, in the back of their minds.If you want it enough, and if you never quit, you’ll realize that screenwriting is for you and that it’s all worth the grind. You’ll realize that this is where life is leading you.And if it doesn’t lead you there, it’ll guide you where you need to go, fully content that you did what most people didn’t do — you pursued a dream, only to find where you were meant to be in the end. You told stories. Stories of fantasy, action, thrills, drama, suspense, and laughs.Don’t ever quit, until life either hands you the dream that you’ve been chasing or introduces you to another.That’s how screenwriters survive the challenging screenwriting grind.This Answer was adapted from an article I wrote at ScreenCraft.Check out my film and television industry articles on ScreenCraft and The Script Lab where I discuss screenwriting, writing, industry jobs, television, and movies!

What is the minimum wage for 2019? The minimum wage rate is the lowest hourly pay that can be awarded to workers, also known as a pay floor. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA determines the minimum wage for employees in private and public sectors, in both Federal and State governments. Under the FLSA, non-exempt employees must be paid the minimum wage or higher. The following information includes current state and federal minimum wage rates, exceptions, and scheduled increases. If you need an emergency fund, find the best rates on savings here. Federal Minimum Wage The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and has not increased since July 2009. However, some states, cities, and counties have a higher minimum wage rate. When the state, city or county minimum wage rate is higher tha(more)