I had a conversation with my son Dave about the minimum wage.

He made the statement that the minimum wage historically buys “one gallon of milk and a loaf of bread.”

He looked it up online, and sure enough, he was correct. I’ll add this: “Include a gallon of gas in the mix.”

In 1960, when the minimum wage was $1, a gallon of milk cost 49 cents, a loaf of bread cost 20 cents and a gallon of gas cost 25 cents.

In 1980, when the minimum wage was $2.90, a gallon of milk cost $2.30, a loaf of bread cost 48 cents and a gallon of gas cost $1.03.

In 2000, when the minimum wage was $5.15, a gallon of milk cost $2.88, a loaf of bread cost $1.72 and a gallon of gas cost $1.30.

Today, the minimum wage is $7.50, a gallon of milk costs $3.67, a loaf of bread costs $1.98 and a gallon of gas costs $2.27.

If you have no skills and work for the minimum wage, your worth per hour is: a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and a gallon of gas.

So keep raising it – it won’t make any difference. The result will just be a constant devaluing of our dollar.

Google the Weimar Republic of the 1930s and see what happens when inflation goes crazy.

John M. Roberts

South Portland

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