1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 4

Gas prices from a Speedway in New Jersey 12-20-16.
Just before the holiday bump, which could be due to
gas protests in Mexico.

    What the heck happened over the holidays? Gas prices have been steadily creeping back up over the past few days. I've seen prices recently at $2.35/ gallon and considered myself blessed when I found a station with gas for $2.12/ gallon.

    For today's look at the year 1977, I decided to look at what gas prices were like. Short answer, gas was 'cheap.' Meaning I would love to only have to pay about $.65/ gallon for gas. But in 1977, the average minimum wage was about $2.30. That's a total of $8.54 in 2012 dollars (US DEPT of LABOR).

I wonder if paying for full service impacted the average price for gas....
I'd be more than willing to save the 4 cents and pump for myself.

     I remember by the early 80s, gas was just under a dollar a gallon. When I started driving, it was about $1.50 a gallon.  I don't think in the 17-18 years I've been married that I've paid less than $1.80 for gas. 
    So was gas really cheaper in 1977? Let's do some math...

  Let's go with gas in 1977 as being $.65/gal divide the price of 1 gallon into 1 hour of minimum wage:

    .65/2.30= 28% of income spent on gas

Now let's do the same for 2012. According to AAA, gas average was $3.60/ gal. Honestly, I don't remember paying that high ever in North Carolina. But I'll go with it for this example.

3.60/8.54= 42% of income was spent on gas.

So, comparatively, gas in 1977 was cheaper than it was just 4 years ago.

(NOTE: I can't find an average minimum wage for a year later than 2012. But if you take the standard minimum wage for 2016 which is $7.25/hr established by the Federal Government and divide it by the 2016 Average gas price of $2.16, the percent of income is 30%. It's lower than 2012 but still a little bit higher than 1977's averages.)

    So there you have it, it's perfectly fine to wish for the gas prices of 1977. But in no way want  do want the minimum wage from that year. I might be nostalgic but I'm not stupid...