This post about how absurdly pricy rent is getting in the developed world (especially the US, UK, and Canada) reminded me of talking to a girlfriend’s father years ago about his cost of rent during the 1960s.

He lived in Virginia, if I remember correctly, and said something like, “Back when I was starting out, I could afford my own apartment working part-time at a grocery store. I just played music when I felt like it and worked 20 or 30 hours a week. Kids today can’t do that.”

A rare acknowledgement from someone of the Baby Boomer generation that things are categorically different now for those getting started, and that younger generations are not just lazy or entitled.

But no need to just listen to anecdotes – you can look at the data yourself to see that he is telling the truth. Here is a table of median gross rent divided out by state and decade.

For Virginia in 1960, median rent was $350 per month. (Note that the person I was talking to was probably paying well below median rent as he was single and didn’t/doesn’t care much about ritzy stuff.) But let’s use median rent despite the previous caveat.

The table is in 2000 dollars, so let’s translate that to 2014 dollars. In 2014 dollars, median rent in 1960 Virginia was $480 a month.

The minimum wage in 1960 was $1.00 an hour, which is $8.00 an hour in 2014 dollars.*

So assuming that the person I was talking to averaged 25 hours a week, his gross pay in 1960 (in 2014 dollars) would have been $800 a month. Let’s assume a tax rate of 15% on that income. That leaves $680 a month of net take-home pay.

So yes, a person in 1960 really could have worked part-time at a grocery store for minimum wage and afforded a quite good apartment on their own.

No one, anywhere in the UK, US or Canada, could do that now, or anything close to it.

*Very roughly – constant dollars aren’t really that constant, but that is way too abstruse of a discussion to go into here.