The Difference between a 23YO American in 1980, and a 23YO American in 2025

[haele]

62. I was 15 in 1976 and made $3 an hour working 12 hours a week.

Retail in a "soda store" where the customers would buy 24 12 oz. bottles of locally mixed sodas or mixers (about 15 different flavors, including 4 diet) by the $4 case and return the bottles for a dollar off. I worked there by myself; the owner was friends with my dad and would book me on hours he wanted to run errands or leave the store for a couple hours, and of course, lunch on Saturday with his family.
Still more than what a Waffle House waitress makes now before tips.
According to the family scrapbook, in 1964, my dad made $12 an hour part time at a Standard Oil station on Wilshire Ave as the evening mechanic and gas jockey; 6 days a week, 6 pm to 9 pm. Mom said the cashiers there made $6 an hour full time with benefits after a year; she had been considering working there, but she got pregnant with my little brother and they wouldn't hire her.
These were common non-union jobs that were available back then.
And they still paid more in terms of a living take home pay than equivalent jobs do now.
And income taxes affecting take home pay have been pretty much been the same for the lower 60% since I started working.