Yesterday's Prices

[Mups]

Prices shoot up over the years,  but in some ways we have perhaps got used to it.
We have to accept it anyway because we either cough up - or go without.

I have just seen this almost unbelievable list of prices we paid back in 1966.
See if you remember any of these -


1. Average wage was £20.30s a week.    (Today £749)  - It didn't say what job this was!

2. Cinema tickets - 15p  -   (£9.50)

3. A pint of Beer - 10p  -  (Today £5.50)

4. Fish & Chips - 10p  (Today - £9.50)

5. Flight to Spain  (return charter) - £31

6. Men's haircut - 15p   - (Today £20.)

7. Packet of 20 Cigarettes - 20p  (Today - £13.)

8. Loaf of Bread - 5p -  (Today £1.60)

9. Pint of Milk - 4p  - (Today £1.)


Astonishing what we have come to expect now,  isn't it.

[klondike]

If you compare that £20 wage with now and apply the multiplier to those prices they beat what we have to pay now for many. I'm pretty sure that £749 a week is significantly higher than minimum wage but is probably average wage

I always remember ordering fish and chips as a piece and six. Usually with batter bits.

[Mups]

Yes, I thought that wage seemed high too.  

I Just looked it up, and the minimum wage for 2026 for over 21's  is now  £12.71 apparently,  so that would work out  around £508 for a 40hr week.    So don't know where they get the £749 from.

[Alex]

My Mum kept the letter from my first job, I was a trainee Clerk/Typist with John Laing & Son and my salary was £275 per annum !  

[Mups]

My Mum kept the letter from my first job, I was a trainee Clerk/Typist with John Laing & Son and my salary was £275 per annum !  

Wow.   

That reminds me of my first job after leaving school.   I was an apprentice hairdresser and I remember earning
 £2. 5 shillings 8p per week  -   and that was after my first rise!!
Almost impossible to imagine now isn't it.

[Michael Rolls]

1953 17 years old junior clerk £135 p.a. and my 6 O levels put m three points up the scale!

[CHF]

When I was married in 1954, my husband's weekly wages were £5. 13s.

[klondike]

I know when I started my wages were around £5 a week. I think they were paid weekly then too but for that job I had to open a bank account. Most of my working life pay was monthly but I don't recall which job that started with. Must have been a stretch waiting for that first monthly payment.

[Mups]

I know when I started my wages were around £5 a week. I think they were paid weekly then too but for that job I had to open a bank account. Most of my working life pay was monthly but I don't recall which job that started with. Must have been a stretch waiting for that first monthly payment.

Yes I seem to remember it was weekly pay too.   And I'm not sure, but wasn't it cash, too?

[klondike]

Many were but my first job was in a small office of a big company and the pay went into your bank account. No card payments in those days so you went into the branch and cashed a cheque. I had other jobs later that paid cash.

It was a company called Midland Assurance and I think it was Midland bank too so maybe they were both in the same group.

[Alex]

I know when I started my wages were around £5 a week. I think they were paid weekly then too but for that job I had to open a bank account. Most of my working life pay was monthly but I don't recall which job that started with. Must have been a stretch waiting for that first monthly payment.

I had to open a bank account too Klondy, I guess my salary was around £5 and a few coppers a week too.  I don't remember how much I gave to my Mum, do you ?

[klondike]

Pretty sure it was £1

[GrannyMac]

Yes, I thought that wage seemed high too. 

I Just looked it up, and the minimum wage for 2026 for over 21's  is now  £12.71 apparently,  so that would work out  around £508 for a 40hr week.    So don't know where they get the £749 from.

£749 is the Average wage, not the minimum. 

I started work as a clerk in the Corporation offices after a year at Commercial college when I was 16 in 1962.  My pay was £16 a month.  After I was married in 1967, I became a wages clerk, in a Remploy factory.  We paid the employees weekly, in cash.  I worked out the overtime payments, deducted tax and NI, then calculated notes and coinage needed, and went to the bank, on my own, to collect it. It was put in envelopes and I would pay out on the factory floor.  I really liked that job, I only left to have my first child. No maternity leave back then.

[Mups]

£749 is the Average wage, not the minimum. 

I started work as a clerk in the Corporation offices after a year at Commercial college when I was 16 in 1962.  My pay was £16 a month.  After I was married in 1967, I became a wages clerk, in a Remploy factory.  We paid the employees weekly, in cash.  I worked out the overtime payments, deducted tax and NI, then calculated notes and coinage needed, and went to the bank, on my own, to collect it. It was put in envelopes and I would pay out on the factory floor.  I really liked that job, I only left to have my first child. No maternity leave back then.

Ah yes,  you are quite right,  sorry.