How Well Did The Post Office Pay 101 Years Ago?

Members,
While going through my Grandfathers employment with the P.O. starting in 1914, I thought it might be of interest to some of you folks, regarding Postal History.

He was hired as a laborer at the Elmwood Station Prov. R.I. effective August 16th, 1914 at an annual salary of $720.00 per year. Divided by 52 is $13.84 a week, divided by 40 hrs. would be .34 cents an hour.

In the 1920's he was promoted to superintendent of that station
retiring March 5th, 1952.

Included are some items of interest.
One letter dated March 16th, 1927 speaks of " Do not be afraid
to talk as if you own the building and pay the bills."

Enjoy












*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Certified to be a citizen of the United States? Required a bond? O the injustice of it all!

That is an awesome piece/collection of postal and family history. I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Wonderful family collection!

From page 477 of the "Official Register of the Unites States, 1911, Vol II, The Postal Service" shows Providence's Postmaster Walter Kilton made a salary of $6000.



And Albert A. Leach, the laborer in 1911 made $700, so your father got an increase! Unfortunately, 1911 was the last year the Official Register included the postal employees.

Thank you KGB, Achilles, & John Becker,

I had never heard of the Official Register until now.
Interesting that Mr.Walter A. Kilton as Postmaster, made
almost 8.5 x's my grandfathers starting salary. He spoke of a
recommendation he made that got my grandfather his job!
I am thankful for that!

Great history, thank for sharing BOB!

He wasn't doing so bad for the time:
If you want to compare the value of a $0.34 Income or Wealth , in 1914 there are five choices. In 2014 the relative:
historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is $8.31
contemporary standard of living value of that income or wealth is $16.20
labor earnings of that commodity is $34.80 (using the unskilled wage) or $50.20 (using production worker compensation)
economic status value of that income or wealth is $49.70
economic power value of that income or wealth is $160.00

revcollector,

I'm curious about some of your measures of 2014 relative "value." Could you provide links to the sources? "Income" and "wealth" are two very different things, and what might be a good measure of how one has changed over time wouldn't necessarily apply to the other (which may explain why the results are all over the map). The original $0.34 is an hour labor wage rate. That is certainly not "wealth," and only indirectly "income." I'm guessing your $8.31 is based on the CPI. Where does the $16.31 come from? Implicit price deflator for GDP? The "economic...value" figures look like wealth relatives, which would not apply to wage rates. Links to the other two (labor earnings) would help me better understand why they are so high.

Basil

Interesting numbers. $8.31 is close to what my daughter earned working the counter at McDonald's. $16.31 is what my son made with an office temp job. And those numbers are from a few years ago.

Just for fun I checked the 3 cent stamp of 1851. Today it would be 96 cents (cpi).

Edit: forgot to add thanks! I love the letter about owning the place and paying the bills. Did anyone NOT understand what he was driving at? Good stuff.