My father told me that his first job was following the wheat harvest from Oklahoma to South Dakota.... at $2 per day. (about 1925)

My first salaried job was in a small grocery store at $00.35 per hour.. in 1955. It lasted 2 weeks before I realized I was being had... even in 1955, it was low.

My father was making about $75 a week at that time, after 25+ years at Western Union, and he was buying a house and keeping us fed on that wage.
Now, it often takes two salaries to do what he did on one... society has changed - there are so many more 'things' to spend money on, and there is far less incentive for companies to create products for the bottom third of society when there are enough customers who CAN afford the luxuries... or who consider things like 'smart phones' to be necessities and 'adjust' their priorities to fit..