I’m not going to dispute the premise or the figures, but the parallel is not an exact one.

Costs of living were very different in the 1840s, and the relative value of money was higher. However. Victorian clerks were regularly required to work 10-12 hour days - no ovetime pay - and the only day they were allowed off was Sunday. So Cratchit was being paid 15 shillings a week for 60 hours of work.

Taking the figure of $27,574 above, that works out to about $13.25 an hour, if Bob Cratchit worked 40 hours a week.

But at the more likely 60 hours a week, he earned $8.84 an hour.

So why am I bringing this up, if I’m not quibbling with the premise?

Because $8.84/hour IS STILL MORE THAN THE U.S. FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE.

Because we’ve had over a hundred years of labor agitating for a 40-hour work week and a legal minimum wage. People have fought and bled and been imprisoned and been killed to gain us these.

And we must never forget that.

Today I learned Ebenezer Scrooge was a jerk but not enough of a jerk to pay his workers minimum wage and tbh that’s kinda fucked me up.