I really like this movie, its quirky and charming, but I do have a silly observation to make: A full-time live-in maid (6 days a week, mind you) gets paid only $140 a WEEK??? WTH? I know it was the '80s and all, but did that amount seem surprisingly small to anyone else?
"I offer you this rose...my heart, my soul, my love." "Love?" - Legend
I was a kid when I first saw this, so it didn't in that respect! ;) But now it does. Not sure if that was the point since she'd been so used to blowing money easily. And then, the fact that the family was covering all her living expenses...rent, food, shelter...
It'd be interesting to see something that would show what a live-in maid would make during that time.
Actually minimum wage back then was only like $3.30 an hour or something along those lines, plus they were paying for her room & board as well. So if you look at it, it was pretty fair. It just seems low if you see the movie now considering the cost of living now, and how much minimum wage is now in 2006.
I think 140 was Jessie's starting pay. What a humbling experience to go from having an American Excess Gold card to pinching pennies over night. I doubt that the others were getting the same amount. And for the first month, Jessie was seriously OVER paid.
Think about it, the employees get to eat, shower, wash their clothing, access the pool, the limo (on Sunday evenings), supplied uniforms, and have a roof over their head. 140X4=560 (tax free), and if pennies are pinched, in 6 months you could have over 3 grand in the bank. Not bad in 1986.
House: Hey I can be a jerk to people I haven't slept with. I am that good.
Also, there was the point that the Sharkeys were very cheap. Wasn't the wife mashing together excess soap slivers and then presenting them as "Hooray... soap for the servant's bathroom!"
Last I heard, it was $15.96 in Australia, it was going UP by $17.10 a week.
That's an insanely high minimum wage by U.S standards! But a male friend of mine tells me it also costs a LOT to live in Australia.
That's the diabolical thing about minimum wage; in my state of Connecticut we have one of the highest minimum wages in the country. But we also have one of the highest costs of living in the country.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus." "Didn't he discover America?" "Penfold, shush."
A little late to the party, I know... but I imagine that $140 was net pay, after taxes... they were employees, not contract workers... their wages were subject to tax & social security.
~ the hardest thing in this world... is to live in it ~
In 1986-7 when this was filmed, minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. At $140 a week @ 40 hours, she was making $3.50/hr. She was making $0.15/hr over minimum. In the big time! ;-)
LOL! I had forgotten about minimum wage being that low! Sometimes I wonder how I managed to make it back in the early 70s when I first started working. Good thing I was still living at home with Mom & Dad. Of course, once I started working full-time I insisted that they accept monthly rent from me (although it wasn't a whole lot, it was better than the nothing they would have gone with) & a little extra weekly to help pay for groceries. Sometimes I miss those days. But not the low wages.
~ the hardest thing in this world... is to live in it ~