I just did a quick Google of UAW wage, 1960 and came up with this:
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...e-wage-history
Quote:
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John Barnard in "American Vanguard": Measured in constant dollars, the 1947 average weekly wage in the industry of $56.51 had doubled by 1960 to $115.21, and tripled by 1970 to $170.07.
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X 52=$5990
If you extrapolate Henry Ford's famous $5 per day wage (1914!) into 5 days a week x 52 (they actually worked 6 days back then) it equates to $1300 annually. That's 46-years removed from 1960.
Granted, these were probably the best industrial wages in the US, but hardly paying more than an EE PhD circa 1960. An average new car in 1960 was probably $2500, less than a year's wage. If today's average car is $30k, it's still well under a year's wages for the average autoworker.