Well, my last post #896861 only showcased two datapoints on this topic: 1971 and 2024.

That got me thinking, how would the whole graph look like?

Well, I'm happy to say I got the answers boys!

I tried to get as much data as possible and as reliable as possible. I also tried to get data on the median wage, as some of you suggested, but it proved to be more difficult than what I expected. Especially when looking for longer term datasets, like before the 1980s. The best I could find was this, my next analysis may revolve around this data. If anyone's got better sources, let me know in the comments.

That said, I used this dataset for the federally mandated minimum wage and then I went on to use two different sources for the SP500 monthly closing price data. I used this dataset for the period between 1938 till 2020, and then I supplemented this data with Nasdaq's own dataset.

Btw, I have not adjusted for inflation any of these metrics, since both datasets use non-adjusted prices, the ratio cancels out the inflation.

When you join both SP500 datasets and you adapt the Minimum Wage data set to a monthly baseline, and represent it in a graph, this is the result. The first one is linear, the second one is on log scale. Linear scale of S&P500 prices (Left) and Minimum Wage (Right). Log scale of of S&P500 prices (Left) and Minimum Wage (Right).

But this doesn't give us enough information, since one of them is a discreet data set, and the other is a continuous dataset, and it's hard to see if they grow at the same time. There's a few timeframes were it seems like Minimum Wage even outpaced the S&P500, like in the 50s jump, or from the mid 70s to early 80s.

Regardless, let's take a look at that ratio, shall we?

Here's the standalone ratio of the S&P500 over the Minimum Wage with the previous other datasets.

And here's the ratio all alone, by itself:

Now, here's the same data, but on Log Scale:

The only insight I have on this is how on linear, it's clear that the explosion is after the 2008 QE started. But in the log scale, you can clearly see that by the mid late 80s and the 90s it was already going crazy, making it already more than double as expensive as before.

Either way, I leave these here for you to explore and analyze. You can also download my dataset here, I know, it's google drive, if someone has a better method for me to share these, I'll happily post it there.

May the Hash be with you!