Oddbean new post about | logout
 I'm very curious about the avg cost of say a sandwich vs min wage over the last half century.

I stopped at a local sandwich shop yesterday, not particularly fancy, nothing special, no meat in it or anything super costly. Just maybe slightly above average tasting toasted sandwich. It was good, maybe a tad too sweet but satisfying. 

After tax and tip it cost about an hour at Ontario's minimum wage. 

I'm curious what the cost of prepped food in relation to min wage has been historically. When I actually stopped to think about it, it seems really ridiculous that a single sandwich was an hour of top line wages. 

Was this always the case, is this just a ridiculously expensive shop (I know I'm downtown near transit), or is this part of the artificial inflation going on? 

What's a sandwich near you cost in terms of hours of work at min wage?