The 90 cents a mile on the Chicago taxi meter in 1981– when I was beginning to drive a cab there (now retired) — would make two dollars and twenty-eight cents a mile today if the mileage rate had kept up with inflation — according the federal bureau of labor standards online inflation calculator (which uses the most commonly accepted inflation measure: CPI-U). 2012′s Chicago taxi meter: $1.80/mile — fully half a dollar less. http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=.90&year1=1981&year2=2012
Since 1981 average income in the US has grown at least 50% — as new technologies and better management techniques came into play.
I heard about Chicago cab drivers’ every-Monday-morning strike last week and was told by the people I was with that drivers claimed $5/hr wages. I told them of my generation’s story: “Only one 30 cent increase in the milage between 1981 and 1997; at which midpoint the city started putting on 40% more cabs while adding trains to both airports, unlimited limo licenses and free trolleys between all the hot spots downtown.” $5 is what an Evanston “Norshore (company)” driver recently told me he was earning. Easy to believe.
MORE CHICAGO LOCAL COLOR:
The 90 cents a mile on the Chicago taxi meter in 1981– when I was beginning to drive a cab there (now retired) — would make two dollars and twenty-eight cents a mile today if the mileage rate had kept up with inflation — according the federal bureau of labor standards online inflation calculator (which uses the most commonly accepted inflation measure: CPI-U). 2012′s Chicago taxi meter: $1.80/mile — fully half a dollar less.
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=.90&year1=1981&year2=2012
Since 1981 average income in the US has grown at least 50% — as new technologies and better management techniques came into play.
Post CommentI heard about Chicago cab drivers’ every-Monday-morning strike last week and was told by the people I was with that drivers claimed $5/hr wages. I told them of my generation’s story: “Only one 30 cent increase in the milage between 1981 and 1997; at which midpoint the city started putting on 40% more cabs while adding trains to both airports, unlimited limo licenses and free trolleys between all the hot spots downtown.” $5 is what an Evanston “Norshore (company)” driver recently told me he was earning. Easy to believe.