[Windflier]

Charging $45 per hour in the late 80s (roughly $80 per hour inflation-adjusted) had to be due to unions.

I've been in the trades since 1979, and can tell you that non-union journeymen only made half that wage in the late 80s.

[BobL]

“I’ve been in the trades since 1979, and can tell you that non-union journeymen only made half that wage in the late 80s.”

I would hope that would be the case for non-union, but the union boys certainly weren’t cheap...and then couple that with the legendary productivity of unions and it becomes obvious why there was such an effort to finally break them.