$16K is 8 bucks an hour isn’t it? (40hrx50wks) After union dues, taxes and health care, you were probably getting what $4-5 net?
Actually it was a non union job, in a little burg where rent was $225 a month. Living and working in NYC for $3 an hour.....only an illegal would work for those wages. In construction $10 an hour for laborers was standard by ‘85. Now the same guys are making $15 an hour BECAUSE of illegal competition.