How much did truckers earn in past decades? 1990s? 1980s? 1970s?

You will find large degree of variability and will be hard to nail down any real and "equal job" numbers to compare. But truck drivers have always been better paid then most all inside workers within the same company or business sector, (not counting mid/upper level management and sales people) For example Walmart drivers make considerably more gross wages then the typical dock and yard workers and most DC office personnel. And you will see this with almost any company that has truck drivers in addition to inside workers.

And the dynamic holds today as it did 20-30-40 years ago. Maybe driver wages seem stagnant, but you can talk to many other types of workers across the nation who will tell you the same thing. This is not a truck driver problem, this is a problem for workers throughout obamaville. So, if you've got a good position as a truck driver, you should probably count yourself fortunate. Yes, the job has plenty of pitfalls that will offset a lot of the add'l gross wage potential, but most truck drivers are still netting more then most non truck driver blue-collar workers.

 

Call the teamsters up, they have a historical group and they should be able to tell you what you know.

 

Well I'm going to draw a line in the sand. If you are calling truck driving a non skilled job then I agree with you that drivers wages are doing pretty good (especially of late) vs a dock worker. I'm not sure they've kept up with the trades though.

 

My father hauled swinging beef out of the Ft Worth stockyards for Swift and Armour back in the early 50'S through the mid 60's. My mother kept a ledger of the wages and expenses.
Most of the time his bring home was around $75.00 a week. He would leave out late Sunday night and get home Friday afternoon. No sleeper, he stayed in a motel or Bunkhouse during the week.
We lived the middle class life style. Had mostly what we wanted.

 

As far as I know a 20 year Teamster got $2000 a month for 20 and $3000 for 30 years before they got into pension trouble. As of late that will be no more for anybody. I heard the fund was mis managed and all takers will suffer a 50% cut under the PGF payouts. ( Brown excluded )

Some may feel a bit postal after doing 20 odd years and the promise is gone. I know I would have had I stayed in........

To your question, my buddies dad ran for Blue Line on the line haul......net $300 a month in the early 70's. I started in the quarry in '73 for $5.00 an hour and made $153.30 a week after taxes and I promise you I was in high cotton.

Dad was an engineer for Cat ( 2 yr degree ) and made about 35k ( early 70's ) and the parents bought a new house. Note was $400 a month and they were terrified. Dad bought mom a new LTD, it was $4300 ( 1972 ) and loaded. Paid cash, told me " no one finances a car son, that's ridicules! " ( smirk )

They would just die ( literally , already passed ) with my bills and the price of things today........

My $5.00 wage adjusted for inflation but not compounded is $11.30 an hour today. Annually is about $23,500 and if you throw in compounding then trucking wages are about equal adjusted for inflation which in turn is stagnant. All extra money is simply a cost of living adjustment.

JMO

 

I have been driving for 35 years, staring in 1980. I can remember making like .23 CPM in the 80's, and then .27 and then more. The biggest cash I made was in 1985 and 1986 when I was a Teamster car hauler out of the Linden, NJ GM plant and then the docks. It was .68 CPM back then plus union benefits when your average driver was probably making .23 CPM. Now that was some cash!

Alas, I didn't stick with them so today instead of being retired and getting that union retirement check I am still out here working. And guess what, I believe I might even have a pay stubb somewhere from back then. So what's this "extra credit" if I find one?

 

On the old TV show Movin' On from time to time the characters would mention their earnings. One of them would say something like "$340. not bad for a weeks work" That was in 1974.

 

I worked Teamsters from 1996 - 2000. We got $4.36 per hr tax free (On top of our $27.72hr salary) that went into a type of IRA fund. When I moved to Fla in 99 and cashed out in 2000, I had $36k.

Was a PITA to get,.. because I lived in MD I had to pay MD state tax and then because my Ex wife was listed as a beneficiary,.. I had to get a written consent form signed by her that she didnt contest me getting the money. I'll leave you to your imaginations to digest how well that went over.

Hurst