In 1970-odd, when we started driving, petrol was about 3 gallons for a pound (33p per gallon).
Average wages at the time were about £25 a week, so one gallon was about 2 percent of average wage.
Average wages are now (ish) £30000, or £575 a week. 2 per cent of that is £11.50.
While petrol is currently about £1.75 a litre, or £9 a gallon (ish).
So petrol has either remained the same relative price, or in some circumstances is cheaper.
I know that the £575 is arguable, and includes the fat cats on hundreds of thousands a year as well as the cleaners on minimum wage, but apart from that are my sums right?
If the average wage in the 70's was £25.00 per week and a gallon of petrol was £0.33 then petrol, would, I think, equate to approx to 1.3%. (£0.50 would be 2%).
At £1.75 per litre, petrol is £8.00 per gallon (approx) and that would equate to 1.39% of an average wage of £575.00.
I remember cheap petrol. 2s 6d a gallon of Esso in our local station. My Dad used to shop around for cheaper.Our A.30 only held about 8 gallons. That was during the Suez crisis when he needed ration coupons as well.
Mind you I worked for 3 years on an oil field in Saudi Arabia. Petrol was equivalent to 11 pence (yes pence) a Gallon! No wonder I could afford to run a 5.8 Litre Chevrolet .
Assuming your average weekly wage of £25 in the 1970's and 33p per gallon,
this is 1.32% of the average weekly wage.
£1.30 per litre is approx £5.91 per gallon.
£5.91 is 1.32% of £447 (approx), equivalent to £23244 per annum.
If the average yearly wage is £30k:
this gives that a gallon of petrol is currently 1.02% of the average weekly wage.
Assuming that the your figures of 33p per gallon and £25 per week are correct, it suggests that petrol prices are pretty much what they used to be, in relation to wages.
Flonska. Your fine tuning of my guestimates indicates that petrol is at best the same relative price now as it was 50-odd years ago, and if you take the claims of cheaper fuel at Tescos and Morrisons, then it is in fact CHEAPER now.
Only doubt is over the £30,000 figure, as I know several people on between £15 and £20,000 a year, so for them petrol is in fact dearer!
I’ve been suspicious of similar figures since the 80s when unemployment figures were ‘improved’ by excluding various categories, like short-term unemployed, long-term unemployed, young, old - etc.
I know such terms are sniffed at these days, but I’d like some class-based statistics! Average working class wages, for example.
It's worth pointing out that current vehicles get about 50% more mpg than those of the 70's, so the fuel costs for travelling a given distance are reduced proportionally.
As a school boy I had a part time job as a petrol pump attendant,no self service in those days,for which I received 2/- per hour and the top grade petrol was 4/11d a gallon.