How poor is Bob Cratchit?

I was working out some past commodity prices (as one does, at least if one is me) and realised that in "A Christmas Carol", Bob Cratchit is paid 15 shillings a week. 

Adjusting for inflation using wage growth formulas, and assuming he works ten hours every day except sunday and get no holidays (a given, if one's employer is Mr Scrooge) that still works out at £10.19 an hour.

The highest 2023 minimum wage (for people over 23) is £9.50 an hour.  It's less than a literal Dickensian archetype of poverty is getting.


(For those wanting to check the maths, www.measuringworth.com will give you the inflation calculation - "A Christmas Carol" was written in 1843. I've assumed he works 6 x 10 hr days, 52 weeks per year.)

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