So according to that, you are saying that union grocery clerks made $3.00 an hour. I made more than that flipping burgers at King's Food Host before I got the A+P gig. A+P was ran out of business by grossly overpriced union labor (I'll be the first to admit it). You're trying to compare todays non union shops against them.
Remember not all grocery stores, even then, were union shops. Unions made agreements with stores and chains and as I recall got a sweetheart deal from A+P. The grocery store across the street (Locally owned, independent), was non union and my friends who worked there made far less than I did.
I was called into my high school counselor's office during my senior year due to my skipping afternoon classes to work at A+P. I remember the dropped jaw reaction when she saw I made more than she did.
FYI
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ran stores for 2 chains,
first was non union, to the point that if anyone did organize, they were told do it and we close the store,
the other was a union shop,
the non union had a payscale that was flexible, as in a baggers wage scale may start at say $7, (been out of the business 8 yrs, not sure what wages are there now) and top out at $10, with 50cent increments, so as a manager, I could hire a bagger at any slot on that scale,
train them to run a register and they went to a different job class and the scale changed, etc etc,
dept clerks were much higher, and some positions got a premium
when I switched (W/D went bankrupt, pulled out of VA) to a union shop, the scales worked differently,
in this are, in 2004 till I got out of it in 2015, it was all scale based,
you got points for time in the business, and points for experience in different depts,
so a basic bagger, never worked a day in his/her/they life, got in at basicall minimum wage (wanna say $7.25 then,) but a clerk hired for a dept with 20 yrs exp, and experience all the depts, would be hired at top of the scale,, then about $10.50 maybe $11, and would not get a raise since they were at the top of the scale unless the contract called for it, (in the non union company that employee would be hired in at $12 or better and get a raise every year)
contract was extremely weak, and those that paid (Va is a right to work state, you did not have to join to work in a union shop) the $10 or so a week in dues got basically nothing for it,