Very interesting post and good analysis. I keep a copy of one of my Dad’s pay stubs, not from 1929 (he was only 8 at that time) but from March 7th, 1941 when he was a P-38 mechanic for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank CA. Total hours: 40; Gross Earnings: $20.40; State Unemployment Insurance: $0.20; Federal OAB (Old Age Benefits, i.e., Social Security): $0.20; Group Insurance: $0.58; Miscellaneous Deductions: $0.52; Net Earnings (take-home pay): $18.90/week.
On this amount (he was single at the time) he told me he drove a Lincoln and co-owned an airplane (which he had to sell in early 1942 inasmuch as they closed down airspace over Los Angeles to civilian aircraft after the attack on Pearl Harbor).
Times certainly have changed