Average Hourly Earnings

It is often related that a wage per day in Roman times was essentially 1/10 troy oz silver. Adapting this idea to modern times, consider deriving this value (and hence the value of 1 troy oz silver) using the average hourly pay.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes Table B-3. Average hourly and weekly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted.

Using the most recent and smallest number (to be conservative) in this table, $17.24 / hr, and assuming the work day is 8 hours, we derive 8hr*$17.24/hr = $137.93 gross income per day.

However, the worker would take home less than this amount. We assume the percent of this the work actually takes home is 64%. Therefore, the net income is .64*$137.93 = $88.27 / day.

This net income amount represents 1/10 troy oz silver. Therefore, a valuation for silver is 10*$88.27 = $882.27 / troy oz.

If instead of using the smallest number in the table, we use the average of the most recent numbers in table, which is about $30 / hr, we get a valuation for silver of 10*(.64*($30/hr*8hrs)) = $1,536 / troy oz.

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