Hmm,

...
*mine [my Mum's father] started work as a
brass finisher in
1895 - at the age of
13 - with
Shanks's of
Barrhead, with whom he remained until he was
73 - finally retiring in
1955 after
sixty years' service.
However,
unlike you, Michael ...

... I've
no idea what
his starting wage was -
nor what he
earned at the time of his
retiral, 
... but I'll bet the difference between the two - over the entire six decades of his working life - was
nothing like the contrast over a corresponding length of time from the
mid~1950s up till the present day.