Warning: SPOILERS for The Gilded Age Episode 1 - “Never The New”
Set in 1882, The Gilded Age takes place during a time of great economic growth within the United States. Business is booming and immigration is on the rise, but not everyone is rich. In fact, a massive wealth gap is forming in the United States. Some families are able to leave a financially healthy legacy for their descendants, but others are left to build their own legacy from nothing.
The show begins with Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) talking to a lawyer about her deceased father’s estate. Dressed in all black, clearly in mourning but hopeful that perhaps he has left her with something of value that can help her have a fresh start, Marian finds out that her father was not the savviest with his money and that she has been left with a meager sum. Right at the beginning of The Gilded Age, her remaining family is all she has to turn to. Marian sells her furniture and heads to New York City to live with her Aunts Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook.
The lawyer tells Marian that after the funeral arrangements and other outstanding s have been paid, about $30 has been left to her. However, ing for inflation, that number equates to something much larger today, but it still isn’t much. $30 in 1882 would be roughly $820.01 in 2022.
According to United States Census data, between 1880 and 1890, the average annual wage for an industrial worker rose from $380 to $564. So on the lower end of that spectrum, which is closer to when The Gilded Age timeline starts, at an annual income of $380, $30 would have been about a month’s wage. Marian references the railroad industry when talking to the lawyer and how surely because of his involvement with it, there must be more money left over. Perhaps at one time there was more money because Agnes later suggests that he spent what he did have on women and alcohol.
The average cost of travel by rail at this time was between 2 and 3 cents per mile. New York City is about 90 miles or so from Doylestown, PA, so her railway ticket that was stolen would have been a little over $2.00 in 1882, or about $60.00 today, which is a pretty significant chunk out of her small inheritance. $30 doesn’t sound like a lot today, and really, it wasn’t very much in 1882 either.
The Gilded Age are plentiful, and Marian has her work cut out for her after the ing of her father. She is left knowing that her father was not really the man she thought he was, and he has left her very little to get by on. Fortunately, Marian wants to make something of herself and is inspired by the work ethic of her new friend, Peggy Scott (Denée Benton). This is The Gilded Age, and while everyone is trying to take advantage of the economic boom, perhaps Marian, motivated by the measly $30 she was left by her father, will find a way to set herself apart from the crowd.
The Gilded Age airs Mondays at 9pm on HBO and streams on HBO Max.