I made $3.35 and worked my ass off in 1985. I was genuinely tired, though not stressed at shift end. That 10x thing is pure bullshit. The extra stress is solely because their paycheck is needed to survive, versus for some extra money. I didn't have much idle time. Wendy's had a salad bar then and other things (manual cash registers, less automation, no credit cards, less prefab food, etc) that were arguably more work than today's world. Other stuff, like degreasing the floor at shift end can't be any better or worse now. Didn't need health insurance or other benefits though, and my paycheck went to clothes, booze, and computer/electronic crap. Stuff my Mom wouldn't buy. I wasn't stressing about how much my paycheck was.