NO ONE HAS IT HARDER THAN THEIR FATHER DID:

Thanksgiving dinner in 2021 will be cheaper than what it was in 2019. The feast cost 2.08 hours (124.8 minutes) of work in 2019. That means that the average American worker will work 3 minutes less in 2021 than he or she did in 2019 to pay for the meal.

Also, do not forget the long-term trend. The U.S. Farm Bureau started collecting the Thanksgiving dinner cost data in 1986. That year, the feast cost $28.74 (in 1986 dollars), while the average blue-collar hourly wage was $8.92 (in 1986 dollars). That means that the time-price of Thanksgiving dinner in 1986 was 3.22 hours or 193.2 minutes.

Take-away no. 3:

On average, the American worker will work 71.4 minutes less to pay for Thanksgiving dinner in 2021 than he or she did in 1986 (193.2 minutes - 121.8 minutes = 71.4 minutes).

It has been a difficult year for most people, and our analysis is not meant to belittle the hardship that Americans have endured since the start of the pandemic. But doom and gloom are not our friends either.

Take-away no. 4:

To wit, the time price of Thanksgiving dinner in 2021 will be 7 percent higher than it was in 2020. It will be 2.4 percent lower than it was in 2019. Finally, it will be 37 percent lower than it was in 1986.

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