In 1870, a cooper in New York, someone who made wooden barrels by hand, earned about $2.67 per day, working six days a week for long 10 to 12-hour shifts. Their yearly pay came out to around $833, a modest wage even at the time. Coopers were skilled tradesmen who built barrels used to store and ship everything from coal oil to whisky. The work required strength, precision, and stamina, as every barrel had to be watertight without modern adhesives or nails.
Living costs in 1870 were relatively low by modern standards. A gallon of coal oil cost 18 cents, a pound of pickled mackerel was 12 cents, a gallon of whisky was 82 cents, and a ton of iron, used for making barrel hoops, cost $70. Gold was priced at $20.67 per ounce, meaning a full year’s wages for a cooper could buy just 40 ounces, worth over $90,000 in today’s market. Taxes were minimal, but daily expenses like food, fuel, and rent made it necessary for many coopers to live in shared housing.
Today, coopers are rare, working mainly in specialty distilleries or historical trades. With modern tools and safer conditions, they can earn between $45,000 and $70,000 annually. While largely forgotten, 19th-century coopers were essential to American life, quietly powering commerce, storage, and transportation in an era before plastics, cardboard, or steel drums.