The series producers initially planned to make Arnie's salary following his promotion (which is mentioned in the pilot) $25,000 a year. They eventually decided that this was too affluent by 1970 standards (when minimum wage was $1.30 an hour), and reduced it to $20,000. Assuming 2,000 working hours a year, Arnie's salary would therefore have been the equivalent of $12.50 per hour under their original plan, and the equivalent of $10.00 an hour after it was changed.