Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How much did you make at your first real job?

$2.00/hr, which was minimum wage at the time, working for a bricklayer. I started out mixing mud, assembling scaffolding, and hauling bricks.

Don't count as a real job, but I spent a day cleaning a hog pen at 13, 1983.
My great aunt bought me a box of 20ga shells.

Farmers, mowing, anything for a buck...
Then in 86 a classy farmer hired me and paid 2/hr. I thought they were
really honest, they took social security out of my pay.
Funny, it doesn't show up on the Social Security records...

Real job? Detailing cars at a Ford dealer evenings and Saturdays. 1986.
$3.50/hr. 15 cents over min/wage. And I worked almo st 30 hours a week.
Still in school, my friends were mostly on the "you can screw a kid" minimum
wage and getting under 20 hours. I was rich!


After awhile.

I started early in November, they paid on the 15th and 30th.
Remember, back then employers held your 1st check, they were always
a check behind? I worked a month before i got paid. Wallet was empty,
gas tank was empty. No driving but to work for a month. Didn't even buy a Coke at work. Never ask Mom or Dad for a cent. They would have
loaned me money. Mom might have given me $5 for gas. But that would
have been humiliating. There was a grocery store that stayed open untill 9.
Left work at 8:30 with that check, got it cashed, and filled my gas tank.

Flying high after that.😉

Off the farm/ranch - whatever minimum wage was in the summer of '67. Maybe $1.10?
Just before I turned 15, cleaning typewriters (whatever THOSE are).
The shop owner had contracts with schools all over northern NM - some delivery and pickup was required.
Pretty nice summer job - worked haying evenings and weekends.

$2.25 in 1977.

Gas was $0.26 a gallon.

$87 a month in USAF Basic training. Discharged 9 years later, E-5, $828 a month.
Went to work civil service upon discharge in 1981 made $25K first year, like hitting the lottery

Holy smoke... I used to work at Burger Chef...

My dad knew the owner of a bunch of Richmond VA franchises (Wayne IIRC). Big drama about 100% beef being blended with cheaper filler at some level... Wayne refused and his whole operation shut down.

Wayne opened Biscuit Barn after that (Richmond, VA)... DAMN GOOD BISCUITS!!!

For you west PA guys.....my first real job was at McCreary Tire & Rubber Indiana PA---1972 ish

I ran a tire building machine making farm implement tires and racing slicks

had many odd jobs prior to that...went to underground coal after that.....then Utah

https://americanraceronline.com/company/

I think it was $3.35/hr at McD's in HS, I hated that job.

Around $11.50 as a surveyor assistant at an underground coal mine in the mid-90's. That led to returning to college a few years later to finish my mining engineering degree.

Back on 1962 it was $1 an hour, worked at a local gas station on Saturday and one night a week after school. Nice thing it was paid out of the cash register at the end of the day.
Gas was 30 cents a gal, burgers were 75 cents, movies were about a buck. Could go on a nice date for about $5.

$3.35/hr when I was 11 years old. I worked every morning before school from 5:00 am= 7:15 am or so cutting bails or wire with wire cutters at the place that made concrete burial vaults. I essentially made the rebar frames that went into the concrete forms. Lots of rusty wire and cut hands.

Count 6 squares and cut all the way across and then straighten by bending it the opposite of the coil across a 55 gal drum with hooks on it. Hard on even a young back.

Bb

First full time job after graduating college was $7600. Most I ever made previously was $1.09 an hour.

There used to be quite a few small tire building and retreading outfits scattered around here. All gone now. Not sure if its lack of business or
what. Do know I haven't seen a retread on a passenger vehicle in decades.
Or, even smaller trucks.

First job was in the early 80s. Pollinating tobacco for a seed manufacturer for $3.00 an hour. I was about 10 years old.

First full time job was in 1993. Surveyor for TDOT engineering field office. It paid $859 per month. A lot of folks made fun of me for taking that job. Fast forward to now, I am 48 and retired with a pension and medical insurance for life. If my wife outlives me, it's also hers for life. Everybody who made fun of me are all still working I think.

$2.10 an hour. Lumber mill. 1965.

My first year out of college in 1993 I made $21,000 as a software installer.

1968 to 70 $1.65 working at a local park/zoo
1970 to 72 $1.85 driving school buss while attending JC
1972 started electrical apprenticeship $50% of of journeymen $4.25, wife and I thought we were chitting in tall cotton LOL

I hit the work force at about 13 in '72, I'll be darned if I can remember an hourly wage.

It kinda amazes me that some of you guy can.

Glue down?

Started at $4.25 per hour back in 1989. Still at the same place, actually own a small percentage of it now and make a little more hourly.

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