In high school in 68, 69, 70 minimum wage was 2.10 I believe.

When I started my apprenticeship in 1971 I was making 50% of journeyman plumbers wages. I was getting a whopping 3.10 an hour. I was clearing 98.46! First wifey and I about didn’t make it on that.

How much you make starting out.?

Things changed, 46.08 when I retired, could make more on a Saturday than I did in a month in 71. Union plumbers were getting 6.20 then, probably 8.50 with insurance and .50 vacation money. Times have changed, not for the better either

Although I’d worked bailing hay going into my sophomore year at a different farm, going into my junior and senior year I worked at another farm for $1.00 an hour, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. I thought I was a millionaire with $60 a week.

Spent it all on gas and condoms with my high school girlfriend.

1978 , I think I was making about $2.90 an hour.

Mowing lawns and yard work were my first job.. My first real job was sacking groceries at Safeway in 1974 or 1975. I can't remember how much I was making but it wasn't much but it sure was fun!!

$32k a year as a baby engineer. That was in ‘93. I bought a corvette and thought I had the world by the tail. Actually, I kinda did since I was single for 5 years afterwards.

My first job? Washing dishes for 3.35. My first real job I was a mechanic making $16 and thought I was gonna be rich.

About 1900 'n 65 I made a dollar an hour pumping gas at the station next to our house, 10 year old.

About '72 I was making $3/hour giving swimming lessons.

First job was a 1.00 a day working on the neighbors farm. At 7 I was in hog heaven. In high school worked at an auto parts store $1.60. $2.50 a year later after graduation and going full-time.

My first job where I paid the government for the privilege of working was in '87 and I was paid $3.40/hour.

Before that I worked for a family friend, running saws, planers, routers and such for 2 bucks an hour, cash. Started working for him when I was 13. It was great experience and he appreciated my perfectionist nature. He also guided me through rebuilding the engine for my second car - more rewarding experience.

$2/hour because back then parents with businesses that had kids on the payroll were allowed to pay less than minimum wage lol. For years I didn't get paid because I had a bed and roof but they thought it was a good idea for me to get a bank account and learn to hate the IRS.

First real plumbing job out of HS $3.90/hr many moons ago.

Graduating college in WV in 1986, I took the first job that didn’t involve coal….. $8.25/hr. I had been making $3.35 working retail. Never would have dreamed I be where I am today.

In the early to mid 60’s we loaded hay for a nickel a bale and lunch. 3 of us worked together and could do pretty well. First real job was in 1966 making .85 cents an hour. Hit the big time in the summer of 1969 making $2.50 an hour as a construction laborer.

Hanco my first job was busing tables and it brought me 1.45 an hour.

Thought i was a rich kid.

While I worked at a produce market from age 11 through my first summer after my freshman year of college and did a couple of summer internships with whom I eventually started with in 1985 post college graduation and retired from in 2015. I consider this my first real job. I started at $29,500 in 1985.

Mine was the measly pay of a sojer, doled out by Uncle from y'all's (in)voluntary donations.
RB

I believe it was $3.25 per hour. Still work there.

KC

Think your off on the minimum wage then believe it was $1.65

Enlisted 6 weeks after I turned 18. Salary for recruits was $720/month. this was the early 90's In Australia. Once trained and at our units the pay was about $1280/month. About $240 of that went to R&Q( rations and quarters, aka accomodation and food). The Aus dollar was about .65c to the USD back then, the price of living more expensive. It was considered an reasonable salary for a young person at that time.

Worked on the farm through high school, I was raking in 3.50 an hour, which was better than the $25 a day I started at. As a bonus after work we could haul and stack hay for a dime a bale.

Mid 70's gathering chicken eggs for the neighbor for 2 bucks an hour. Then the big time hit, my other neighbor started raising rabbits and hired me to butcher them up paying me 65 cents a rabbit, I got to where I could do 13 an hour. at 13 years old I was making 8.45 an hour. I was swimming in money.

Went from minimum wage $1.65, IIRC, to $6.35. Thought I was rich.

1989 I was 13 yo and making $4.50 an hour and getting 4 hours a week at my second job.

I was laid off for the slow fall and winter months but my boss swung by my house with a $100 Christmas bonus!

I stayed with the company until I was 25 or so and my last Christmas bonus was well above $2k.

Great guys to work for and wouldn't change it for the world.

$1.60 per hour.

First job other than mowing lawns or throwing newspapers was bussing tables for $1.20 an hour.

That was 1973.

Spent it all on .22LR and 12ga shotshells.

The first thing I got paid for was cutting yards for $2 a pop. That’s how I paid for my first Model 700 at $101.89.

In the summer of ‘68 and ‘69 I worked as a “lot boy/gofor” at an auto dealership. Detailing used cars, cranking all of them first thing in the morning, delivering cars, etc was my specialty. 😊 I was pulling down a whole $1.10 an hour (minimum wage) and the accountant just about had a fit when I finished with more than 40 hours one week which meant I got an hour of overtime.

A few years later as an Ensign starting flight school with a new bride, it seems like I was getting about $485 and we were RICH. I think a 2 bedroom, furnished apartment was about $175/month.

Around 1976, summer job on a ranch. $10/day plus room and board.

Early on I thought I wanted a job, turns out all I really wanted was a paycheck.

Shortly after that, I realized that if i"d rather be doing something else, it was a job.

Never had a real job.

Always have been "gainfully un-employed".

ya!


GWB

Dunno what qualifies as a "real" job. Mowed grass, delivered papers for starters. Made a little jingle spearfishing. Then I hit the big time. $98/month, room and board included. Army basic training was a hoot.

1995

4.25 an hour

Started out digging drain tile with a shovel, new construction. 5 bucks an hour, around ‘85 or ‘86. Should have made college seem attractive, but it didn’t. I was 12 or 13 at the time, and 5 bucks was a sight better than minimum wage flipping burgers.

Got a paper route in the sixth grade. The customers paid 7 cents for each paper. I got 2 cents of that.

Washing dishes in a local bbq joint for 3.35 hr.

I don't remember what I made in total, but I know I worked a lot of hours at minimum wage.

It was good instruction to pick up a trade Unskilled labor on a construction site gets treated like the bottom end.

4.25/hr working at Little Caesar’s pizza.
Man we had some good times after the doors closed

1974 ,driving a school bus ,1.65 an hour plus it got me to class on time.

Save for the US Army, I've been self employed all my life.

I payed $1,500 in taxes in 1959.

$2.40 an hour in the Automotive/Sporting Goods section at Grand Central/Fred Meyer 1985. They could've made a series about the people and what went on there. Best job I ever had.

Entitled

10/4 on a real job.


Managed to scrounge up a lawn-mower and a broom @ 10 years old. Mowed yards.

At 15, worked after school in a Dr's office scubbing floors and plunging toilets for "sewer rats".

At 16 loaded trucks for $1.25 an hour.

At 17 was scaffold builder for $5 hour in the Houston area chemical plants on shutdowns

In between I sold vegetables from our truck patch out of a surf van, cut firewood and sold it on the side of the road,

At 19 for a while I painted addresses on curbs in new neighborhoods. Quit that and sold Fuller Brush for a while.

Waited tables and bar-tended between, 1971-1976.

1976-1985 would be the closest thing to a real job, Took over an industrail suppy/Job shop biz. Went broke an lost my house and cars.

Wholesaled cars, delivered pizzas, sold life insurance, had a paper route, sold bag phones, used cars between 1985 & 1989.

Licensed Real estate broker and Commercial RE Appraiser between 1989 & 2008.

Pretty much been a slum lord since then,

Ya!

GWB

Plowed for $1 per hour....Hauled hay for a nickel a bale, that's where the tall cotton was !!!

$400 a month

Get a haircut and get a Real Job... Get it together like your big brother Bob... [actually i havn't had a "real job" yet... with any luck i'l die before i do...]

In 1972 made $10,000 per year working swing shift pulling 27s on a plywood mill round table. Was also going to college full time.

Paid for my college working evenings and Saturdays in a Western Auto store '66 - '69 for $1.65/hr. Tuition was $600 a semester at a large university. Then got my commission from ROTC and IIRC got $600 a month. Paid off my college loan the first year with such largess coming in.

1979 $3.50/hr fixing flats at a service station in a Texas oilfield town

Always worked construction. By 19 was making 3.5x minimum wage. Lots of traveling, staying out of town, drinking, raising hell, long hard hours. 18 of 32 years working has been self employed. Just mailed out 26 W-2’s
I’ll never forget my grandfather telling me at a very early age….. buy a 1 ton truck and you’ll never be without work. Best advice I’ve ever gotten.
Hope my son is smarter than I was and takes his college education as far as he can.

2 cents a bale in jr high back in the mid 60's. When I was in Trade School I worked nights at a foundry for $2.77.I was on salary for most of my CNC Programming career.

It's been said, "God put man on earth to work'.

1st full time job when I got out of school paid depending on performance through the week, was anywhere from $137.00 to $200.00 a week. That was gross pay too.

$1.60 an hour. 1967 IIRC stayed til 1970. Large grocery store where I learned a lot about life. At one time or another I did everything but management. Bagging, cashier, stocking, checking in suppliers on weekends(when managers came in later), sitting outside on a watermelon truck on July 4. All by the time I was 19. Didn’t realize how good life was.

First job out of the military in 1980 was as a security and logistics guy for an air freight contractor. $21,000 yearly +expenses. Great job with good pay. Congress shut us down in 1983. After that I struggled til the late 80s.

Washing dishes in my dad's restaurant and bar for.$.50 an hour after school. Grandpa lured me away after a year to deliver furniture from his store for $1.00 and hour. Tax free then and I thought I was a rich guy.

Saved enough to pay cash for my first car. I would do that all over again.

1953 I was working part time for $1.00 per hour. I was typing manifests for a trucking company and doing payroll work when I had time.

In 1958 I finished high school and went to work for our city in the public works department. For this I was paid the magnificent sum of $.90 per hour (a 10% pay cut.) My work experience must have paid off since I was hired ahead of all the others who applied for the job.

Jim

Started at johns manville when I was 13, lied about my age

.75 cents a day

First paid job that wasn't for family or once a week was for 8 bucks for a diesel mechanic.

Damn wonder you ain’t got lung cancer.

Mudding drywall in 74 for 3 bucks a hour. I went into the Army in the spring of 75, finished basic about the time Saigon fell. Was a helicopter mech in the army so when I got out I went to work on airplanes. There isn't any money in A&P so went to work on trucks and equipment for twice the money and never looked back.

First real job out of college I made 4.35 per. That was down from my union job in the barrel factory which was $5.40 per.

Last year I made $610,000. I’m glad I quit the barrel factory.

As a busboy in 1966 I got $1.85/hr , which was the union wage (min IIRC was $1.65). Plus tips.

$3.35/hr 3-4hrs/wk setting/pulling clay pigeons @ the local trap club when I was 13/14 yrs old.

$4.35/hr + some commission working @ a clothing store ~20hrs/wk in high-school.

Freshman in HS and made 85 cents an hour washing dishes. Left to flip hamburgers for a buck fifteen. High cotton times.
George

$1.15 an hour washing dishes at Ferguson's Cafeteria. I think I was 14 yo.

First wage job was $3.35/hr. First job out of college was 80k per year.

1.40 late 70s

How the hell am I supposed to remember hourly pay from the 70's??

As I vaguely recall as a summer hire for a paper company/woodlands division I totaled about $1400 or $1500 after taxes for the summer (40 hrs/week mid June - end of Aug '77). Maybe it was in the $4/hr range? Worked for them three summers '77-79 when I was in College.

Did work part time at a campground a few summers when I was in high school: collecting and burning garbage, cutting firewood, trimming brush, cleaning bathhouses, etc. Don't remember rate but it wasn't much, might have made $3-400 over the summer.

Got about $600 a month and some tuition covered as a 20 hr/week teaching assistant in graduate school fall of '80 - spring '82. Also made a little as a 2LT Army Reserve (1 weekend/mo and one 2-week summer rotation). I think it was about $140 a month plus $500 or $600 for the two week summer rotation.

Went active duty Army in July '82 as a 1LT, $1382.40 a month!

The best part about those early earning years is that I came out of 6 yrs of college/two degrees with no student debt and a couple of thousand dollars in the bank. A 4-yr ROTC Scholarship, summer jobs, teaching assistant and Reserve drill pay in graduate school, plus some help from my parents to cover room and board kept me out of loans. Just owed the Army 6 yrs of my life! Ended up doing 20 so that worked out OK.

First real full time year-round job out of college was $3.90 / hour, 1975. Last 12 1/2 years before retiring in 2017, I topped out at $50 / hr as a freelance structural designer/drafter . . . only worked 1200 +/- hours per year . . . Yeah, my bride had a better job, but I got to work from home.

First job out of college, 1987, $17,500/year, management at The Big Red K.

$100 a month. Paper boy. Was 12. Then got a job at a local park in the early 90s making 3.65 and hr

First job where I paid taxes?

I think I was 14 or so. 1988ish? Made $3.35 an hour cracking eggs. 210 dozen a shift, then on to dishes, mopping, and occasionally grinding meat, running tomatoes through the machine to remove peels and seeds, and assorted other KP duty.

Not sure E1 US Navy 1981

1972, started as lineman for Mountain Bell telephone Co, starting wage for know nothing 18 year old kid was the princely sum of $107.50 a week.

$12,500 a year working as "The Small Systems Expert for the Cincinnati-Dayton Region" for a consulting group out of Buffalo, NY. I was writing BASIC programs for a Canadian Payroll app. They billed me at probably some ungodly amount to the customers, but $12.5K was barely over minimum in those days. I had to commute an hour each way to Dayton. I worked a few gigs for them and then gave it up after they wanted me back in Dayton.

The customer jammed 6 of us in a small conference room with a Minicomputer, two very loud line printers and terminals. The mini was prone to catching fire. The printers were loud enough that gun muffs would have been a good idea, and the project lead was a drunk who was prone to falling asleep. That wasn't so bad, but he snored. I was carpooling with another programmer from Cincinnati. He was an avowed Communist. That wasn't so bad, but he got death threats from the Klan for his various activities, and I decided to start driving on my own. One programmer commuted from below Lexington, KY every day. Another was coming from Columbus. That fellow was on the lam and operating under an assumed name. He'd made a mistake and fouled up a payroll at a coal mine in WV, and had gone on the run to escape mad miners.

All I will say best damn thing to ever happen to me is when I joined the U.S Army… my job prior to me joining I was making $10.40 an hour about $19,900 a yr. No promotion potential, we hadn’t gotten a raise in 3yrs.

Edit had my first for real summer job when I was 14 making a whopping $3.35 an hour. My first pay check I thought I made the big time lol. Went and cashed it, Then my dad turned to me in the car and said hand it over.. So much for me being big money hustla. That went into the family don’t starve fund/get eviction notice.. My dad was kind of a turd. My last check for the summer, I did get to buy my school clothes yay lucky me.. lol..

$1.75 while working in a sawmill that made hardwood pallets. Year was 1975.

I worked the whole summer and saved $175 which I promptly spent on a new Ithaca M37 12ga.

I have hauled hay for 2 cents a bale, and chopped cotton for 6 dollars a day, but that was part time work. My first full time job was laying steel building a grain elevator, called a rice drier around here, for $1.25 an hour, working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Time and half for all over 40 hours. miles

Seems like I netted $130 per 60hr. week. 1971 at "the big truckstop" on I-20. 6p.m to 6a.m.
18 years old. I could party hard on that.

freshman year HS '85 I made $5 an hour off the books digging trenches and doing irrigration installations. and that was far in excess of everyone else I knew.



first real job that was intended to be a career was '94 and that was $29k. Pretty low by comparison to my buddies in other careers.

77.50 per week as a telco lineman.

$1.65 hour 1966 West Texas Utilities

$2.35

I think $2.15 an hour.

Worked on the kill floor of my family's packing company.

$1.25/hour driving a tractor raking hay for the USDA, at a Beef Cattle Research Station, 1970, I was ALMOST 17yo... several times had to drive the tractor pulling two trailers back to the barn, on public roads ......

Also sprayed TOXAPHENE for army worms....



I'm pretty sure there were several points in all this that were 'nearly' illegal!!!

First 'real' job Retail Grocery $1.85/hour

Last real job $80.50

Pop was self employed most of his life, concrete and brick/block work as was his Dad. We also dairyed, we milked 40 head of Jerseys and Brown Swiss. He said as my feet were under his table I was contributing to my keep so from as far as back as I remember we worked. He rented me and all the siblings out for truck crop harvest, the cash we made went into the general fund.

My third grade year he sold the cows and we moved to town. He took a job at the Arsenal (Milan Army Ammunition Plant) doing maintenance and construction. He still worked after hours and weekends for who built houses. During grade school I would ride my bike the houses and make mud and stock the scaffolds for Pop. He got off at 4:30 and we would work till 9 or so, had lights strung. Saturdays we poured slabs and driveways.

When I was 14, ITT Kellogg moved in to our little town and brought hundreds of people in, the folks we had worked for part time on their houses went full throttle and Pop quit the Arsenal and went back into business for himself. I started doing small jobs on my own that he did not want to fool with, patios and sidewalks. I charged $1.00 a foot, material and labor. By the time I was 16 I had saved enough on my afterhours work to buy my first car. Would place and finish for $.05/sq. ft.

I worked for $2.40 an hr in high school and college. First job out of College in 1984. Was $22k per year, plus car, health insurance and $36 per day for meals. On the road five nights a week.

Worked my first real job 1980 to 1984. Never made it to 3 $ per hour. 2.90$ was as high as I went.

first job out of college, armed with three degrees, the salary was $6800 to start. Got a boost six months in up to $7200. Wife, baby and I were living well

$2.35 an hour in 1978. Worked for a funeral home. Picked up bodies, helped set up visitations, put the little flags n the procession cars, mowed lawn, washed & waxed the hearse and family car.
Before that I worked for $2.00 an hour baling hay and chopped corn out of beanfields for whatever they offered. One farmer owed me $12 but instead of money he gave me a real nice Remington 511-x scoremaster 22. That was in 1972 and had to get moms ok to have it. She said yes.

Worked in a German bakery in 1976 for $2.31 an hour. Wednesday after school and both Saturday and Sunday. Gradually started working more hours until they fired the guy who washed the pots and pans. I quit because they wanted me to do the work of a full timer for part time every day no days off. Fast forward to 1984 became a firefighter and never worked another day for thirty years.

$3.35/hr. Minimum wage.

I worked at Subway in high school, then Sports Authority then to a small gun shop. I consider the small gun shop my “real” job since I bought a condo and moved out of the house. Worked there 97-99 and brought home $1341 a month plus a $100 bill on pay day. Would stop for breakfast every mont the first morning after pay day. If I minded my manners and shipped right I had $200 play money every month!!
Life was good.

ten bucks an hour in 1981 laying floors for my dad, he had a flooring store. Started contracting at 19, could lay a hundred yards of carpet in an empty house in 4 hours at 2.50 a yard = 250 bucks.

Several minimum wage jobs in HS and College then as an Ensign in the Navy in 87 I made $9,000 a year.

Had a sports car (16V Scirocco)
Lived on the beach in Pensacola with another Ensign
Flew jets for a living

Made a lot more money after that but I'm not sure my life is more fun today than then.

Think minimum wage was about $2 or $3 in 1978-1981 my High School Years. Flipping burgers and trimming apartment complex bushes/grass cutting.

My first office job related to architecture was with John Milton Flippen AIA LLC in Midlothian VA shortly after getting a Masters's degree in architecture (Summa Cum Laude)... top 5 University.

This was 1990... John paid me $7.50 (minimum wage IIRC) and my boss was a moron draftsman jealous as hell of my education. He was my age... about 26-27?

Granted it was a hard time (US Economy) and I was grateful to get any "break-in" architecture job what-so-ever.

John's office was rural and thus he had a water cooler service...

He ceased allowing me to work for him after the "Goldfish In The Water Cooler Incident".

Been hustling a dime every since.

8th grade paper route $8.00 a week 1968/69… first real job downtown Manhattan $8500.00 a year about 1977 😩

Twas the summer of 1981 and I was flipping burgers for $2.85 an hour at Burger Chef. Anyone remember them?

First real job was working at Six Flags over Texas. Started out at $2.65 an hour in 1965, but within two weeks my ride supervisor quit. I was 15 years old. The ride was called the Scrambler. Oddly no one else knew how to operate the ride and I was promoted to Supervisor at $6 an hour and appointed a helper. The promotion also included a uniform change with benefits such as free food, parking benefits, etc. It was a really fun summer job.

$1.40 per hour, at 14 yrs of age.
our shifts were 7 hours so we didnt fall into the minimum wage category .
still remember it like it was yesterday,

.50 an hour picking rocks and potatoes, pruning and tying 100 yd. long rows of staked tomatoes and whatever else had to be done on the local farm. Four hours every morning all summer. $10.00 bill every Friday afternoon was big though.

$1.35 an hour, behind a fishing tackle counter in downtown DC.

$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.

double post

Grew up north of you in Greenville, Pa. Haven't seen a retread on a car or light truck in years.

Small town Pennsylvania was a good place to be back in the late 50's to early 70's

In 1971 started as a draftsman in an Architectural firm at $480.00/month and was quickly "promoted" within a few months to $520.00/month.

$2.10/hr stocking shelves at the grocery store part time.

When Carter upped our pay to $374.40/mon in 1977, and then I made E-2 and got a bump to $417.30/month, the NCOs said "He'll be nuthing but trouble with that kinda jack!"

And so I was.

Like I just posted in the rollercoaster thread, my first job was in 1962, where I was on the cleanup crew of the original Elitch Gardens in Denver where most days I pushed a broom for 8 hours a day at $1 an hour. At the end of that summer, I had saved enough money to pay cash for my first car, a 1955 Ford convertible.

$20/week dawn to dusk, 10 hour days, 5 days a week, some times 6 with no extra pay.Then I got job for $1 /hour, 8-5. I was rich. That was in 1961 and 1962. I bought a 49 Plymouth for $50

1.65/hr.

Some folks don’t know you always didn’t have to pump your own gasoline. Worked during HS for 1.00 a hour.
Hasbeen

1964 pay wage was $1.25 hr. Working at a grocery store after school and on weekends! Saved 500 dollars but it took a year and a half!

$1.00 an hour chopping cotton. 11 years old an thought I was rich.

Lotsa old bastards in here. Holy hell.

Had lots of summer jobs from 1964 until I got hired by a major deployed police force in 1971. I worked at the paper mil for 6 months. Money was good, but it was mindless work. My salary starting on the police force was $8,257.00 per year. There was not much overtime to be had because staffing levels were pretty high during a strong conservative government. I retired after 30 years with a full benefit package -- the same as if I was still working. Good job.Lots of interesting jobs to do.

In 1961-62 part time .50 cents per hour working in grocery store bagging and stocking shelves. In 1963 was raised to $1.00 per hour and worked 60 hours per week with no overtime pay. Mowed lawns and bucked bale hay .02 cents bale. GW

Mowed lawns from as far back as I can remember, don't remember what I made. Delivered news papers throughout my teens, about 85 papers a morning Monday thru Saturday for about 20 bucks a week.

Fall after graduation (1984) before I left for the military I picked potatoes for 2.00 an hour. Then went off to uncle Sam.

After 3 years unpaid apprenticeship during summer "vacation" , starting age 13 on my BIL ND farm, he gave me a 1952 Chevy that he paid $100 for. Does that count? The next year they moved to Wisconsin, and I worked on his brother's neighboring farm as a graduated HS senior. I think I got $500 a month for 6 day work weeks, can see to can't see. At college, I worked in the cafeteria, winters- I no longer remember the wage, Summers I worked USFS trail crew in Idaho starting in1967, then in Alaska, starting in 1969, the latter being about $4.50/hr IIRC. After college, my first full time job was teaching school in Pt. Hope, Alaska, at $15000 per year. The experience was worth it, maybe not so much the wages....which were good for the time and job.

I can't count trail crew as a "real job" tho. Too much fun.

$2.00 an hour and was tickled not to have to start at minimum wage .

First job away from home was 13 in 1956 - worked for school teacher and her husband on dairy farm.
5am- 7am 4pm-6 or 6:30 or when chores were done. Got $1 per day during week and $3 Sat plus
room , board and laundry . Then a ride home on Sat evening - Sunday off - Folks made me save
1/2 of the money.worked there during my 8th grade yr.
After the summer started my father and grandfather bot one of the first hay balers in our valley.
There were a lot of older farmers whose kids (their workforce) had moved away - the folks made
me an offer - stay home and work for us and you can use the baler and do the neighbors baling,
"you keep 40% of gross income and pay for the twine and fuel and upkeep on the baler and tractor.
Worked great for everyone.
When I went away to college I started another business other than time in service those were the last
time I had an hourly or weekly paycheck - self employed after that. Boss was kind of a jerk,
but there are not many things I would change.

Can't remember. It was picking strawberries when I was about 9 (maybe 10) and got paid by the flat. Only job, so far, that I've been fired from.

I started at .35 cents/hr... in 1958.

1968 $150.00 month living on the 6666 chuckwagon.in the saddle can to caint.

My first real job was mowing the yard,...about 3 acres,...with a 19" push mower.

My pay was the absence of getting my ass belt whupped when the old man got home.

You never really get finished mowing 3 acres with a 19" push mower. The end and the beginning are about 6 minutes apart.

I got very adept at calculating how much of it I had to mow each day in order to get "paid".

In the late 70's I worked on a farm in the summers for $2 per hour.

My first real job out of college was in a CPA firm's office with an annual salary of $16,500. Second year was 18,000.

May first real job was at a filling station in Garnett Kansas. 1982
Started at $3.35 per hour
Pumping gas,fixing flat tire,changing oil,tune ups,etc

4.30 washing dishes

$6.00 per hour working on a dairy farm.

Other than mowing grass and shoveling snow, not at the same time, and working at a Boy Scout camp and an NC State University entomologist. My first real job was with the Asheville Police Dept. making 16,900 per year in 1990. It went up significantly from there with raises, extra duty and secondary employment but you had to be willing to work.

$1.65/hr.......... boss was a cheap ass (my dad)

I think it was $1.85 in 1974 welding camping trailer frames.

Appears to be a rather broad definition to "first real job" here.

Yep, I've thought about it Ed and honestly don't know what I'd call my first real job.


$5/hr back when we were kids.
(lucky if you get paid)

$4.55 hourly in 1979 started my now 43 year career with Houston Lighting & Power, due to retire in August, this year.

$5.05

At a little Italian restaurant. Got me through three years of highschool and four years of college.

-Jake

I had 2 paper routes. Weekdays & Sat on the way to school and then Sunday. Sunday was a big route. Gave my dad a cut for riding me around. Can't remember what I actually made. Started a business selling worms around the same time. Can't remember what I made there either. First time I ever received a paycheck is when I started working in a custom molding/cabinet shop at 14. That was $3.00 an hour in 1985.

Other than bailing hay or walking beans I started working in a tire shop for $1.25 an hour in October 1969.

kwg

$1.60 per hour with .15 raises every 3 months for 5 years then a bump with journey men card.

1.35 per hour I think , went to work in a rock quarry. Worked for couple weeks and somebody ratted me out , told the owner I was 16 and he had to let me go for insurance reasons .
Told me to come back when I turned 18 .
Then got a job at chicken plant making 1.65 with all the crazy azz women I could handle .
Worked there on summer months .
Kenneth

I will go make leather shoes from a local cobbler shop. then sell them out to the students in school. Making a sum of $50 on each pair.

$4.75 washing dishes and being a cook's assistant in a cafeteria when I was in high school.

Baling hay, hoeing fields, and detasseling were better money, but none were a steady income.

Minimum wage at Kroger, I think it was 4.75 back then. But on a good saturday you'd make 100-120 in tips.

Bailing hay, shoveling cow [bleep] and milking cows for $1 an hour plus 3 meals a day. My folks should have supplemented the pay since grocery bills at home dropped big time. One of the largest dairy farms in the county at the time. We milked 120 head twice a day, I got to grab 480 teats every morning and every evening.

$40,000 per year straight out of engineering school working for a general contractor as an assistant project manager. Many of my buddies went to work for DOT making 35k which I thought was too low, given construction was wide open in the early 2000s. Economy went to crap so in 2012 I left to go to DOT. I’d have 20+ years in with 30 required for full benefits if I had just followed my buddies. Such is life

Besides working for the family the first job out of the house that you were required to show up at a certain time for was at a cedar mill. A fence builder leased a building and made a fencing product he called grape stakes. 7 days a week 12 hrs a day at $2 an hour cash I made quite a bit of money for a 14 year old kid. Saved it to feed my hogs between litters.

Yes, I did a bunch of chit work before starting the 40 year technician job at 13 or 14K (don't remember exactly) in 1981.

Never quit working some kind of side job either. Some of that was charity work, intended or not.

Went to work for Phillips 66 two weeks out of high school in 1979. First day (union job) you started as a laborer around 6 bucks an hour, day two as a general helper for a dollar more and the third day as an operator helper with another dollar bump. Grossed 334.24 my first week, still have the pay stub.

Really wanted to be a Texas game warden and picked up an application in 1980, they started out at 9K a year while you were in training and bumped to 11k after graduation. After looking at my gross of 14 K for 6.5 months at the plant I decided that didn’t make sense financially.

Retired last May two weeks shy of 42 years.

R27.00 (About $38.00) a week in 1978 as an apprentice auto technician in Durban, South Africa.

2.35 an hour

My first job was in the summer of 61', working at a drug company filling orders
for pharmacies at 15 yrs. old. Made minimum wage of $1.25 per hr.
That was $50 per week, $40 per week after taxes.
I spent every nickel, every week on Sue.
We were married in 64' and we are still married 57 yrs. later

40 and found

$1.60 an hour, bought a new 700 BDL at a Gibsons with my first check $134. plus tax.

Hanco: I remember getting my first "raise" - to $1.25 an hour.
I worked hard for that money.
I was 15 - 16 years old (1962'ish) and was working in the mint fields of eastern Oregon right alongside the Mexican migrant workers hoeing weeds in the mint fields.
Bought a car and an 870 Remington with the money I saved.
You haven't worked til you've worked alongside a couple dozen Mexicans hoeing weeds in 100 degree+ temperatures for 12 hours a day.
Taught me some VERY important "things", those summers I did that work!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

My first real job I made $4.75 an hour to start as a lifeguard. That was almost twice the minimum wage at the time and I thought I was set for life. It was a great job. When most kids my age were flipping burgers I was at the pool or the beach living the good life. There were perks to that job that I didn’t fully comprehend at the time. 😉

$2.75/hr working for a farmer in high school. Large hay operation that was 90% automated.
$4.50/hr in 1984 working at a local floor tile factory. $7.25 when I left there five years later. Barely kept the household afloat while my new bride was attending college 60 miles away during the week. Luckily, I had bought a house for 10k when I was 18 for a rental property. The elderly renter moved to an apartment just when we needed to move in.