How Much Did You Earn At Your First Job?

[ChrisL]

There was a recent post that got me thinking about this.

I had a job under the table stocking a cooler  at a 7/11 my sister worked at.  I don’t remember what I made but I got all the free slurpee’s I wanted.  

My first real job was the Army where as a Private E-1 i earned about $500 a month. That was in 1984.  I made $24K annually as a cop in 1988-90. I think I got a bump after a year but we made our money with OT anyway.  

Do you remember what your first job paid?

[jsharr ★]

Got my first real "here's your paycheck" job as a sophomore in high school working at a Wolfe Nursery.  Started unloading trucks full of plants and fertilizer.  I was soon selling and I learned about the plants on the job.  My junior year in high school I took the exam to become a Texas Certified Nurseryman and passed.   Minimum wage in 1980 was $3.10 but I want to say I made something like $4.25 per hour.

[Kzoo]

As a young teen I worked at a couple local dairy farms.  I think I made .50 a hour.  There was a Saturday I think I was 14 when I worked as a block tender for a block layer.  He was behind schedule and his normal help couldn't be there Saturday.  He hired me to fill in.  I was paid $3.00 and hour and worked 12 hours.  I was in Heaven... $36 for one day's work.

During HS I cleaned the offices for a construction company every weekend.  I got $10 and it took about 2 1/2 hours.  In 1970 a kid could do a lot with $10.

 

[2Far ★]

$1.65/hour as a 16 yo working on construction of a golf course

$1600/month white collar, 23 yo. 

[12string]

My first full time, Hey, I'm adulting job was about $3.25/hr working sheet metal.  Moved to an office job, designing stuff for $4/hr, but tons of OT.

I believe the first year we were married ('83), household income barely cracked $20K.  Somehow, we bought a house with that

 

[Kirby]

My first real job was after college for 22K a year.  During my summers in college I worked on volunteer programs though my college alumni clubs for which I earned scholarship money

[Road Runner]

As I posted in the other thread, my first significant employment began in 1966, right out of high school.  I was hired by Norfolk Naval Shipyard as an Electronics Technician Apprentice.  I made $2.02/hour.  Soon after I started, we got a cost-of-living raise to $2.09/hour.  Take home pay (2-week paycheck) was approximately $120 ($240/month).  

By the spring of 1968, I had saved enough money to make a sizable down payment on a brand new 1968 Plymouth Road Runner.  Sales price approx. $3000.  

[dinneR ★]

$5/week delivering the Sunday Milwaukee Journal. $3.35/hour detasseling corn.

[Wilbur ★]

My first job was at a skeet range.  $20 bucks a day and a box of shells.  1973

In 1974 in 10th grade I started driving a forklift in reefers for a production bakery $13.30 per hour. This is why in 11th grade, I was driving a 911.  

 

[Zealot]

My first job was a paper route. I don’t recall what I made, but it wasn’t very much. 

My second job was bussing tables at a restaurant called the Hi Wy. $1.00 an hour. 

[Tizeye]

First job as a bag boy at Winn Dixie in 1968, the minimum wage was $1.60/hr.

But what I remember, fast forwarding a couple years to 1971 when in college. I work part time behind the camera, electronic dept at Millers (a department store like Kmart...also out of business). On interview, they were impressed I had my own darkroom and I got the job. While obviously minimum wage, What I remember was he manager calling me in, remarking what a great great job I was doing, and giving me a raise. Still remember the look of shock on his face as I replied NOOOOO! Then explained that with my father's death, I was receiving Social Security Survivor's Benefits, and like with the elderly, it had an income cap. I calculated out to the penny how much I could earn before they would cut the benefit. HE understood, game me a raise and cut my hours.

[BuffJim]

I started at 45/week with the paper route at 14. 
 

First real job was $16,500 in 1987. 

[Airehead]

During my first year of teaching, I made $740 a month.  I made near that waiting tables which allowed me to pay my bills. 

[maddmaxx ★]

My first year in the Navy I earned about $1500.  As an E6 when discharged I was making about $6000 per year.

[Mr. Beanz]

Paper route in 1976, 30 bucks per month.  I was 13 years old. 

[2Far ★]

43 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

My first job was at a skeet range.  $20 bucks a day and a box of shells.  1973

In 1974 in 10th grade I started driving a forklift in reefers for a production bakery $13.30 per hour. This is why in 11th grade, I was driving a 911.  

 

Holy crap! ‘74ish I was making $4hr driving a FL for Fo2 summers & breaks. 

[ChrisL]

8 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

My first year in the Navy I earned about $1500.  As an E6 when discharged I was making about $6000 per year.

As an E-5 in 1987 I was earning $1,100 a month so roughly twice what you were as an E-6 but that also included Separate Rations.  That I recall the big jump was E-1 to 2 and then E-4 to 5. 

[JerrySTL ★]

1 hour ago, ChrisL said:

My first real job was the Army where as a Private E-1 i earned about $500 a month. That was in 1984.  I made $24K annually as a cop in 1988-90. I think I got a bump after a year but we made our money with OT anyway.  

As an USAF E-1 in 1972, I earned $262 a month.

My first job at age 14 in 1968 was 95 cents an hour working at a car wash.

[maddmaxx ★]

36 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

As an E-5 in 1987 I was earning $1,100 a month so roughly twice what you were as an E-6 but that also included Separate Rations.  That I recall the big jump was E-1 to 2 and then E-4 to 5. 

The big jump for me would have been staying in because I was frocked for E7 at the end of 8 full years. That was a navy rule for advancement to E7 no matter how well you had done on the exams.  I qualified for it about half a year before my discharge and it was a tough decision.

[petitepedal ★]

High School summers..I had babysitting gigs 6 to 8 hours a day 5 days a week..$35 a week. My senior year..I was paid work study wages at the golf course..maybe $3.50 an hour..

Summers in college 1977 on I worked in a taconite plant..first year my starting wage was about $8.75 an hour..woohoo was great for helping to pay for college.

[TrentonMakes]

I made $3 an hour working here and there helping the guy down the road clear and maintain X-C ski trails.  Also got a discount on a set of XC skis, which I still have - this was in the mid-80s.

After college (1994) I started my first "career" job at $26K.  That's $12.50 an hour - less than NJ's current minimum wage of $13.

[shootingstar]

Gee,  don't remember my starting wages on a job where I got fired  after 1 wk.

I was apparently probably not fast enough, not getting it because I didn't understand the lingo at the donut-coffee shop..double-double, etc.   I was 16 yrs. old and probably only drank 1-2 c. of coffee in my life and my parents never drank/ordered coffee for themselves.  Seriously, was a mini-cultural lack of knowledge for me as a Canadian-born.

Next job helping stock inventory for a national book chain at new store, then retail jobs at major national retail dept. store, and then K-mart.   Minimum hourly wage changed several times in Ontario over the yrs. but I probably got paid abit over min./hr. After that I had.....9 different employers.  Problem was that for 7 months I worked part-time for 3 different employers, then next 3 yrs. I had 2 part-time jobs after university for nearly 3 years before landing full-time job.

No wonder I can't keep my history of wages and salaries straight. I honestly don't bother remembering --after filing income tax and later, leaving an employer.  All I know is my final salary with Ontario govn't before I left for another 5 different employers later.   I do get a tiny pension.. from Ont. I never cashed out my pension after 12 yrs. there and it's indexed to inflation. That employer is one of the 9  employers I consider as my real "career" jobs related to my training. 

 

 

 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

Records Clerk at Navy Federal in September 1980, $10,800 per year, or $207.69 a week. I don't recall what I earned at the Holiday Inn or the department store I worked at before that. Rent at the house I shared with two other guys was $110 per month ($390 total rent).

[MickinMD ★]

When I was 12-14, a father of a friend of mine used to moonlight on weekends laying hardwood floor and he pay us $5 each under the table to help.  We cut an line up boards so he could go right down the line nailing them.  We did school stages, wealthy rural homes, etc.

He was a mountain man from North Carolina and loved hunting and fishing.

He often got jobs out in the country and got permission for us to fish in local streams and ponds, or hunt for squirrel or rabbit. I would have done it for free!

My first Soc.Sec. paying job occurred in Oct. 1967 and paid $1.25/hr to start during my Senior year of high school. Before that year, I though that any idea of going to college was an impossibility. But I was becoming aware that I might be able to work my way through college except we had no car in the family to commute and no money.  So some friends helped me get a job at a fast food place called "Gino's" - a chain named after part-owner Gino Marchetti, a Hall of Famer on the Baltimore Colts.  It was like McDonalds plus it had the Maryland franchise for KFC Chicken.

Buy the time I reached June, I was making $1.55/hr - almost 25% more.  Back in those days, minimum wage was a trial-pay and if you worked out in 6 months or so you got paid significantly more.

I ended up with a $300 Chevy Impala then, two years later got a $2400 student loan to pay $800 to my cousin for a 1968 Chevy Camaro plus tuition when I had to cut back on work hours to get good grades my sophomore year.  I got an on-campus research job after my sophomore year at $2/hr.

I got a full grad school scholarship plus a $325/month ($2100 in today's dollar) in 1973 to IIT and felt like I was rich.

After grad school, I got my first chemistry post-college job at $16,000 year, $76,000 in today's money, as an industrial research chemist.  In 1981, my sister got a similarly good paying job at Johns Hopkins Hospital after getting her B.S. from U. of Maryland School of nursing - later getting her M.S. in nursing from Johns Hopkins U.

My mother's neighbor whose three kids starting working right after high school, but didn't have any skills like carpentry, masonry, auto repair, or drafting (blueprints: what I was going to do if I couldn't go to college) and had low-paying jobs, kept teasing and trying to humiliate my mother and asking, "What good is college doing?"  After my sister got that job, we two were making more than his three kids combined and we had jobs where you don't get laid off.  The neighbor never asked my mother the question again and she was too classy to rub it in his face.

 

[bikeman564™]

I had a couple odd jobs as a kid, one was helping an aunt w/ her catering, so she paid me some cash but  can't remember what. My first paycheck job was in HS at a farm market down the street from the school, where a friend also worked. That was $4 something/hr;. I then worked at a carwash closer to my house, and that was up to IIRC $5.25/hr. From there I got a job at a company doing CAD work and it paid $9/hr. This was my first 40 hour job w/ benefits.

[shootingstar]

When I did finally get a full-time job related directly to my formal training (the job ad asked for the degree), I felt "rich" after patching together multiple part-time gigs, and relieved...

[KrAzY]

My first job was working for my parents in their small business.. I would work about 4 hours every couple days and get about $7 a day. GRANTED I was around 10 years old.. later I get a real paycheck form them and was making roughly $6 an hour. 

[Bikeguy]

The first job that I remember the pay...  was a summer job to pay for college.  $4 per hour working for a fence company installing mostly chain link fences.  If we worked OT it was still $4 per hour. 

My first job after engineering college in June of 77,  I was paid $15K per year.   I just looked and I guess was a lot back then, that was more than the $13.5K median household income.

[groupw]

I don’t remember my paper route money in 1974. I was only on it a couple months before we moved, but I had already added some subscribers. 
I detasseled corn in Jr high. First 2 years was minimum wage. It was good for a couple hundred each season. Third year I got on the rogue crew. It was a couple extra weeks plus a little higher wage because we were the better workers. 
High school I worked after school at McDonald’s for a couple month before getting on a carry out at a grocery store. I think $2.65 was min wage but the grocery gave performance based raises every 3 months and Sunday was automatic OT. 
I waited tables when I left college. Minimum wage for tipped workers is awful, but I got pretty good at it. I did quite well on tips. Only thing was I had to work both lunch and dinner shifts to make enough to help our new family. The record store paid the same with regular hours plus health insurance! That was a great 7 years until we closed and I entered corporate America. 

[Longjohn ★]

First job I was 15 and worked as an usher in a brand new movie theater. I started at 60 cents an hour but got a raise to 75 cents an hour within a couple weeks. When I turned 18 I got a job at a Chevy dealership as a parts manager at $2.00, an hour. Later that year I was hired at a Westinghouse plant taking home about $100 a week.

[Bikeguy]

54 minutes ago, groupw said:

I don’t remember my paper route money in 1974. I was only on it a couple months before we moved, but I had already added some subscribers. 

Yeah... my brother and I delivered news papiers for a while.   Going out for 'collections' to get payment for the news paper was the worst part of the job.  It was amazing how many people just couldn't find the money to pay.   Can't recall now how long we did that. 

I do recall, I was a caddy for ONE day at a golf course.  Several guys thought the job was great.  I didn't see the value... waiting the the caddy shack to be told you had a player.  Then your pay was tips.   Nope... one day was more than enough for me. 

Working for a catering service in HS was interring.  I was the help, moving the food into the van, then we drive to the party, set everything up.  Most times is was a buffet service.  Some times it would be a plate service.  Left overs were a perk.   Lots of late hours from time to time.  I can't member what the pay was. 

Working for a heating contactor (my best friends dad's business) was interesting too.   I was the laborer..  moved lots of stuff.  Learned that cuts from ducts was not fun.... 

I remember mowing grass and shoveling snow for money too.    We made a lot of money after the blizzard of 1967 that hit the Chicago area. 

[Mr. Beanz]

After 3 years of Weinerschnitzel, 4 days after I turned 18. Started working at General Dynamics assembling the gyro optics seeker head assembly for stinger missiles. 

Making $9,716 per year in 1981. 😄

All benefits paid. Medical dental life vision prescription.  Those were the days. 

[Razors Edge ★]

15 hours ago, ChrisL said:

Do you remember what your first job paid?

My first job - where I got a printed paycheck - was working at a grocery store when I was 16. $3.25/hr and probably  20hrs/week.  I was LOADED!!!!