How Much Did You Earn????

[dewilson58]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

[Stu from NYC]

First part time job stockboy earned $ 1.25 per hour.

First job out of college thinking $ 9000 per year but not sure

[justjim]

First time part-time job. Grocery bag/carryout. .90 hour

First time real job. 250.00 a month

[John Mayes]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

1st p/t job - Summer job. $1.50/hr. (1978)
1st real job - $19,500/yr. After BS and while working on MS. (1983)

[retiredguy123]

At 10 years old, I was a ball boy for the golf pro while he gave golf lessons. I made 50 cents for a 30 minute lesson.

At 15, I caddied for the lady pro, Mickey Wright, who won the tournament by 7 strokes. She won $2,300 and paid me $200 for 4 rounds, including a practice round. Most of the other caddies only made $50.

[Michael 61]

Paper Boy- from ages 11 to 16 (5 years) - delivered six mornings a week, plus had to collect monthly door-to-door from my customers. Averaged $50 per month salary in the mid-70s. Had about 120 customers, and about 20 tipped.

First full time job was a bank teller in the 80s - starting salary in California was $650 a month

[Keefelane66]

High School job $1.25 then military pennies. First job out of college $20,000 paid holidays, 2 weeks paid vacation, pension and medical benefits.

[Bill14564]

1st job - about $3/hr (minimum wage)
1st "real" job - $28,000

[tophcfa]

As a kid I shoveled snow, raked leaves, and mowed lawns for about half of the homes on our dead end street. I delivered newspapers for a little while, but that job really sucked. I also spent a couple summers as a youth picking tobacco, cucumbers, and squash for the local farmers. I also worked as a busboy, dishwasher, and then a cook at various restaurants. I can remember $1.50 per hour, but got paid better by my neighbors for doing yard work, especially when I shoveled deep, heavy, wet snow. I remember my first real job out of grad school in the early 80’s paid a salary of $38,000 and I thought I was immediately rich.

[golfing eagles]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

Me:
1) $1.00/hr (1976)
2) $32,000/yr (1984)

[justjim]

At 10 years old, I was a ball boy for the golf pro while he gave golf lessons. I made 50 cents for a 30 minute lesson.

At 15, I caddied for the lady pro, Mickey Wright, who won the tournament by 7 strokes. She won $2,300 and paid me $200 for 4 rounds, including a practice round. Most of the other caddies only made $50.

As my grandson would say, very cool!

[Normal]

Paperboy salary was about $12 a week. It was righteous money too. I remember having to pick the paper up before daybreak on the corner, doing my own collecting of a whole 1.10 per house and suffering through Thursday and Sunday paper stuffing. To beat all, sometimes customers wouldn’t come to the door and would try and stiff me.

[Two Bills]

All in UK.

1952-56. Paperboy. 15 shillings ($2.10 app.) a week.
Late three mornings (6am start) or fail to turn up, you were sacked.
The waiting list was a mile long.

1956 joined Army aged 16. £1-10 shillings ($4.20 app) a week.
I put more a fill up in my gas tank nowadays, than I earned in a year then.

"The good old days!":icon_wink:

[MrFlorida]

Paperboy, age 10 made $12 dollars a week.

[Jim1mack]

Age 11: walking horses between checkers at the polo field. $20
Age 16: mowing lawn a funeral home $3.00/hr. Once a week
Age 16-17: making pizzas and washing dishes. $1.65/hr
Age 18: usher at Milwaukee Braves stadium
Age 18: loading UPS trucks during Christmas rush $3.59/hr pt time
Age 20: meat packing plant after taking off a year from school to earn future tuition. 3.50/hr plus Saturdays at time and a half
Age 23: freight forwarding company full time. Don’t recall wage
Age 34: corporate office for a freight forwarding company. Made 44k/ after 10 years there then downsized.
Age 50: teacher$34,267 first year. Don’t recall what I was paid after 11 years when I retired at age 60 but it wasn’t much more

Point is I did what I could do to make any money as you can see.

[manaboutown]

1956: Age 14, sacker at local grocery store $0.35/hr.
1958: Age 16, sacker at a Safeway $0.75/hr
1958: started playing in dance bands, rock and roll and CW bands. Played through college years. Did pretty well most nights. Also bought cars I fixed up, drove a while and sold at a profit.
1961 and 1962 summers, lifeguard, not much money but great fringe benefits!
1962-1964 Math Aide at a research lab at Kirkland AFB, NM. Modest pay but a great job
1964: graduated college, first job with Westinghouse @ $7,500/yr
1965: US Army National Guard, 6 mos. active duty Ft. Jackson, SC, $87/mo or thereabouts
1967: USPTO GS-7 around $7,500/yr to start
1970. Patent Attorney @ $20,000, Kodak, Rochester, NY

[Lea N]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

1963 (at 8 years old) my husband got 1/2 cent per worm he dug up for a family owned business that sold worms to fisherman. He got a penny for night crawlers.

When he went in the army (at 18) that was his first full time job. He doesn't remember the pay, but it wasn't very much.

[villagetinker]

Out of college ('71) around $11k, 40 years later and several promotions $120K with stock options etc. Then 1 year of consulting and I made enough to buy a house here for cash, that was $150/hr.

[eweissenbach]

Hauling hay - generally 2cents a bale or $1 an hour 1963-65. Some jobs at 2 cents a bale I could make $20 in a day which was huge money back then. I could take a date to a movie with popcorn a drinks and gas at 20 cents a gallon all for less than $5. First real job upon college graduation, head basketball, assistant football, head track coach, PE teacher $5,900 / yr.

[Taltarzac725]

Dishwasher at the Rapscallion Restaurant before and upon opening around 1977. Pay was good. Somewhere above minimum wage. Left to get better hours at a food service run by a partnership that had places at Idlewild Softball Diamonds and at Bowers' Mansion and Sky Tavern. This was in the Reno-Tahoe area. Worked for them until May of 1983. Pay was OK. Not sure what the amounts were.

I did call one of the partners after I graduated from the U of MN Law School and was working at the Law Library there. This was during the American Association of Law Libraries convention the Summer of 1989 in Reno. It was there that Summer. Think the partner was worried I wanted my old job back. He told me to move on.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

1977, $2.30/hour working as a concession clerk at the Whitney Theatre. Boss was Mr. Spodick. I quit after he commented about how my sweater was "tight" (it wasn't, he was just a perv). But I got to see the first Star Wars and The Spy Who Loved Me for free.

I was a part-time/full-time Kelly Girl for 7 years. My first full-time job was a temp job in Boston at NYNEX doing data entry. I think I got around $6/hour. Minimum wage in MA was $3.05/hour. I quit it to return to busking (street musician) where I averaged $10/hour in cash and made my own hours.

[jebartle]

1st bookkeeper, take home pay, $41.85.
After college $1500, ahh, the good ole days!

[Susan from Ohio]

As a first year teacher in 1973, paid $6000 for a year.

[MandoMan]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

Summer of ‘68, mowing lawns full-time for a company, age 14. $1 an hour.

1986, Assistant Professor at a state university, Ph.D. In hand, $24,000 a year.

[mdmurrell]

Part time summer job as waiter-bus boy 54 cents an hour. Full time job (1970) was $6000 as inside salesman for electric motor mfg

[swooner]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:
Who cares?

[golfing eagles]

Who cares?

I guess the OP does

[NoMo50]

1971: Gas station attendant, $1.35/hr cash under the table.
1981: After college, structural steel sales, $18,000/yr plus a company car. Thought I was in tall cotton!

[Zenmama18]

Me: $1.60/hour
First “real” job. $9K/year

That was a very long time ago!

[gbs317]

It was 1962 back in Brooklyn, NY I was 8 years old running my own “business” shining shoes. My father had an old homemade shoeshine box when he was younger man and I used that to make a few dollars at 25 cents per shine. It was a great “territory” in front of Wes’s candy store because it was the last stop on Ave U and Veterans Ave where all the bus drivers went to sit down at the counter for food or pickup coffee and those were the days when men wore real working leather shoes, I think Knapp was the preferred brand back then.
It was a great summertime job, the bus drivers treated me like gold. They talked to me as if I was one of them and to an eight year old they looked cool in their blue bus drivers uniforms.
When five o’clock came around my mom would give Wes a call and he would come out and tell me it was time to go home to dinner. I thanked him, packed up my stuff and walked back home. It was another great day with 5 to 10 dollars in quarters in my pockets. I wish I still had that old shoeshine box today.

[petsetc]

1964 - $0.65/hr making change at a game room on boardwalk, Wildwood, NJ
1970 - $6,100./yr - Ensign, USCG

[chuckpedrey]

First part time job was delivering the Detroit Free Press to about 75 customers for $1.00 a day

First full time job was after college it’s a corporal in the US Army for $96.00 a month

[chuckpedrey]

Part time delivering the Detroit Free Press to about 75 customers for $7.00 a week

First Full Time job = US Army for $96 a month

[Marmaduke]

It was 1962 back in Brooklyn, NY I was 8 years old running my own “business” shining shoes. My father had an old homemade shoeshine box when he was younger man and I used that to make a few dollars at 25 cents per shine. It was a great “territory” in front of Wes’s candy store because it was the last stop on Ave U and Veterans Ave where all the bus drivers went to sit down at the counter for food or pickup coffee and those were the days when men wore real working leather shoes, I think Knapp was the preferred brand back then.
It was a great summertime job, the bus drivers treated me like gold. They talked to me as if I was one of them and to an eight year old they looked cool in their blue bus drivers uniforms.
When five o’clock came around my mom would give Wes a call and he would come out and tell me it was time to go home to dinner. I thanked him, packed up my stuff and walked back home. It was another great day with 5 to 10 dollars in quarters in my pockets. I wish I still had that old shoeshine box today.
Loved this story! You must've learned a lot of great things about life from those bus drivers!
What a wonderful Entrepreneurial Sprit you had!

[Caymus]

1st job minimal wage working for a newspaper during high school. We would spend the week manually assembling part of Sunday Paper with all the advertisements. Back then Sunday papers were heavy.

1st real job (low $20K?) as a Chemical Engineer in 1980. I remember we were given 5% increases after 6 months to keep pace with new college hires. Inflation was high back then.:icon_wink:

[dtennent]

First job was a paper boy in 1963. Delivered 60 papers and made $5.40/week if everybody paid.

First, job in 1980 paid $30,000/ year. Walked in the lab and told my boss. From his expression, it was clear that I was going to make more than him.

[Marmaduke]

Who cares?
This was a fun reminiscence! Sorry it did not move you to smile.
1971 P.T. job after school,
4-7, an 7-4 Sat/Sun.
Nuns Trained me as a Nurses Aid, earned good money, cash.

1st FT job was only around 10K a year, but it always felt great to be a young wage earner! I finally splurged on a used B&W T.V. for my room! It cost $35.00. From the local TV repair shop! 3 stations in our city at the time...2, 4, and 11!
OK with us.

[Joe C.]

Shoveled snow as a kid. No hourly wage, but ended up with a few bucks after every snowstorm.
Sunday paper route ...... Three hours work for around 12 bucks.
Part time dishwasher when I was in high school....I forget how much per hour, but not much.
After high school, into the navy.....$96 a month plus combat pay.
First full time job as a janitor.....$90 a week.
Last full time job in 2001as a communications design engineer $34 per hour.
Retired in 2002

[cwmmfink]

.80 per hour as a bus boy. After BS from Penn State 8500/year.

[Girlcopper]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:
Part time. $1.10 hourly. Cashier at A&P in NY
Fulltime. Dont remember but I’m sure it wasn’t much.

[oneclickplus]

Me:
1) $1.60/hr (McDonald's 1972)
2) $15,900 (mainframe programmer 1979)

[kcrazorbackfan]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

Worked free for my Dad on a 2,400 acre farm.

$25,000 working in an engineering department before I became a LEO.

[Mrfriendly]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

$1.75 /hr dishwasher at Perkins Pancake House Spring Lake NJ then on to cook before leaving for college in Boston. Loaded trucks at UPS in college for 3yrs $10/hr and felt rich compared to my peers in school. First “real” job was salesman in Rhode Island for a WR Grace company in 1979 at $15,000/yr plus commissions.

I know it’s more info than you asked for but was fun reminiscing.

[Stu from NYC]

Who cares?

Judging by all the posts on this thread many do. Does it bother you?

[rsmurano]

1st part time job going to school and surfing everyday: $1.65 hr
High school, started my own business.
Decided to cash out my company and go to college,

[Singerlady]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:
1st Job: $1.60/hr
2nd Job: $10,718/yr

[GoRedSox!]

My brothers and I had a grass cutting business when we were teens which was actually decent income. We had 9 lawns, my mother drove us to homes not within walking distance, God Bless her. My first real job was restocking the huge shopping bag vending machines in Read's Department store. 25 cents for a huge shopping bag. Lots of people bought them. $2.31 per hour, 1977-78, then it went up to $2.66 per hour.

My first real full-time job out of college was staff accountant for a Big 8 public accounting firm. Now it's the Big 4 due to mergers. 1983, $19,200 per year.

[Justputt]

$1.25/hr working at the Fox Foods cannery in Queen Anne, MD as a summer job during HS and college. Worked 12-13 hours a day/7 days a week so made tons of money on OT! After the first year I became a supervisor of about 1/4 of the personnel, bumped to around $2/hr and was rolling in money, lol!

[bobw123]

I'm a retired Chiropractor, but have a side hustle to simply return phone calls and give out the presentation website that does all the heavy lifting.
Generated 40k in the last 18 weeks. Listen to the 5 min overview at 518-444-0047 and leave me a message if interested.

Age 11: walking horses between checkers at the polo field. $20
Age 16: mowing lawn a funeral home $3.00/hr. Once a week
Age 16-17: making pizzas and washing dishes. $1.65/hr
Age 18: usher at Milwaukee Braves stadium
Age 18: loading UPS trucks during Christmas rush $3.59/hr pt time
Age 20: meat packing plant after taking off a year from school to earn future tuition. 3.50/hr plus Saturdays at time and a half
Age 23: freight forwarding company full time. Don’t recall wage
Age 34: corporate office for a freight forwarding company. Made 44k/ after 10 years there then downsized.
Age 50: teacher$34,267 first year. Don’t recall what I was paid after 11 years when I retired at age 60 but it wasn’t much more

Point is I did what I could do to make any money as you can see.

[Lancer]

First job $1.75/hr 1969
First real job Teacher $8,300/yr 1973

[psjordan]

You all had it easy. We had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox in the middle of the night, and lick road clean with tongues! We had to eat half a handful of freezing-cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at that mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home... our dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

[LarryFitz]

1964-1968 Mowing lawns for neighbors/relatives @ $3-5/job
1968 Bag boy at grocery store in MI @ $1.62/hr
1973 Cashier at same store @ $3.65/hr
1974-1977 Cashier at liquor store in Detroit @ $2.50/hr (cash, no deductions!)
1974-1979 Graduate teaching assistant at Wayne State Univ @ $4,300 avg/yr
1979-1982 Postdoc, Univ FL @ $12,000-$15,000/yr
1982-1988 Research scientist in CA @ $22,000-$45,000/yr
1988-1990 Biotech researcher @ $52,000-$55,000/yr
1990-1995 Research appointment, Univ Utah @ $65,000-$72,000/yr
1996 Bus driver, Salt Lake City, UT @ $9.50/hr
1996-2011 Research administrator, Univ CA @ $42,000-$91,000/yr
2012 -present Retired w/ pensions, SS @ $6,500/mo = $78,000/yr (2023)

Total periods of unemployed from 1968 to retirement in 2011 was about 6 months or 1% of my adult life from ages 17-60 yo.

[Joe Mack]

First part time job was as an usher in a movie theater, 63 cents an hour. I also delivered papers to supplement it, I was about 16, this was 1962-63

First full time job after the military was as a chemical operator in a refinery, 3.63 an hour. I was 21 at the time

[Stu from NYC]

I'm a retired Chiropractor, but have a side hustle to simply return phone calls and give out the presentation website that does all the heavy lifting.
Generated 40k in the last 18 weeks. Listen to the 5 min overview at 518-444-0047 and leave me a message if interested.

Wow that is amazing. Maybe you can help me, I have a bridge that we recently purchased in great condition but need to sell it. Think you could handle that for a commission?

[Two Bills]

You all had it easy. We had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox in the middle of the night, and lick road clean with tongues! We had to eat half a handful of freezing-cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at that mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home... our dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

You had a shoebox?
You don't know what hard is!
There were 24 of us................................................ .

[Topspinmo]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

Freshman in high school 1966. .60 cent hour working in grocery store and was glad to get it.
Graduated to farm hand junior year at 1.15 hour minimum at time thought I was in clams…

[nn0wheremann]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:
First part time job $1.60/hr. First out of college $135/week, back in the Dark Ages. To get to that $1.60 per hour job I bought a used VW for $50 and had it painted at Earl Scheib’s for $29.95.

[Direwolf]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

My first job was as a paperboy when I was 12. Not sure how much that paid an hour...when I turned 16 I worked at McDonald's for $3.35 an hour. My first full time job was $8 an hour making windows.

[Ecuadog]

1) $60.00 (+ room & board) for the whole summer as a dishwasher in a summer camp, 1961
2) ~$87.90 a month as an E-1 in the US Army, 1966

[JMintzer]

When I was 12 (1969), I had my own lawn mowing business. I mowed 5-6 lawns;/week, charging $4-$6/lawn...

Always had money for my model rockets and cars...

My first paying part time job was about 1974, working in a deli, behind the counter. Pretty sure I started at about $3.50/hr... I worked there (and at another deli) all thru college, ending up close to $5.00/hr...

In med school (1980), I worked part time, evenings in a transfusion lab. Typing and crossmatching blood. I made $8.00/hr, but on weekends, when I did the overnights (once, maybe twice a month,15 hrs straight), I would get evening shift pay for the first 8 hrs, plus time and a half for the last 7 hrs...

It paid for my beer money and date nights... And about half my rent...

My residency paid $9,500/yr, with a raise to $9750 for the 2nd 6 months...

My first year in private practice (1986), I netted $25K... 2nd year, $50K...

[ScopeMan]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

$ 0.35 in 1959

$ 7,500 / year plus car, expenses, and bonus in1967

[Stu from NYC]

$ 0.35 in 1959

$ 7,500 / year plus car, expenses, and bonus in1967

Just curious what did you do to earn $ 0.35 an hour

[ckcapaul]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

Working on a neighbors farm $1.00 a day at 7yoa
First real job was 1.80 an hour

[Taltarzac725]

I did mow lawns of various neighbors including one who would later be a General at the Pentagon. We had a number of heavy hitters in the Reno, Nevada area on our block in the 1970s.


And had pumped gas at a friend's relative's station for an afternoon when I was about 15.

[opinionist]

Working for my father at $1 per hour (no skills but I pulled wires for electricians)
Out of college full time $14400 per year

[CoachKandSportsguy]

1) Your first part-time job (probably as a minor).

2) Your first "real full-time" job.


Me:
1) $1.75/hr
2) $18,000/yr

:mornincoffee:

part time: $2.00 per hour 1974, 1975 landscaping, mowing, raking

full time: $42,000 per year, 1980, only working 6 months per year per industry standards, Third deck officer aboard a Gulf Oil oil tanker going from West Coast to Gulf Coast to East Cost and to Puerto Rico.

:)

BUT my rate of salary increase from there to retirement is exactly 3.0% per year, annualized rate.
CPI inflation over that time period: 2.9% per year, annualized rate, so basically, I just stayed in place, even after adding graduate school. I made lots of mistakes. . . employment and investment related, but have two great kids and my best friend as my wife and traveling partner.

[manaboutown]

part time: $2.00 per hour 1974, 1975 landscaping, mowing, raking

full time: $42,000 per year, 1980, only working 6 months per year per industry standards, Third deck officer aboard a Gulf Oil oil tanker going from West Coast to Gulf Coast to East Cost and to Puerto Rico.

:)

BUT my rate of salary increase from there to retirement is exactly 3.0% per year, annualized rate.
CPI inflation over that time period: 2.9% per year, annualized rate, so basically, I just stayed in place, even after adding graduate school. I made lots of mistakes. . . employment and investment related, but have two great kids and my best friend as my wife and traveling partner.

That looks like a wonderful starting salary back then!

"$42,000 in 1980 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $159,818.16 today, an increase of $117,818.16 over 44 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.08% per year between 1980 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 280.52%.

This means that today's prices are 3.81 times as high as average prices since 1980, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index. A dollar today only buys 26.280% of what it could buy back then.

The inflation rate in 1980 was 13.50%. The current inflation rate compared to the end of last year is now 3.36%. If this number holds, $42,000 today will be equivalent in buying power to $43,410.09 next year. The current inflation rate page gives more detail on the latest inflation rates."


$42,000 in 1980 → 2024 | Inflation Calculator (https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1980?amount=42000)

[CoachKandSportsguy]

That looks like a wonderful starting salary back then!


And only working 6 months a year allowed me to have a lot of fun and do a lot of non career stuff for about 8 years. . . then went back to get my MBA and worked like a pack animal until i turned 65. . .

however, the career was dangerous, and know many who have lost their lives working in the merchant marine.

[Ecuadog]

...

however, the career was dangerous, and know many who have lost their lives working in the merchant marine.

How did they lose their lives?

[Stu from NYC]

How did they lose their lives?

Storms at sea?

[Rapscallion St Croix]

I took a big pay cut when I got a real job. The military didn't pay anywhere near what I made as a smuggler and bootlegger. Ran booze from New Orleans into dry state of Mississippi in my 1954 Buick from 1963-1965.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

How did they lose their lives?

sunken ships mostly, during storms
one overboard, thought to be a suicide/murder
one ashore in a foreign country
one fell overboard preparing the pilot ladder and never surfaced

[Shipping up to Boston]

And only working 6 months a year allowed me to have a lot of fun and do a lot of non career stuff for about 8 years. . . then went back to get my MBA and worked like a pack animal until i turned 65. . .

however, the career was dangerous, and know many who have lost their lives working in the merchant marine.

Ive seen those YouTube vids on a day in the life on these tankers. Not a Carnival Cruise by any means.