# How much did you make at your first job? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443 "2008-06-02T06:30:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/21 "2008-06-02T12:15:19Z")
$1.79 minimum wage in 1972ish. bagging groceries worse part was we got paid once a month and you could draw against your check! So sometimes at the first of the month I got nothing! Luckily was living with Mom and Dad at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/22 "2008-06-02T12:32:01Z")
My dad ran hotels when I was a kid, and my first job was when I was 10, working on the pool deck, for $4.00 an hour (the pool concession was an independent contractor, so I never technically worked for my dad) - I worked 40 hours a week that first year. I had that summer job every year until I graduated high school, and often put in more than 40 hours a week (truth be told, I didn’t really enjoy cleaning up after tourists, although the occasional topless woman on the beach made up for it). My first full time job was at a bookstore; I worked there for 16 months about 5 years ago and earned $16K a year (I recently found an old W-2). I was utterly disrespected by management and the customers and hated it. I’ve since vowed never to work in retail again! (Fortunately, I’m now a lawyer). I did end up with a nice book collection, though. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/23 "2008-06-02T12:32:29Z")
1980, I delivered a weekly newspaper every Thursday. It took me about 90 minutes to get through my route. My pay? Theoretically I was to make a whopping $6.50/month, which is about 1.00/hr. However, every 4th week I was to do a collections run, which took longer because I couldn't just ride by on my bike and toss the paper; I had to ring doorbells, talk to people, etc. So maybe another 2.5 hours a month for that, so it works out to about .75/hr. And at least 1/3 of the people either weren’t home at the time, or would actively avoid me. Yes, they’d actually hide from the paperboy. I’d see them in the house but they’d avoid answering the door so they wouldn’t have to pay a few dollars for the weekly newspaper. So I got stiffed a lot, but I still had to pay up to my distributor, so the job wound up costing me about $10 a month. So that was a poor start to my moneymaking career. But it did teach me one rule that has sustained me to this day- people generally suck. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/24 "2008-06-02T12:44:20Z")
My first job, at age 15 in 1977, was working at a mortuary for $2.50 an hour which was better than the minimum wage of $2.30. The following year, when I had a license and could take on driving duties that jumped to $5 an hour while minimum wage had increased to $2.65. Should have stuck with it. The funeral director had no child of his own to pass the business on to and wanted me to go to mortuary school and come in as his partner. I wasn’t interested as, in those pre-cell phone days, a funeral director in one of those small family operations was virtually tethered to the premises. Missing a phone call potentially meant losing a funeral ($1000’s of dollars). I didn’t see myself spending all day every day hovering around the phone waiting in case it might ring. If I had joined up with him, he’d have retired decades ago and I would long since have sold the business at an insane price to one of the corporate outfits that buy up small funeral homes and continue to run them under the established “family” name. ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/25 "2008-06-02T12:51:55Z")
I got 90 cents an hour (before taxes) grilling burgers and the like at a place in St. Louis near Soulard Market (the farmer’s market near downtown St. Louis). If I was working on a day I was off from school, I’d walk to work to avoid paying bus fare even though my parents lived about ten miles from the place. Bus fare was about $1 at the time. On school days, I had to take the bus to work, because I didn’t have enough time to get there on foot. This was in 1972. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/26 "2008-06-02T13:07:31Z")
My first real job was slicing lunch meat in a deli for $1.15 an hour in 1970. When I quite college in 1973, I got a job driving a delivery van for a printing company. That paid $2.00 per hour to start; I was making $3.00 per hour within six months. I don’t remember what the minimum wage was during the years I’ve mentioned, but I do remember that it only applied, then, to jobs which actually involved interstate commerce. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/27 "2008-06-02T13:09:06Z")
My first job was at IBM, for the summer. My father worked there and I won their scholarship which meant a guaranteed summer job (one of the perks that fell by the wayside years ago). I worked as a telephone operator for the plant, and I believe I made ~$6.18 an hour. It would have been in 1985, so very good wages for a kid at her first job. My first “real” permanent job was in 1990 and I made $18K/year in an accounting office for a non-profit. ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/28 "2008-06-02T13:19:17Z")
I made minimum wage of $2.30 per hour working for the West Virginia Youth Conservation Corps back in the summer of 1976. I was 15. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/29 "2008-06-02T13:33:52Z")
Like $5 dollars a week delvering _The Advertiser_ in Lake County. Upgraded to the News-Sun sometime after for a couple hundred a month after collections. First real job that involved a tax form–$6.50 hr mounting tapes at 15 in a data center. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/30 "2008-06-02T13:34:40Z")
Cdn$1.85 an hour working at a MacDonalds Restaurant in Ottawa in the summer of (I think) 1972. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/31 "2008-06-02T13:46:07Z")
1972–bagging money at a bank after hours. $2/hour, which makes me wonder why I didn’t take some. Oh right, we were under armed guard. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/32 "2008-06-02T13:46:59Z")
Something like $6.00/hr in 1996, which works out to $8.09/hr in 2007 dollars. See the [inflation calculator](http://www.westegg.com/inflation/) for the conversion. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/33 "2008-06-02T14:01:29Z")
I made $1.32 1/2 cents an hour waiting tables at Shoney’s. This would have been circa 1977. Customer’s tips were supposed to make up the other half of minimum wage ($2.65). I was interested to see, after I graduated college, that it wasn’t long before I paid more in taxes than I earned per year at that Shoney’s job. Amazing. ETA: \*\*ultrafilter \*\*'s linked calculator says that’s $4.78 in 2007 dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/34 "2008-06-02T14:10:25Z")
$14 per round caddying when I was 14. Two bags? $20. First real, set wage job: $4.85/hr at Gymboree. I. Hate. Children. And. Their. Overpriced. Clothers. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/35 "2008-06-02T14:52:26Z")
I think minimum wage in Florida in 1986 was something like $4.50? So I was making 25 cents an hour more than that as a data clerk in an IT department, plus 25 cents an hour shift differential for working third shift. ---
**Author:** ![wasson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4da419/32.png) [@wasson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wasson)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/36 "2008-06-02T15:04:59Z")
In 1996 if I remember correctly, minimum wage was $4.50. I worked in a movie theater for $5/hour, and was the envy of all my minimum-wage-earning friends. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/37 "2008-06-02T15:09:38Z")
$5.25 an hour as a clerk in a candy store. This was in 1994. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/38 "2008-06-02T15:12:13Z")
First summer job: $30/week + room/board as a camp counselor. (1970) First summer job that didn’t include room and board: $2.50/hour for a landscaping company. (1971) First ‘permanent’ job (i.e. more than a few months): paralegal, $11K/year. (1978) ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/39 "2008-06-02T16:06:10Z")
In December 1985 I made minimum wage ($3.30 or $3.35, I think) mostly folding flannel shirts in the men’s department of JCPenney’s, in **Crotalus** ’s location (don’t think he was shopping there at the time, though). ---
**Author:** ![Purgatory\_Creek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Purgatory\_Creek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purgatory_Creek)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443/40 "2008-06-02T19:09:56Z")
I made $1.30 an hour as a math tutor in reform school in 1975. I blew it all on cigarettes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-you-make-at-your-first-job/451443.md?page=3)