what did your first job pay?

[WalterMitty]

$5/hour in 1996.

$7.32 in today's $

[ZuWo]

ca. $35/hour in 2008 (private tutor).

Now that I am a part-time teacher at a private language/business school I earn about $65/hour. (Life is pretty expensive in Switzerland, too.)

[TNF]

$8 an hour in 2008.

I make minimum wage now.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

$90 a week for almost a 40 hour week.

[DC Al Fine]

$8/hr

[WalterMitty]

$8 an hour in 2008.

I make minimum wage now.

are you the one that has been working at a mcdonald's for years?  and you only make minimum wage?

i was hired at wendy's and make above the massachusetts minimum wage (which is $8). 

i dont get it?

[WalterMitty]

$90 a week for almost a 40 hour week.

im guessing this was the late 70s?

that translates to about $340 in today's dollars

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

$90 a week for almost a 40 hour week.

im guessing this was the late 70s?

that translates to about $340 in today's dollars

Yep, very late 70s  I made more after I got married and had 2 jobs at the same place.....but the hours killed me, even at that age.

[TNF]

$8 an hour in 2008.

I make minimum wage now.

are you the one that has been working at a mcdonald's for years?  and you only make minimum wage?

i was hired at wendy's and make above the massachusetts minimum wage (which is $8). 

i dont get it?

I worked at McDonald's for four years, but I no longer work there. The job I currently have pays $7.25 an hour.

[WalterMitty]

$8 an hour in 2008.

I make minimum wage now.

are you the one that has been working at a mcdonald's for years?  and you only make minimum wage?

i was hired at wendy's and make above the massachusetts minimum wage (which is $8). 

i dont get it?

I worked at McDonald's for four years, but I no longer work there. The job I currently have pays $7.25 an hour.

so you took a pay cut to leave mcdonalds?

[Lief 🗽]

$12 an hour (or $13.04 in 2013 dollars) at Costco (with time and a half on the weekends).

[Indy Texas]

My first job was in sales the summer after high school (2006), selling these lovely kitchen implements. I was paid a combination of commission and a base rate that was on a per demo basis. So it basically depended on how long I spent with a client and how much they ordered. Worst case scenario: didn't sell anything and received the $15 base rate for doing the demo. If it took me an hour to do it, plus an hour to go to their house and come back, that was $15 for 2 hours - $7.50 an hour. Suppose instead that I made a $600 sale and received a 20 percent commission - $120 for 2 hours, or $60 an hour. The best clients were the ones who already owned Cutco knives and wanted more; they'd just look at the website, call me and tell me what they wanted and I could fill orders without even leaving my house.

It definitely helped me improve my ability to sound professional on the phone and be able to give a persuasive verbal presentation, things most 18 year olds are terrible at. But it's very much a networking job: I'd sell to my rich friends' parents, who would refer me to their rich friends and so on. I'd be sitting in on sales meetings with kids who had met with clients every single day that week and didn't sell a single thing - there was just no extra money to go around in the neighborhoods where they lived and visited.

[Dr. Cynic]

$8 for an hour and a half. Plus dinner.

[sentinel]

$6/$7 ish when I was 14

[Bacon King]

$8 an hour in 2007

[Dave from Michigan]

5.50 an hour in 1999 working at Wendy's.

[AndrewTX]

My first job payed me $7.50 an hour, and time and a half on Sundays.. think that was '98

[angus]

First paying job I ever had was when I was 14.  I got paid $25 for babysitting the neighbor's two boys for about four hours.  I did that about once a week.  Back then, you could get half a lid for 25 bucks, and that's pretty much where all my babysitting money went. 

[Torie]

The minimum wage at the time. I have no idea what that was. The year was 1967.

[Bacon King]

The minimum wage at the time. I have no idea what that was. The year was 1967.

The minimum wage at the time was $1.40 per hour ($9.80 in 2013 dollars).

The very next year, in 1968, the minimum wage was increased to $1.60 per hour; in 2013 dollars this is $10.75 an hour and adjusted for inflation it was the highest minimum wage rate the US ever had.

[Torie]

Thank you BK. Ah, the memories. I worked in a record store at Hollywood and Sunset. I once "serviced" Rock Hudson.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I got my first job at a golf course as a bag boy at 16. I made like $15/hour once tips were factored in, which was nice, and more than I've ever made interning.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

$6.00/hour in 2003

Oh God, are you off of mod-review?

[Torie]

$6.00/hour in 2003

Oh God, are you off of mod-review?

Isn't he doing much better? 

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

$6.00/hour in 2003

Oh God, are you off of mod-review?

Isn't he doing much better? 

Honestly, Torie, no.  Unless your advice to him is to still post an average of 40 times per day.