Foo - What was the minimum wage when you started working???

It was $3.85 back when I entered the work force in '82. Although I was only doing a part time job in Grade 10.

I think it was 3.25 for me.

My first job was washing dishes part time while I was in high school. Paid $1.75 an hour, minimum in 1972 or so.

My first job was cleaning bathrooms at a gym. Talk about a good job to motivate me to do better.

When I started as an apprentice in 73 I was earning just under $1 per hour.

$5.50 in 2004, for IL, which I understand is usually higher than the national.

I have no recollection what so ever.
My first job was bus boy/dish washer at the steakhouse when I was 12-13 (god have mercy, that was over 30 years ago).
IIRC my pay check was about $70 a week.

Beats the heck out of me...I think I got paid $2 or $3 an hour to be a bag boy at the Big Apple grocery store. I think that was above min. wage, but not sure.

This will help

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

This will help

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

Interesting that the Fed's set the min wage. I would have thought that the individual States would set their own minimum wages. There must be some serious regional differences in jobs???

In Canada, the provinces set their own Minimum Wages. http://srv116.services.gc.ca/dimt-wid/sm-mw/rpt4.aspx?lang=eng

$2.65 :cry:

I think it was $1.25 at Sap's Buffeteria in 1972. I was 12 and the dishwasher.

$5.25 at a dry cleaner in Phoenix, talk about hot!

Interesting that the Fed's set the min wage. I would have thought that the individual States would set their own minimum wages. There must be some serious regional differences in jobs???

In Canada, the provinces set their own Minimum Wages. http://srv116.services.gc.ca/dimt-wid/sm-mw/rpt4.aspx?lang=eng

States can set their own local minimum wages, as long as they are not below the federal minimum.

$4.75 in TN in 1996. It's almost twice that currently in WA.

I think it was about $2.50 when I worked at Jack In The Box flipping burgers.

i think it was 6 or 7. I can't remember.

$1.60. I started at $2.09 working swing on a cannery cleanup crew. 14 years old.

50c per hour back in 1950 as parking lot attendant for movie theatre.
Made more $ on the side letting folks park that were not going to the theatre.
No fringes except for messing with the girls that ran the candy counter . . .

3 something in 1976. One of the neighbors who owned a large production bakery hit me with his car. Wrote off my bike so he bought me a new one and gave me a job driving a forklift at 11.20/hr. I was in 10th grade and my Dad was charging me $300/ month room and board. :notamused:

My first gig was as a bag boy in AZ. I pulled down $2.86. Minimum was $3.35, IIRC, but bag boys were considered tipped employees so the stores totally screwed them. I usually got tipped a couple of quarters per 25 hour work week. Woot!

Minimum wage, $5.35/hr, grocery clerk, 1985.

60c per hour for fencing, stump burning and loading trucks out west in about 1970.

$3.35 back in '88 or '89- same for both years, but don't recall which year I started working a job that required reporting taxes to. I do, however, remember that gig was at Hardee's.

The first job I had that paid with an actual payroll check paid $4.25 an hour.

I thought it was $1.10, but the chart says $1.40 in 1967. I guess it just felt like $1.10 as I bagged groceries. On the positive side, the grocery stores had not instituted their "no tips" policy like you see today.

$5.15 in 2002 when I started working. I was working for $7/hr in food service at the local brain & spine rehab hospital.

$3 something flipping burgers at a Mom & Pop restaurant which recently closed...making way for a Hardees. :(

$ 2.30 in 1976. In 1978, when I started working at the hospital to put myself through school, I was making almost $ 6/hour for 24 hours a week, and I thought I had it made. I was living with room mates in the U District of Seattle, and tuition was $ 231/quarter for undergrad at the UW.

Mine was $1.95 at Pathmark bagging groceries. Great job for a 16 year old kid.

Maybe I didn't answer the question. Not sure what the minimum wage was - I think that we were paid over minimum since it was a union job.

Early 70's when I was in high school, I think it was like $2/hour. But that was when $2 was worth $2.

Now I bill my time out @ about $100/hour. Less impressive when you adjust it for inflation back to c. 1972, that's probably about $25/hour in 1972 dollars.

When I was a kids we were put to work on the farm for free, so $0.

with Mr. Beanz...$2.65 in early 80's in los angeles area, ca

I was on the Artful Dodger's crew working for Mr. Fagin. Just room and board and the occasional affectionate cuff on the ear.

$4.25 sacking at the Safeway.

I think it was NZ$4.00 which roughly translated to US$2.00. That was 22 years ago though. I hear the minimum wage is NZ$10 now. I haven't been home in 13 years so I can't be sure.

$3.35 in early 80s

I don't remember what I got paid washing dishes in the restaurant. My first factory job paid $3.20 loading trucks.

I don't remember, but gas was a buck per gallon. Good times.

25 cents/ hr farm labour hoeing strawberries, post season so no strawberries to snack on.

$1.85, but I was on the cusp and it went up to $2.10.

Officially it was $1.60 hr but my first job was delivering newspaper after school and on Saturday mornings. Worked about 24 hrs a week and took home $12.00.

This will help

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html


According to that chart the minimum wage was $2.90/hour when I got my first "real" job...but my (admittedly vague) recollection is that I was getting paid $3.10 or $3.15 for that gig.

This shows you how old I am - $1.35/hr.

First official job - working the counter at a Chinese take-out. The owner spoke no english and would yell at me in Chinese. I never knew why he was yelling! Stressful job for a 16 year old. I would forget someone's crunchy noodles and they would come back in and yell at me... I lasted 3 months.

$3.35 an hour busting suds at sizzler but we got tipped too for bussing tables then i became a cook and thats what i did for about the next 12 years haha

$1.50 in the very early '70s. Shortly after, it went to $1.65... whoo hoo. Shortly after that, I picked up a somewhat tough job that paid a whopping $2.50. Wow... I only stayed with that job for about 3-4 months... it was a physically demanding task, as well as late hours.

Interesting... according to the chart I should have been making $1.60 the whole time I was making $1.50.

That's funny, I dont think I have ever been yelled at in Chinese. It would have cracked me up, I think.
This shows you how old I am - $1.35/hr.

First official job - working the counter at a Chinese take-out. The owner spoke no english and would yell at me in Chinese. I never knew why he was yelling! Stressful job for a 16 year old. I would forget someone's crunchy noodles and they would come back in and yell at me... I lasted 3 months.

$1.35 an hour = 1972.

$1.35 an hour = 1972.

Nah I don't think that's right. I was making at least $1.65 in 1968 but then again that was a million years ago and my memory is bad...

My first gig was as a bag boy in AZ. I pulled down $2.86. Minimum was $3.35, IIRC, but bag boys were considered tipped employees so the stores totally screwed them. I usually got tipped a couple of quarters per 25 hour work week. Woot!

Some stores here have posted signs saying no tipping. I think it is a remnant of the problem you faced.