You guys have good memories!

My first job was working on a farm in 1974 at 15. I think I was paid $2.50/hour.

The following year during summer vacation and weekends in school I worked at a boatyard. I think that was $4.50/hour.

1968 for my first W-2 wage and minimum wage had just gone up to $1.60 but I made all of $1.65. This was doing a variety of things at a small town local store.
About a year later I started with a guy that had a mowing service and also did backhoe work and small earth moving. I was really happy to get about $2.25 an hour.
When graduated from high school in 1971, I worked for a flat $100 a week for a year then moved south for $175 a week.

In 1983 I ran a printing press for $5.00 an hour.

By 1985 I was paid $10 an hour to run printing presses.

1971. Baker, mechanic, cleaner and handyman at a bakery. $2.10 an hour.

Summer of 1968 I got a job at the Riverside Park swimming pool concession stand selling popcorn and roasted peanuts and sno cones for 85 cents an hour and all I could eat.

$3.15 per hour minimum wage at a gaming store in Springfield Mall, Virginia, 1984. Age 16. Pretty cool job all-in-all. I did not know it at the time, but my future wife was also working somewhere in the Mall... I wonder we ever crossed paths, as we would not start dating for another 12 years.

 
Summer of 1962, highway construction laborer (I-30, near Texarkana), paid the minimum wage of $1.15/hour.

quote:

Originally posted by ridgerat:
$1.65 per hour, in 1972

This but the year was 1973. Those $25.00 a week paychecks kept my car on the road and the girlfriend happy.

16 years old in 1964, $1.85 working construction for a petroleum maintenance company. Installed tanks, pumps, etc at gas stations.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
Started working for Sohio at age 16 in 1971. Was your typical gas pump jockey who also did oil changes and general mechanical repair. Pay was a glorious 1.30 per hour.

$5/hour in 1988 at an Amoco station, age 16.

1965 busboy at a restaurant, $1.25 plus tips.

Made around $10.00/night on tips.

1973 Penn Central Railroad. Laborer. $4.39 an hour.

$2/hr in 1972 for packing beans.

$2.00 an hour in 1972 working at a mill that processed and delivered...chicken feed.

$1.60 hr in 1970 working at restaurant. Dishwasher, then cook.

US Navy in 1969 paid me about $123 a month. That was my first job with an actual wage. I remember filing my tax return in Wisconsin after my first full year in the service. I owed 0.10 so a taped a dime to my 1040 and sent it in.

Before that I made pretty good money playing rock music in bars, clubs and schools.

I fried chicken for $2.65 an hour.

1999. It was 5 dollars and change. Maybe $5.25ish?

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
In 1983 I ran a printing press for $5.00 an hour.

By 1985 I was paid $10 an hour to run printing presses.

My grandfather on my father's side was apprenticed to a printer in the late '20s, but found out he was extremely allergic to the inks, and had to stop. He ended up as a truck driver.

Oddly enough, my mother's moether's father owned a print shop in a very small town in the coal regions in Pennsylvania, and also owned the local newspaper.

My first and only full time job was started at $4.00 an hour in 1986.

I will retire from that same company this year. I’ve been very fortunate.