What was your first job? how much did it paid?

[Dancing Fire]

I was working part time cleaning up offices after school in 1976. I was paid $3.80 an hr which wasn't bad in 1976, then got a raise to $4.10 an hr in 1977 before the program was terminated.

 

[stracci2000]

My first job was in 1984, working in an art studio in Pittsburgh. We did commercial art and illustration. No computers then, we did everything by hand.
I was paid a little over $4/hr. I cant remember exactly. I think my take home pay was something like $120.00/week.

 

[lyra]

Babysitting paid a whopping $2.50 per hour.

 

[canuk-gal]

Babysitting paid a whopping $2.50 per hour.

You were well paid compared to me!!!! eyiyiyi

 

[pearlsngems]

First job, the summer I was 16, I got $2.00 / hr. when minimum wage was $1.85.

 

[kenny]

At age 12 I was mowing my neighbors' lawns for IIRC 75 cents.
I'm sure it was a few quarters because I remember retrieving them from under potted plants in backyards.

I saved up $80 to buy my first decent guitar, a Yamaha FG-140.
I wish I still had it, such a great guitar.
Today FG-140s from the 60s in great condition can sell near $500.

 

[chemgirl]

At 17 I worked part-time as a telemarketer. We sold Columbia House and cell phone plans. The pay was $11.60 an hour and I thought that was amazing. Minimum wage was $6.80 at the time. Worth putting up with jerks on the phone.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I finished school at year end in 1989 and we were in the middle of a ressesion
It took me till May to find my first real job in the garden dept of a rural ervicing company for $5 and a few cents an hour
With friday night being time and a half and saturday morning double time i took home about $200 after tax

and i managed to save half of that !

Before that my uncle was the publisher at the times and he got me a job putting incerts of adverts into the otago daily times in the middle of the night
they would ring about 11.45pm to make sure everyone was up and awake them come pick us up in a van (and they drove us home again)

we worked in a big room that was upstairs but partially exposed to the elements as a converyer brought the papers to us litterly hot off the press, the papers were bundled (and wrapped for rural delivery) after we put the incerts in and then they went down another conveyer to the delivery trucks
I never actually new my uncle was the publisher, as in the actual publisher until his funeral
my dad was a manager and went to work in a suit and a tie - my uncle went to work in the middle of the night in track pants and a white singlet - he was the only manager at the paper that worked at night and he would go to managment meetings straight from sending the papers out still covered in printers ink, then he would go home to bed

He had everyone in his family working that job when the need arose for income
It was only a few times a week but i didn't need to rely on my parents for money any longer
For Monday's paper (double time on a sunday night) as an 18 year old i got $19 an hour
its only in the last few years ive managed to match that !

In those days they were in the middle of introducing the full colour press (the Queen was coming for NZ's 150th anniversary and the aim was to have her in full colour)
we had lots of breakdowns and we'd sit around in the cold waiting for the press to start up again being paid to do nothing
i would get home before my parents got up and i would leave the bathroom in a terrible state with printers ink every where
and then i would sleep the sleep of the dead
one day i slept so long mum got dad to come home from work because she was afraid i had actually died !
I was a very sky 18 year old and apart from a few older people who also worked at Cadbury accross the road and my cousin and my uncle no one talked to me
So i just worked away inserting that junk mail or reading the paper during breakdowns
I miss my hometown newspaper - its NZs oldest continuous daily newspaper
it is fiercely and proudly indepentant when most of our media is just a part of larger mostly overseas owned cooperations
Long may the Otago Daily Times prosper and remain independent and
im glad i worked those few months between school and full time employment for the ODT

 

[telephone89]

I worked at an amusement park! I was either 14 or 16 and it paid $5.90/hr lol. I quit that job and got a job at the mall for $7/hr and was quite impressed with the "raise"!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

My first real paying job was when I was 17 as a receptionist for an insurance agency. Can't remember exactly how much I was paid maybe $8 an hour in 1996.

 

[Karl_K]

hvac installer/repair working for my dad.
Started out working for free at around 8 but got paid as I got older.
For 2 summers in high school I was busting up cast iron octopus furnaces for $125-$150 a day sometimes 2 a week..
It was between 1400 and 2000lbs of cast iron that had to be broken up with a sledge hammer to manageable chunks and carried out.
If I had help to carry it out I could do one in a long day(9-10) hours.
I would be rust colored from head to toe with areas that looked like powdered sugar.
Because of it every time I get a chest xray or ct scan they ask me when I was exposed to asbestos they were full of them and the ducts were blanketed with it.

 

[jaysonsmom]

I tutored English to 2 Japanese kids while going to high school in Germany. I was paid very well, and totally didn’t deserve it. I believe I was making 120DM (about $70) a month for 2 hours of my time each week.

 

[Snowdrop13]

I worked as a checkout operator in a local supermarket in my last year of high school. I earned around £10 (maybe $13?) for a days work! That seems like nothing now, but at the time I felt rich. My parents didn’t believe in giving pocket money so it was the first time I’d had money of my own to save up and spend as I liked.

 

[dk168]

My first job was a voluntary job in an office of a youth organisation that I was involved with while at school.

It was in central London near Piccadilly Circus.

The work involved office admins, printing and folding documents, stuffing envelopes for postage etc...

I did it for about 3 months during my gap year, before I was tricked to go back to HK by my mum telling me my dad was ill, as she worried about my safety. She was only able to play that trick once.

DK

 

[missy]

When I was in high school I volunteered every summer so was paid zero.

My first paying job that I can recall was when I was in graduate school the professor chose me to be the Histology TA and I was paid $10 an hour. This was in 1986. So not bad pay for a student back in the 80s.

It has come full circle however and once again though I am getting paid zero because I am volunteering with animal rescue groups. And we also do our own animal TNR for the feral cats and we feed them and have shelters for them on our property.

 

[the_mother_thing]

1986 - I was 12 yrs old and earned $4/hr under the table working in a seafood market in the beach town we lived.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

I was 12, it was 1997ish, I worked at a local pharmacy about 15-20 hours each week. Cash register, stock, filing prescriptions, everything but filling them basically $5 an hour! I worked there for about 4 years before moving on to the next job. I would do odd jobs like babysitting and snow shoveling before this but I don't count it as regular employment.

 

[missy]

Oh yes reading the replies I forgot my babysitting gig. I had my first baby sitting job at age 11 I think. I was very responsible. No memory of what I earned. It was easy money though as I love kids and have a natural rapport with them.

 

[Garnetgirl]

My first job was a summer job as a university student.

It was at a ballpoint pen factory, assembling and packing pens.
I earned the minimum wage, which was $1.45/hr in 1971.

I was living at home, my parents didn’t ask me for room and board, as they believed in the importance of education.

I saved every cent of the 4 month employment, which was just enough to pay for tuition and books.

 

[sarahb]

My first paying job was also babysitting. But my first 'official' paycheck was working at a mall music store in the mid 70's, selling sheet music, guitar strings, etc. The store also sold pianos, guitars, some instruments, but those type of product sales fell to others. I remember taking my very first earnings & buying a yellow shirt, which I kept for many years just because it was so meaningful to me. I may still have it some where around here.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,
There were teachers at my high school that owned summer camps (Bernie does too) When I was 15 I waitressed for a month at a sleep-away camp in PA. I think I got $200. It was hard work and not as much fun as I expected.

At age 16, I worked part time after school 4 days a week for a general dentist as his assistant. Many Dr.s and Dentists had their offices in their homes, so it was only 2blocks from where I lived. I liked the man and his wife and he trusted me to do things I was afraid of doing. I worked for him for 2yrs until I graduated HS. Truly a nice job. I made $1.00 an hr. It was 1955. I paid board to my mother of $5.00 per week. My brother worked part-time as well. He was 13. He paid board too. We accepted that it was our share of the responsibilities to the family.

Annette

 

[doberman]

Not counting babysitting jobs, the first job I got at 16 or 17 was as a waitress. It was so long ago I can't remember what I made. Not a lot! I transitioned from that job to cocktail waitressing and made $350/week on a good week. But this was in the summer of 1983, so that was a decent sum.

 

[Gussie]

I was a lifeguard every summer in high school and college. I made minimum wage with free food and drinks while on duty. I think it was about $3.50 an hour. It wasn't near enough to cover what I pay now to try to undo some of the sun damage!

 

[ringbling17]

My first job was as a concession girl at a movie theatre in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY. I was 15 years old and I think I made $5/hour. It was cool working there and I got to watch all the movies for free.

 

[luv2sparkle]

I was 16 and worked at a swap meet for a guy who owned a chain of stores called Clothesline (later changed to Clothestime). I would get there about 5:30 am and help set up the booth. I got free Ditto’s jeans (remember those with the horseshoe over the butt?). I sold a lot of jeans and would get paid according to how much I sold. His wife made me lunch every day and sent it with him. I usually made a couple hundred bucks for the weekend. I did that until I graduated from high school. He wanted me to manage one of his stores but I wanted to go away to college.

 

[OcnGypZ]

Well.. my first paying job was washing the exterior of a house and scraping paint. I was 10. Dad paid me $3.00 an hour. This was in the mid 60's. My first job in the "real world" paid $2.10/hr for keypunching. I was 16. Easier work for sure....lol

 

[Tekate]

well babysitting every thursday nite for the lady down the street who was having an affair but told her husband she was on a bowling team. She was to pay me 1.00$ an hour, but she never paid me for months, her husband caught her and beat her up royally, it was quite the thing.

Second job was a grocery store checkout clerk 1.35$ and hour and that was because of the union. Great money for a kid of 16.