Reading the NYT article today which pulls the curtain back on internships and the abuses thereof, I’m reminded of the first actual job I had which got me a paycheck, complete with deductions for federal and state taxes and social security withholding. That was in 1967. Before that I’d had newspaper delivery jobs where I paid for the papers, keeping a cash commission based on how much I collected.
That was a whole lot of fun: going door-to-door to my customers’ homes trying to persuade them to pay for something they’d already received. It wasn’t so bad in the DC suburbs: people valued the evening paper. But the weekly throwaway (15¢) I delivered every Wednesday morning in Westwood for a year or two was virtually impossible to get paid for; on the bright side, I learned the 15-times table really really well.
Anyway, that first paying job was as a janitor in my high school three days a week after class. For the work I got paid $1.65 an hour and was quite pleased.
What was your first job and how much did you earn?
Not counting odd jobs, my first regular one was at McDonald’s in 1981. Whatever the minimum was…$3.35/hr, I think.
I got my first job at 14; I worked at a soda fountain for $1.14/hour. I worked there (Saturdays and Sundays, nights during the summer) for two years (I think). Then, I moved to retail.
Other than the odd job of babysitting (during the mid ’50s), my first job was as a graduate nurse after completing nurses training in 1958. I had taken state board exams but hadn’t gotten my registration yet. Was hired by the hospital where I took my training for the magnificent sum of $299.00 per month. I was in heaven to be earning so much money at age 21!!
Not only that, but I filed my first income tax form in 1959 and received a princely return of almost $800 (I think the hospital withheld an awful lot of my pay for the first three months) and went out to get my first contact lenses. I was rich!! 😀
Porter at a Spiegel’s catalog order store in 1970 for a cool $1.60 an hour.
Steve, I worked in my dad’s machine shop starting in 1966 – $1.67/hr.
My first job was in a green house while I was still in high school. I made $.90 an hour, but in a month, my boss raised me to a dollar an hour. AND… my Mother still gave me my allowance.
Well, my mother used to pay me a penny a minute to do the ironing; that would have been around 1958. But I think you probably mean “real job,” in which case:
Reference librarian at the Cupertino branch of the San Jose Public Library, in March 1969. I was paid $600 a month gross. My first apartment was a 1-bedroom for which I paid $125 a month.
My first job was shabbos goy at the orthodox synagogue up the street. Only worked Friday nights and Saturday mornings. I probably made no more than ten bucks a week but I don’t remember the money. In my memory I was paid in all the desserts I could eat—the rabbi told me I was allowed to raid the refrigerator. The caterers for the bar mitzvahs and weddings (which were held on Sundays) delivered everything Friday afternoon so the work wouldn’t have to be done on the sabbath.