How Much did you make at your first job?

[Capt Worley PE]

When I was a lifeguard, I made $3.85 an hour, which was awesome, because the job pretty much entailed watching teenage girls in bikinis.

Funny thing was I subbed as a guard for two years prior to that. Because the lifeguard had to find and pay his own sub, subs usually made $5/hr under the table. The guy I subbed for had a drug and gambling problem, and could never pay on time. Deal was if I could wait til the end of the month, he'd double the $5/hr. And he did. I was in the jack those years.

First engineering job paid $27K/yr back in 1989.

 

[Flyer_PE]

$3.25/hr loading and unloading cattle trucks at the stock yard next to my uncle's farm.

First engineering job was $32.5k/yr in 1990. With the overtime, I wound up around 50k that year.

 

[Weavs33]

$24.04/hr first engineering job out of school in 2007

 

[willsee]

Nielsen Media Research ... $7.50/hr in 1999

First Engineering Job $57k in 2008

 

[Golden Eagle PE]

$5.25/hr working at a grocery store. Min. wage at the time. I started working there at 14.

 

[MetsFan]

My first real job was for $8 or $10 an hour (can't remember) working as an in-house messenger at Time Warner as a summer intern in 1995. I loved the free magazines and cd's.

First engineering job was in 2004 for around $22 an hour.

 

[snickerd3]

it's hard to break it out to a true hrly rate here because it changes every pay period depending on the # or work days/holidays in that time frame.

 

[K19]

First summer job at 16 was working on litter patrol for my local DPW for a kingly $4.15 an hour a.k.a min wage at the time. I think it was through a state grant or something, four 6-hour days a week; we'd drive around in a sped bus picking up trash at all the local parks, playgrounds, ball fields, etc. There were 4 of us and after a short while we were too good, started running out of places to clean up that we hadn't already done a day or 2 prior. So we'd collect whatever few bagfuls we could in the a.m. and then spend the afternoons mostly playing wiffleball. Good times!

 

[mudpuppy]

$3.35 an hour, at a Dairy Queen "Brazier". Probably 1984?

Oh the stories I could tell..... I'll sum it all up with "I never ate at one again!"

Except that those things happen at EVERY restaurant. Every single one, no matter how fancy. I'd heard the stories from my friends who worked in food service and for that very reason decided I wouldn't go into food service. I ended up at a plastics plant as a press operator, which paid a lot better anyway. I think I made $7/hour in 1995. Working second shift sucked, though, because I never saw my friends.

 

[Lumber Jim]

My labor was free when I was 6 years old shoveling hog **** into a wheel barrow and hauling it to the **** pile 200 feet away at the home farm. It was also the first year I drove a tractor.

I made $1.00 per hour picking rocks at my grandma and grandpa's farm when I was 10 when I wasn't working on my parent's farm (my friends in school were getting $10/ hour for the same work...) I also earned $0.25 / gopher that I could trap.

I made $5.25 as a janitor cleaning office complexes after football practice when I was 16. I saw some weird stuff at the lawer's offices (officially this would probably be my "first" job)

this has given me a clear appreciation for what I do now...

 

[Exception Collection]

$8.50 per hour, if memory serves correctly. $10.00 for my first in-field position (drafting).

The state I grew up in has a higher-than-normal minimum wage. I think it's around $10 now.

 

[engineergurl]

My labor was free when I was 6 years old shoveling hog **** into a wheel barrow and hauling it to the **** pile 200 feet away at the home farm. It was also the first year I drove a tractor.

I made $1.00 per hour picking rocks at my grandma and grandpa's farm when I was 10 when I wasn't working on my parent's farm (my friends in school were getting $10/ hour for the same work...) I also earned $0.25 / gopher that I could trap.

I made $5.25 as a janitor cleaning office complexes after football practice when I was 16. I saw some weird stuff at the lawer's offices (officially this would probably be my "first" job)

this has given me a clear appreciation for what I do now...

Yeah.. I skipped the $hi+y jobs and went for the first one I paid taxes at

 

[Capt Worley PE]

$3.35 an hour, at a Dairy Queen "Brazier". Probably 1984?

Oh the stories I could tell..... I'll sum it all up with "I never ate at one again!"

Except that those things happen at EVERY restaurant. Every single one, no matter how fancy. I'd heard the stories from my friends who worked in food service and for that very reason decided I wouldn't go into food service.

That's why I tend to only eat where I can see the food being prepared.

 

[goodal]

I mowed yards from 12-15 and made decent money at it. I don't remember what I did with all of it though. The first one I paid taxes on was at 15 for $5.25/hr for 2 hrs a day as a dishwasher.

 

[Master slacker]

First job paid $4.50 / hour in 1994 - swim coach.

First "real" job paid $48k + $60 per diem in 2002.

 

[Badger]

My first legal job was making minimum wage of $2/hr working in the university cafeteria, before I dropped out.

Two years later I was really in the chips making $2.65 at gas station That was back when they pumped gas and fixed cars.

Then the minimum wage went to $2.65/hr and I was minimum wage earner again.

I did get to pull a motor out of 65 Pontiac GTO and learn a few valuable lessons in mechanics.

Here in Washington State the minimum wage gets a cost of living increase most years, it is $9.30 now I think. So now I about $7/hr underpaid compared to when I started working.

 

[petergibbons]

$7.12/hour as a part time operating room materials technician in 1998 for my first "official" job. Lots of odd jobs prior to that at $5 an hour.

 

[cement]

TG you finally changed your post #

 

[rktman]

6 cents per bale of hay

 

[Krakosky]

First job $5.25/hr at a grocery store as a bagger at 15 then eventually a cashier.

First engineering job 47k/yr in 2006.