What was your first job? and ....

My father got me a job in an underwear factory as a trainee sewing machinist making bras.. to start as soon as I left school..I left school on the Friday and he announced on friday night I was to start work in the factory on the Monday...I never wanted to work in a factory I'd been studying business economics at school, but he just wanted an immediate paycheck from me and factories in those days paid more than offices..

I went with a heavy heart on Monday morning and it was everything I thought it would be...I'll save the details it's just too depressing. I lasted 4 weeks until I was able to secure another job as an office junior (very poorly paid at £4.10 a week) ) in a luxurious suite of offices which incorporated a punch card/tape typing pool ...from there I worked as a wages (payroll) clerk for a branch of a well known Jewellers who had several branches throughout the city..several more jobs were to follow....:)
 
My first job was probably delivering papers in the afternoon on my bike, but the first real job with a paycheck was with Hardee's Hamburgers for $1.60/hour (minimum wage at the time) in 1971.
 
I have to say your minimum wage ( altho there was no such thing as far as I know in scotland in 1971)...was so much higher than ours. My wages as an office junior was just £4..10 shillings a week!!

The exchange rate in 1971 was £1.00 == $2.40 dollars ...so I worked a whole 40 hour week for the equivalent of $10.60.US....no wonder I've never been rich i cleary have no concept of what's an acceptable salary..... :playful::D
 
Not counting paper routes, my first real job @ $1.00 per hr. was in a Washeteria in Oakland California 1948. I separated colored clothing from whites that came out of the washing machines and put them in a spinner before they went into a dryer. Washing clothes in those days was a three step process. I was one rich kid in my Junior High School class. I worked 15 hours each week.
 
My very first job was helping my brother deliver flowers for my aunt's floral shop. I think the regular driver was out sick so we worked a few days. My brother was old enough to drive and I just did the grunt work. I think I got paid a coca cola. Actually more than that over time as my aunt was like a 2nd mother to me and she never married so she did a lot for my brother and myself.
 
US Minimum Wage History (chart)

http://www.dol.gov/minwage/chart1.htm

YearNominal Min WageMinimum Wage in 2012 Dollars
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938$0.25$3.98
1939$0.30$4.85
1940$0.30$4.81
1941$0.30$4.59
1942$0.30$4.14
1943$0.30$3.90
1944$0.30$3.83
1945$0.40$5.00
1946$0.40$4.62
1947$0.40$4.02
1948$0.40$3.74
1949$0.40$3.77
1950$0.75$7.01
1951$0.75$6.50
1952$0.75$6.35
1953$0.75$6.31
1954$0.75$6.28
1955$0.75$6.31
1956$1.00$8.29
1957$1.00$7.99
1958$1.00$7.77
1959$1.00$7.72
1960$1.00$7.59
1961$1.15$8.64
1962$1.15$8.56
1963$1.25$9.18
1964$1.25$9.06
1965$1.25$8.67
1966$1.25$8.92
1967$1.40$9.43
1968$1.60$10.34
1969$1.60$9.81
1970$1.60$9.28
1971$1.60$8.89
1972$1.60$8.60
1973$1.60$8.10
1974$2.00$9.12
1975$2.10$8.78
1976$2.30$9.10
1977$2.30$8.54
1978$2.65$9.14
1979$2.90$8.97
1980$3.10$8.46
1981$3.35$8.29
1982$3.35$7.82
1983$3.35$7.59
1984$3.35$7.34
1985$3.35$7.09
1986$3.35$6.98
1987$3.35$6.74
1988$3.35$6.48
1989$3.35$6.18
1990$3.80$6.66
1991$4.25$7.16
1992$4.25$6.96
1993$4.25$6.77
1994$4.25$6.60
1995$4.25$6.42
1996$4.75$6.97
1997$5.15$7.39
1998$5.15$7.30
1999$5.15$7.14
2000$5.15$6.90
2001$5.15$6.72
2002$5.15$6.62
2003$5.15$6.48
2004$5.15$6.31
2005$5.15$6.10
2006$5.15$5.91
2007$5.85$6.53
2008$6.55$7.02
2009$7.25$7.82
2010$7.25$7.67
2011$7.25$7.40
2012$7.25$7.25
 
Right out of DeVry Technical Institute, summer, 1963, Motorola, Inc. in Melrose Park, IL. Electronics Technician, aligning the electron guns in new color T-V sets. Endless line of them on a conveyor belt, side by side, facing away from me, endless mirror other side reflecting the pattern on the screen. Had to walk slowly, sideways, while manipulating the rear controls, exposed totally to the radiation produced by color T-V cathode ray tubes. End of the day, I could barely stand, so rough was it to move that way for hours.

Second day, even worse. Third day I quit. Guy wanted to know why. Told him I did not study Calculus to be doing this. Do not recall pay rate. My Dade was furious! Within a short time, he spotted a likely ad, which he encouraged me to look into: Development Technician, Gasket Development Laboratory, Victor Mfg. & Gasket Co., Chicago.

I went over there, landed the job, and it turned out to be my FIRST first real job. Best and most enjoyable time of my career, for certain! Started at $111/week. imp
 
I'm pretty sure my first job was after I had 4 kids and I was 28 or 29. I worked at a bookkeeping place where we did books for service stations --- now called gas stations. :) I can't recall the pay.
 
First real part-time job as a teen was in a greeting card factory doing assembly line work for $1.65 an hour.
 
First job was briefly at a drive-in restaurant. I worked in the kitchen and I think it was $1.60/hr. Minimum wage changed from $1.40 to $1.60 just about that year. Next job was a waitress. That was $0.75/hr. plus tips.

There is a Minimum Tipped Wage, also. Seventy-five cents was probably the MTW then.
 
Kadee46 said:
My first paid job was at a small grocery store in Broken Hill N.S.W where I was born, don't remember how much I received a week, it would have been 1962
The small store is still owned and run by the same family, but I don't know how they manage to earn a living in a town of About 20.000 people and Coles, Woolworths and foodland all close by
Click to expand...

Hopefully, respect and loyalty to that wonderful family business! That sort of thing is seen often in Europe, though likely much less prevalently than when I was in Switzerland, 1972, and the owner of a bake shop told us his family had owned and operated the business for 400 years! imp
 
My first job was part time while I was a senior in high school. I got out of school at noon and worked 1:00-5:00. That was 1963 and I was a fill-in secretary at a bank. Can't remember what I made, but it was probably minimum wage -- not much, but I saved up for a second-hand car. Wow!!
 
Photagrapher of children's assistant using puppets and facial expressions to make the kids smile while the pic got snapped. Sometimes I made the kids cry rather than smile. Fortunately, it was just a summer job while in high school if that can be considered a real job...
 
It's always worth checking before starting a new thread, I found this thread, it was just what I was about to repeat.

My first job was working for my Grandmother. My Father's mother had a fish & chip shop, so I stayed with Grandmother during the periods of school closure, and worked in her shop, well not exactly the shop. She had a covered yard with all the machinery for peeling and chipping the potatoes, and gutting & filleting the fish. I operated the peeler and chipper. Granny gave me two shillings a day and a pound at the end of the week. This being 1956 I was probably one of the highest earning ten-year-olds around.

My second job was just as lucky. At the time of leaving school, the college that I was due to attend was having an extension built, this would cause quite a delay. In fact from leaving school to starting college I had about nine months to spare. How it happened I can't quite remember, but I was in France and heard about a need for labour in the vineyards, grape picking. I managed to get work in the South of France, then followed the harvest as the grapes ripened, all the way up to the Belgium border. The pay was pathetic but the wine was free, better still, in that time I learned enough French to be able to think in the language, so although not completely fluent, I could keep up.

After graduating from college I joined The Hays organisation as a trainee manager. Hays were an international company, that knowledge of French came in very handy, more than once.
 
On my 16th birthday, I got a part time job at Ames Discount Dept. Store, for a big fat $1 an hour. They had a "garden shop", where I was the clerk. I had absolutely no knowledge of gardening. I was the back up for the regular garden guy, Lefty, who was an Italian American. He was known as a womanizer, and had a harem of devotees. One day ,. a young woman came in asked, "Where's Viagro?" To me, that sounded like Italian, so I figured she meant Lefty. I told her he took the day off, and she just kind of left. When the manger came out to clear the register, I mentioned that one of Lefty's women was asking for him. The manger pounced on this piece of juicy gossip. But when I told him the whole story, he laughed, and laughed.

Viagrow.jpgVIAGROW
 
Well after babysitting jobs, I worked at the local movie theater in high school, w/ misc. jobs -- ticket taker, making popcorn, cones, etc.
 
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First paid job was "junior counselor," that is a camper with a microscopic bit of authority over other campers at the local YMCA.. $1.00 per day and no charge for going to camp.
 
At 15, I worked at my grandfather's tailor shop 4 to 6 hours/day and he started me out at $1.25/hr cash at the end of the day. It was hard work sometimes, but not the same brand of hard work as my farm chores. (No financial compensation for those, just the satisfaction of getting them done/helping the farm run smoothly/earning a second helping of the meat and potatoes.)
 
My first job drawing a paycheck was at a glove factory. Minimum wage was either $1.40 or $1.60 per hour. My job was to turn leather gloves right side out after they had been sewn together. I was 16 at the time. Most of the other employees were women. Boy, did they tease me, and like to make me blush.
 
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