I am not sure, but I seem to recall $1.65 minimum wage? This was NYC in 1969.

I did part time work for $1.25 in 1967 and full time for $1.35 in 1969.

A whopping.25 an hour...and glad to get it!

Other than babysitting or picking berries in summer, I never had a "job" until after I graduated from high school (mid 60's). It was for a temp agency and I don't remember the hourly rate (that was a LONG time ago!!) but do recall negotiating a monthly salary of $450 when I was hired on permanently by the company (a bank) that I had done all the temping for.

At that time that was sufficient to pay for my college tuition, apartment rent, my car and other living expenses.

Wish I could say the same now! LOL!

I made $10 an hour in 1999, when I was 16. It's sad that 20 years later, that's still significantly above federal minimum wage.

I was just thinking about this. I got my first "real job" (I never did work in high school except for one whole month) October 28, 1985 (Happy Anniversary to me yesterday! I still remember the day because we had orientation on Halloween and I didn't dress up like everyone else did in my office. I fit in at orientation, but not during the day at work. So I'll never forget it). I made $732 a month ($4.22 an hour, minimum wage was $3 something), and I thought I was hot stuff. I still lived with mom since I was going to off to university in August 1986. I don't think I saved a dime of it. How dumb I was! My mom didn't teach me because her parents didn't teach her. You can bet my son knows all about budgeting.

50 cents an hour plus tips! If I was cooking or dishwasher it went up to $1.00 YAHOO

At age 16, I had a paper route. $1 a newspaper, a MONTH! I had 125. After 12 months I paid cash for a used Volvo, buying my 1st car for $800.

1985, I made an average(3% commission + $6.42hr) of $12 an hour. Working @ Sears.

I had a part-time job after school, but I honestly can't remember the hourly rate. Once I graduated, I got a full time job for $4/hr. I thought I was in hog-heaven!

I worked midnight shift and saved my money for my first car, a '74 Roadrunner which I paid cash for. I loved that car!

My father would not allow me to have a job as a teenager. I was the domestic head of the household, and he did not want me distracted from the cooking, cleaning and washing. I became a teacher when I graduated from college in 1963, and the going rate for a first year teacher with a bachelor's degree was $4800. I earned an additional $200 by directing the two school plays. I shared a one bedroom apartment with a friend, and my part of the rent was $35. I had no savings account, which appalled my boyfriend, but kept back $10 from that month's paycheck in case of an emergency. Boyfriend talked me into a small savings account program. Two years later, I spent that savings account on his wedding ring.

I don’t remember what I got for babysitting but I worked as a waitress in the summer and got 85 cents an hour plus tips. I paid my way living at a beach town for the summer and came home with a few dollars.

My first job paid $3.35/hour. I remember when I got my very first raise, to $3.85, and couldn't believe they thought I was worth that much.

First job after graduation was at Bell Telephone Company of Canada (now Bell Canada) for the princely sum of $47.50/week (cdn). That was in July and by December I had accumulated enough after paying board, bus pass, clothing and food to buy myself a fur coat. That was back in 1962! As I remember it, my salary wasn't that far off my father's salary....

Babysitting at 50 cents per hour until I turned 15 and could work in a store for $1 per hour. I think I cleared about $18 per week after taxes which was enough to make a car payment, pay for my gasoline and any entertainment. When I turned 16, I was able to change jobs to one that paid $1.35 per hour. I worked there until I graduated from university and got my first professional job which paid me a net $233 every two weeks. My rent was $235 per month and there were lots of months where I held my breath that my rent check wouldn't clear until after my paycheck was deposited. The two "extra" checks each year were what I used for clothing, to pay car insurance and to buy Christmas gifts.

There were many years that I lived paycheck-to-paycheck and that was spending for the bare basics, no extras. I wasn't able to start saving money until I was in my 30's.

In 1961 I received $0.90 an hour. My boss was very upset when the minimum wage kicked in and they had to raise my wages to $1.10. This paid my new car (Chevy Nova SS) payments, rent, food and entertainment with money left over. Hard to imagine.

Opps, should have said 1971 when I graduated from high school.

I was a waitress so it was .75¢ or less an hour

There was an Associated Press article in our newspaper today about American Express changing it's original 'Green Card'. It came out in the seventies with an annual fee of six dollars -- with balance required to be paid in full monthly! The story says that is $40 in today's world. The new card will cost $150.

I was surprised that any CC didn't want people to run a balance. How can banks make *real money* if they aren't collecting 26% on CC debt?

My first job was as an usher at a movie theater in 1979 (when I turned 16 and started driving) making the current minimum wage of $2.90. Lots of fringe benefits to that job with free popcorn and movies. I stayed there for most of high school. I worked various side jobs the first couple years of college and then got a part time job at UPS loading the delivery trucks in the wee hours of the morning for $10.50 an hour. I was rich! I bought my first new car shortly after starting the UPS job...a Pontiac Grand Am that was the worst car I've owned to this date.

Previous to turning 16, I had babysitting jobs at 50 cents per hour, and worked at a bakery on Saturdays for awhile from 4:30 am to 6 pm for $20 a day. ($1.75 an hour, roughly)

Then when I was 16 I went to work at Sirloin Stockade for $2.25 --minimum wage. Thought I was rolling in the dough. Used the money to pay for my activities & extras. My parents provided food, shelter & clothing, anything outside of that was on me. I saved and paid for my 1st 2 years at college at various other minimum wage jobs. (as well as working full time while in college.)

I was paid $3.00 per week, plus room (a tent) and meals for washing dishes at a Boy scout camp in 1965.

HU-721557921........A Chevy Nova SS!!! I loved those cars!

I think minimum wage was $3.15 when I started, but I was a waitress so was paid $2.35 and had to make up the rest in tips. We didn't have customers fighting themselves to tip like they do now. I did pretty good and made well above minimum wage. We had $3.50 or something like that taken out per shift because it was assumed we ate food during our break. I'd eat at home and make myself a small deep dish pizza during the break to take home. My brothers would eat that. I made sure that I got my money's worth. Lol!

My first paying job was in 1969 earning $1.65 which 5 cents more than minimum wage. I later worked as a temp between "permanent" jobs and actually was offered jobs earning less than what I was earning as a temp.

I worked for one of the Bells before the strike where the union allowed the men strike breakers to be kept on with the higher wage they received. Since that wage was less than what they had negotiated for their members the members struck the union and received the higher wage. I remember it so well because if I had worked one week more the back pay would have covered a half a year of tuition.

My first job-high school- was at the local movie theater. $0.90/hr to run the concession stand, and after closing up, I could watch what remained of the movie. This was in 1970-71.

Then after high school, I worked my way through college at the local hospital as an EKG technician. $2.30/hr (minimum wage at the time - respiratory therapists were paid a only few cents more; registered nurses a whopping $0.40/hr more!). I remember somewhere around 1975-76 we got a 3 cent per hour raise. Rent in a roach infested, upper story apartment of a house in the "old" (ie run-down) part of town was $95, IIRC.

ETA: unskilled labor in the local steel mill (ie, shoveling slag) earned $8/hr. Skilled Tool & Die makers there could bring home $20/hr by working off shifts and weekends - my future FIL did.

Back when my husband to be asked my father for my hand(how quaint) he said someday he hoped to make $10,000 a year.

I received 50-75 cents and hour for babysitting in the 70s, which was pitiful; when I had small kids in the late 80s, early 90s, I paid 6 bucks an hour. I don't recall the wage for my first (part-time) job, at the Buffeteria in Monkey Ward, but it was minimum wage with a few raises yearly. While in college, I typed a grad-student's paper and he paid me a dollar a page. I thought that was pretty good.

While working part-time teaching in a private school before my kids were born, I received maybe 1/2 to 2/3rds of the pay a public school teacher would earn, due to the fact that I had only an out-of-state teaching credential. This would have been in the early 80s.

Some people have always said that if one works hard enough, one can pay one's way through college. This used to be the case, (my uncle did it after WWII,) but it sure ain't true anymore.

I babysat and got 25 cents an hour, 50 cents after midnight, in the 1960's. When I got a "real" job at a five & dime store as a cashier my senior year in HS I got $1.60 an hour in 1969. That seemed like big bucks to me back then.

"Some people have always said that if one works hard enough, one can pay one's way through college."

I worked to finance my college education. Never took out any student loans and my folks could not afford to help. I also lived away from home and off campus and paid for that as well. This was in the late 60's, early 70's. The tuition now is almost 14 times what I paid at the highest back then. There is no way I could afford it now!

I made $.50 an hr for babysitting. My first "real" job was a summer job as a File Clerk for the State of KS. I earned a very lavish (to me it was!) $160 a month. This was 1961.

I don't remember how muh I made on my first job which was very part time.

Out of curiosity I ran the numbers reported above by those I think are in the US through on online inflation calculator to see what the equivalent would be in 2018 dollars ( 2019 inflation not yet known). If I didn't do a calc for you, it probably just means that I didn't see a year named in your post.

salonva 1969 $1.65 = $11.43 in 2018

HU-953941711 1967 $1.25 = $ 9.51 in 2018

gardengal 1966 ("mid sixties") $450 = $3,521.95 in 2018

chi 1999 $10 = $15.27

rob333 1985 $4.22 = $9.94

nicole 1985 $12 = $28.26

Jasdip $1974 $4 = $20.60

sheilajoice_gw 1963 $5000 = $41,484.51

HU-721557921 1961 $0.90 = $7.64

LoneJack 1979 $2.90 = $10.12

jrb451 1965 $3 = $24.65

maifleur 1969 $1.65 = $11.43

raee-gw 1970 $0.90 = $5.89

caflowerluver 1969 $1.60 = $11.08

Anglophilia 1961 $161 = $1,358.21

https://westegg.com/inflation/

Yeah Jasdip, grew up in the muscle car era and the Nova Super Sport was tame in comparison to the others but I sure loved it. Brand new $3,500.00. Should have bought several and just stored them but who knew huh!

Dianne

I don't remember exactly but do remember when I got my total earnings statement from social security, I was appalled at what I made for the first 10 years but always seemed to have enough money.

I made minimum wage working in a medical clinic in 1958 which was $1.25 an hour.

When I was the charge nurse of ICU-CCU I made $4.53 an hour. This was in 1972

When I retired in 1997 I was making $22 an hour.

My first job circa 1948 was driving a tractor for a farmer during the busy seasons. I got $4 per day plus transportation to and from work and a noon meal. While in high school, my next job was a grease monkey at a service station. I worked 3 hr after school and closed the station. On Saturday, I had an 8hr day. I'm not sure what the pay was. It might have been $1 per hr. My senior year, I upgraded to a grocer carry-out and stock boy for about $1.25 per hr and no tips. That was a 6 day per week job during the summer.

Obviously, there was no future in any of these jobs, but it was the best available in my area at the time. Along the way, I picked up a 1929 Model A Ford for basic transportation. I spent $5 to replace a burnt exhaust valve after which, that car provided 5 more years of service; 3 yr while I owned it and 2 more by my parents after I left home.

After high school. I won a berth in an engineering training program at Rock Island Arsenal. There, I made barely enough to pay for college and living expenses. Folks back home thought that I had stepped up considerably financially, and I suppose that I did considering what was available back home in an economically depressed area.