I was the same way. Now it seems to be impossible to save money.
Perhaps the ability to purchase alcohol changed the game somewhat, though
Question about your first job
- Thread starter Miss Chicken
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I was the same way. Now it seems to be impossible to save money.
Perhaps the ability to purchase alcohol changed the game somewhat, though
Same here. I tutored junior students in computer programming and physics labs courses. I was paid around 7.000 Lire/hour: adjusted for inflation and the change in currency, that would be slightly less than 7 €/hour (about 9 $/h).
I don't remember what I got paid for part-time and summer jobs. But my first full-time job, in 1972, paid $4something an hour. I paid $93 a month rent for a studio apartment in a very good neighborhood.
Babysitting (before age 15). I don't remember what i got paid, probably like $1 an hour. After that, when i was 15 i got a job at McDonalds. I believe my pay was $3.25 an hour (?) Although that seems high if i think about it. Must have been less. Oh yeah, and we got $1.25 of free food on our shift. I worked for 2 weeks under a year. If i held out those last two weeks i would have gotten a weeks paid vacation. I couldn't even hold out those last two weeks. Working there was torture.
At 14, I got my working papers and went to work on a municipal fishing pier for $3.50 an hour. My official title was "clean-up boy," and I got a great introduction to municipal/government work. After busting my ass to scour all the troughs, mop the bathrooms, and sweep the clubhouse in record time, I was dressed down by my boss:
"No, no, no. You've got to pace yourself, boy, pace yourself."
In other words, stretch out one hour's work to get six hour's pay. I couldn't argue with his logic.
"No, no, no. You've got to pace yourself, boy, pace yourself."
In other words, stretch out one hour's work to get six hour's pay. I couldn't argue with his logic.
In 2005, when I started working for Walgreens as a pharmacy cashier, my initial pay rate was $6.75 an hour. By July of this year, when I was terminated while a senior pharmacy technician, I was at $12.50
I worked in a middle school library sorting and barcoding textbooks for $8 an hour. I really enjoyed the job but it was a temporary position that only lasted three months.
Minimum wage, working at a crummy grocery store.
I got a job at a movie theatre in 1997, $7.15 an hour if I recall correctly. I delivered papers before that, but I can't remember how much I made.
My first paid job started off at about £35 a week (went up to £54 later on) for a 36 hour week. It was mostly a clerical job planning and estimating prices for what the company made. Later stints as part of the same job included Customer Services, finance, quality control and actually making some of the items.
That was all within a two year period.
That was all within a two year period.
Leaving aside a few under-the-table one-off/short-term deals, my first real job was as junior house officer, a similar role to the US healthcare system's intern. I think I earned about £36k pa which is about $58k at today's exchange rate, which coincidentally was very similar back then too.
I can't remember exactly how many hours per week I was theoretically on duty but I think it was about 70, with 4 weeks annual leave. So that makes the equivalent hourly rate absolutely dire for a professional job, probably under £10/$16 per hour.
Mind you, with the long working hours and no overheads - we lived on site, in totally free accommodation except for phone bills - there was very little way to actually spend the money, so it seemed a decent salary at the time!
As a result, our post-tax income was all disposable income. Our tiny little hospital rooms were full of hi-tech electronic gear and other assorted consumer junk. I remember a friend getting a massive plasma screen (big-screen plasmas were only just arriving on the retail consumer market and were super-expensive) with surround sound in a room where the speakers were barely a couple of meters apart and the screen took up most of the wall. And by the end of the year, the car park filled up with new cars to replace the ones that we'd nursed through years of college. We hardly ever cooked; most evenings we weren't working, we'd go out somewhere for dinner. Looking back, it was all quite fun really, though I'm super glad I don't work anywhere near those kind of hours any more!
I can't remember exactly how many hours per week I was theoretically on duty but I think it was about 70, with 4 weeks annual leave. So that makes the equivalent hourly rate absolutely dire for a professional job, probably under £10/$16 per hour.
Mind you, with the long working hours and no overheads - we lived on site, in totally free accommodation except for phone bills - there was very little way to actually spend the money, so it seemed a decent salary at the time!
As a result, our post-tax income was all disposable income. Our tiny little hospital rooms were full of hi-tech electronic gear and other assorted consumer junk. I remember a friend getting a massive plasma screen (big-screen plasmas were only just arriving on the retail consumer market and were super-expensive) with surround sound in a room where the speakers were barely a couple of meters apart and the screen took up most of the wall. And by the end of the year, the car park filled up with new cars to replace the ones that we'd nursed through years of college. We hardly ever cooked; most evenings we weren't working, we'd go out somewhere for dinner. Looking back, it was all quite fun really, though I'm super glad I don't work anywhere near those kind of hours any more!
Stop & Shop cashier, $8.20/hr, 1997. I actually got pretty lucky -- they paid us extra because we were bused out 30 miles away to work at a store who couldn't find enough people to hire in the area.
That's pretty remarkable. Talk about a different jobs market between now and then!
Not nearly enough to compensate for 8-hour shifts spent being tortured by Barney videos on a continuous loop.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZivl5iKCo&feature=BF&list=MLGxdCwVVULXdstAfy5k3O5Fvhu3KLzMAL&index=1[/yt]
Flashbacks yet?
That's pretty remarkable. Talk about a different jobs market between now and then!
That's what popped to my mind while I wrote it. Back when jobs were plentiful and gas in the US was $1.00/gallon...being a kid, of course, one thinks those conditions will last forever/get better and better.
^I'm not going to click on that.
Go on, you know you want to. It'll make you happy.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmCEQVcNp4s[/yt]
That's pretty remarkable. Talk about a different jobs market between now and then!
That's what popped to my mind while I wrote it. Back when jobs were plentiful and gas in the US was $1.00/gallon...being a kid, of course, one thinks those conditions will last forever/get better and better.
The solution is simple; we just need to find another country like China to which we can export dollars in return for deflation. If there was ever a reason for space exploration and finding new lifeforms...
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