I don’t remember what I started at… $7 something (2005) and I thought I was balling out of control when I made it to double digits as a key holder at $10/hr in 2007
I was paid 9 an hour for data entry where I wrote scripts that wiped out my entire workload for the week in 20 minutes. No one was ever paid enough in that department to attract talent that could do this. This was 2005, too.
I got a raise to $10 an hour, my own office, and enough work to keep me busy 15 hours a week if I didn't tell anyone what I built. My boss was trying to protect the department of 30 people from annihilation and spun it as "he's autistic and good at typing." A real solid boss trying to protect long time staff from a heartless company.
2014 I was making maybe around maybe 18 an hour. Wife at the time was a bartender. Granted she did make on average a little less than me and we bought our first house and was debt free. Pretty good right? Well add divorce and a baby in the mix ten years later, I'm at 28$ an hour, living with my parents and not because I want to or that they want it.
Was making $550/wk before taxes when I qualified to buy my $94k house in 2013. Take home $1200/wk now and would not qualify to buy a house in my very blue-collar neighborhood in 2024.
Yes!!!!!❤️❤️❤️. This was me! And can I add that back in 2004-2007 my college friends and I would use the phrase “Ballin out of Control” for EVERYTHING😁😁! You just brought me back!
I love that 🥹 I had a black Juicy Couture zip up hoodie with gold chains and rhinestones ~2007 and anytime I hear “Ballin out of control” I think of it haha
$5.15 an hour in 2000 at Ames. I can't believe that's only $2.10 lower than minimum wage is today, and it was worth $9.34 in today's money. I can't imagine what an absolute waste of time a minimum wage job must feel like today.
We had AOL dialup 28/56 kbps with my two siblings. Sharing between us and needing the phone line open - it was a household battle 😂
Honestly I wasn’t the biggest gamer, so my limited time spent online was usually AOL messenger or chat rooms
First "expensive" thing I ever bought with my own legitimately hard earned money was the Halo Edition 360. God that thing was sweet. I couldn't afford the super special addition with the helmet but the box was enough for me.
Turned out a few years later I found a helmet and stand in an apartment complex dumpster. Almost mint condition. It still sits on my TV stand today. 😁 it's one of my most prized possessions.
Apparently, [someone thinks it's a good idea to resurrect it](https://www.abc27.com/national/popular-department-store-ames-announces-2026-comeback/). I'm not hopeful lol.
$5.15 club here. 3rd rate public golf course in 1997. Hated that job, but I was 14 and it was the only place I could walk to. It was also the only job I ever got fired from.
Also got $5.15 at a terrible pizza job in high school around that time. The owner was telling us we were getting a big raise because we were all so valuable and come to find out the minimum wage was increased to like $5.20 or something and was the only reason we were getting more which was worse than getting nothing because of the way he talked it up. So the next weekend was some big event or whatever so I just never showed up or called out, looking back it was an immature way of handling it but it sure did feel good in the moment.
Yeah, $5.15 working at a gun club. I was able to shortly after that find a summer gig working for a roofer as a general laborer making $10 an hour first year.
Yep, $5.15 as a lifeguard in 1999. Thought I'd really hit it making 5.35 two years later at the school supply warehouse driving a palletized load lifter.
$5.15 club here as well. AMC Theaters in 2000. I got all my friends into free movies, didn't have to work concessions (they put me in box office and guest services) and felt like a KING.
Year: 2001. I only made $5.00 an hour at Pet Land, and now I feel like I missed out because apparently it was pretty common to start at $5.15? I live in Orange County, close to Los Angeles, and the cost of living is higher here than most places so I don't get it. Maybe they knew because there are so many people here, they were bound to find someone who would take the job.
Our little podunk town paid $8.50 for lifeguards in 2004. They also didn't adhere to child labor laws, I worked everyday and did before opening swim lessons and after parties. I ended up with sun poisoning ALOT.
That's where I started in 2005/2006. I remember being excited that I got a raise to $7.25 the last time the federal government raised the minimum wage.
My first job was at a tire shop in 2005. It was 11$/ hour changing tires, I worked 3 hours after school on weekdays and 6 on saturdays as they closed early. 20 hours a week, plus school, I quit after 2 months. I think my pay checks were close to 300$ after taxes, and busting my ass for two weeks, that was not worth it even back then.
My love for pastrami started when I worked at Firehouse Subs. I was probably getting paid $5.25 or something, but all the free sandwiches I ate were totally worth it.
Worked for Domino’s in 1991 for $4.25. I think I worked maybe 20hrs/week while in high school. Learned a lot. Had an awesome boss. Dominos was exploding at the time. Anyone remember The Noid?
Reddit is crap anymore and thrusts random subs into our feeds so it’s a free for all. I’m 30 and when it fills my feed with /r/teenagers you better believe I’m offering my crusty old opinions.
Sorry, i was offering some extra perspective or data for comparison? You know us gen x, zero fucks. Lol
If it pleases you ill delete my comment. Cant upset the millenials.
Leave it up. It’s good to see the inflation and how fast it took hold.
My first job was 7.25 an hour at Burger King in 1996 and state minimum wage was 4.25. State minimum wage today is 7.25 an hour, has been for 14 years.
Has it only been 14 years? I remember working at my first job at McDonalds in 1998 and it was about that, or at least I know it went to 7.25 at some point in my 2 year tenure there.
7.50. I worked at a custom T-shirt and sticker shop. My boss was also my weed man, so there were times that it came to pay day and I owed him money. Needless to say now a days I earn 7x that.
I always had decent jobs or decent jobs hiring pt.
Pt lifeguard on post as a civilian contractor 2002 $12.50
At 2004 19 working pt FedEx as they helped school $12.12 that got to 15..
Finished school many jobs just $15-20 till now. Jud trois something stuck hourly. Had many cdl jobs in tween. But it in is fucked I think I was amog more money warehouse at Grainger sr $18 2010 then people I know entry level shit now
$7.25 an hour at Jersey Mikes until we started hitting refund for cash customers and taking the money. Made between $20-$30 an hour until it went out of business. The manager stole 16k over 4 months. I had 5k in cash in my nightstand the day we all got fired.
Going to Home Depot for $9.75 sucked.
A lot of kids worked at the local movie theater which had a $19.75 popcorn and drink special for 2. So the cashiers would keep a pocket full of quarters for change then pocket the cash. The theater wouldnt call the cops on people. Just fire you so a lot of kids tried to get hired there.
Man, I've worked in places where if you tried to pull that shit you would be fired (and you better bring the money back today or im calling the cops) within the first week.
4 months? That's some PASSIVE income right there.
$8/hr as a press helper/bindery hand in a printing shop in 2005/6. Eventually got up to $18/hr as a press operator at the same place and thought I was making good money in 2013ish. 11 years later I make $34/hr, Healthcare paid for, and I have 2 different retirement accounts, an annuity and a pension, that my employers pay a combined amount of $11.07/hr into.
$4.25 in 1996. I was a cashier at Rose's, which was a discount store chain.
My best friend was constantly trying to get me to go work with her at Walmart, which paid more, but I feel obligated because my mom's best friend got me the job and before I got my driver's license it was close enough to walk or ride my bike to.
I remember getting my first raise there too, which was $0.25 and filling a little disappointed but being told by my manager not to tell anybody because other people had gotten even less. Looking back it's absolutely wild because the majority of my coworkers were adults and likely not making much more than me.
I made $5.25 working in the kitchen of a nursing home. It wasn’t that bad but doing the dishes sucked. Big industrial dishwasher and it was like 1000 degrees in there and going outside to cool off wasn’t a thing because I lived in Florida. It was probably around 2003-2004ish.
Early 2000's courtesy clerk "bagger" $6.15/hr took ten years to cap out at $14.50/hr. I never looked at pay caps before, didn't even think about them. Expanded my horizons to greener pastures and never made much more but often less. Two decades later, same job pays $16\~18/hr walking in.
I laugh as I feel a straight jacket is needed. Got tenure, experience, learned multiple trades and got educated. The best I could get hired for using this criteria is $16.50 at an office job. The best pay I got is $24.50/hr with zero education requirement but working in manufacturing.
First job was $5.15 working at the college bookstore in 2003. It was hard word for nothing, basically. I worked during the rush so we were constantly moving, carrying heavy boxes from the warehouse, helping in the warehouse, etc etc. I thought it was great at the time, since I need actually earning money but it sucked in retrospect.
Must have been 1999 or so — I got a job washing log trucks on weekends with some high school kids (I was still in middle school) for $6.13 an hour.
It didn’t last long though — the state sent a letter to my employer stating I was too young to be working around “heavy moving machinery”… which was funny since you don’t wash a moving vehicle. Also I’d been around tractor-trailers/semi-trucks my whole life.
$5.15 an hour working the counter at a pizza place in 2001. I couldn’t open my bag in class because it would unleash a cloud of pizza smell. Not one like “oh yum, pizza” but like the back of a shitty pizza place. Earned my class ring working that job though.
I did a lot of pet sitting in high school, but that was always informal and for people I knew. Usually it would be like $10 to $20 a day, higher end for dogs with multiple visits or me spending the night, lower for cats and me not spending the night. One time a friend of my aunt's also had horses in the mix but that was the only time it wasn't just dogs/cats (and a tortoise, but I was really there for the dog).
The first job I was hired for and had to fill out paperwork was to be a tutor, but I'm not sure what the pay rate was because it was a "work when you're called in" thing and they literally never called me in.
First job I was actually showing up to regular shifts etc was a cashier at a hardware store. $8 an hour.
Worked as a temp at Subaru my summers after High School. Paid $10 an hour. Then during college semesters I worked at Sears in the warehouse. I made $7.10 starting wage and they did a great job of giving me ten cent raises. By the time I quit I was making $8 an hour.
I didn’t get a job until I was 18 so $11.50 doing construction as a labourer. I showed up on time and sober everyday which apparently was hard for a lot of people at the time and in 6-8 months I was making $24.
I actually found my paystub my mom kept in a memory box for me. It had my grade cards and year books from grade school and some things from high school. So this was back in 2003-2004 about $7 an hour at Einstein Brothers in the Midwest USA.
$7.25 circa 2010 at Hastings Entertainment in a southern state. The manager accused me of letting my family members check out at my register, which was apparently against the rules. When I told her my family didn’t shop at Hastings, she laughed and said “Oh, that was the other Black girl.” I quit about a week after.
$7.25/hr at Marshall's in 2006.
They kept forgetting I was in high school and would schedule me to close. My mom would be waiting in the parking lot for me until 11pm some nights because we weren't allowed to leave until the store was reset and all our belongings were searched (but if your shift ended earlier there was no search). I didn't work there long since I had to catch my school bus at 6:40am and they wouldn't schedule me off at 9pm like all the other high schoolers.
$7 plus tips (I was a lucky one at a small family owned restaurant that didn’t make $2.13).
But the tips SUCKED. I usually made between $20-30 a shift. My friends at rib crib would make $50+ in tips, so it equaled out
I started in 1999 or 2000 as a dishwasher at a restaurant and I made 5.15 an hour. I remember working my first 30some hour week and making like 150 and then after taxes it was like 100 bucks. I felt fuckin rich lol. I had gotten a 91 camaro for 2 grand and my car payment was 100 bucks, my insurance on it was 100 a month, and the rest was gas and fun money. If older me could talk to younger me it would've been to put more than 100 bucks on the car to start. Just because it's a 3 year loan doesn't mean you need to take 3 years to pay it off haha
6.40 cents working at a skatepark had just turned 16 best job ever! It was indoors with an arcade, slamball, jump platform, and laser tag 2 stories it was called city streets.
Cleaning shoes at a tux rental place in 1997 for $5.15/hr. It was really just to fulfill my parents’ “you need a job” spiel. Even though I already had 2 jobs. Babysitting that paid $15-20/hr depending on how many kids, and I worked for my mom’s business but she never paid me.
$5.25/hr, would have been probably about 1998, I was 12 and picking and packing sweet corn for my aunt and uncle.
First job outside the family, $7.40/hr milking on a dairy 3-5 days a week.
$5.25 at McDonald's in 2002, remember my first raise to $5.35. Worked there for 2 1/2 years before I quit, and refused to eat McDonald's fries for a few years afterward as they'd become tasteless to me from overexposure, lol. Went from 155 lb to 225 lb as well.
In high school, I worked at a hardware store making $5/hr when minimum wage was $5.15/hr. I was ok with this because I was paid cash in hand, no taxes or other fees coming out of my pay.
Then I started working at a restaurant making $2.25/hr (minimum wage for tipped employees was $2.13 at the time) plus 2.5% of sales. I averaged $11-13/hr including tips, minimum wage was still $5.15/hr.
$2/hour in the early 2000's. Yes, that was way under the minimum wage and was illegal in more ways than just 1. Spent the summer months in the tobacco fields, starting at 10 y/o. There were kids as young as 7 that I worked with.
This was in the rural KY and tobacco was the only industry. Working in tobacco is part of the culture here and all the parents make the kids start young because they had to do it when they were kids too. It's really fucked up too because they work those kids to death.
They'd have us out there for 10 - 12 hours in the blistering Southern summer heat, most of the time without water, getting tobacco sickness from overexposure to nicotine and stripping tobacco until our hands turned green. Not a good environment for any kid to be in... and this still goes on today. The government knows they're violating every labor law in the book and doesn't do shit about it. It's a big problem in tobacco producing Southern states like KY and NC.
$7.50 working for Blockbuster Video. By the time I quit I was making $8.25 about a year later. I was there from 2004-beginning of 2006. I met a lot of fun people working there but absolutely hated the store manager. Everybody in that store tolerated the store managers antics.
$5.75 an hour plus tips starting out. My first job, I was 15, and I worked at a local ice cream stand that took cash only. We were allowed to have a tip jar (per our boss) and he didn't count it as part of our income. He said our tips were always ours and as long as the drawers were balanced he couldn't care less how much we made in tips.
On weeknights we would take home about $40 in tips each, on weekends it could get upwards of $100 or more depending on how busy it was. Each summer we came back to work there we would get a $0.75 raise. By the time I was 18 I was making $9.50 an hour there and had been "promoted" to a manager position. So I trained the newbies and let him know when stock was low. Super chill job.
He was one of the best bosses I could have had for my first job. Half the time he wasn't there in the evening and just let us kids run the stand. He let us eat whatever we wanted with the rule to "not eat him out of business". Any mistake orders we made were put in the deep freeze so he could see how much inventory was lost, usually it wasn't much, and then we could take home any and all of the mistake orders, on top of taking home a quart of ice cream nightly if we wanted to.
ETA this was 1998.
$5.25/hour, 20 hours a week, working for Telcomm as a telemarketer setting up appointments for Dish Network to come out and sell people satellite TV. 2004-2005, NW Florida. Minimum wage went up to $6.25 while I was working there and the company told us it was a raise, as if it was their idea lol. It was a nice little paycheck for a 17/18 year old senior in HS though. My sister and I both worked there and would go to Winn Dixie on Friday nights after getting our checks and get it cashed, screw the $3 fee. It was an easy, fun job because the oldest person in the office was the 21 year old manager, and we just sat at desks in a room talking and bullshitting around between calls (it was an auto dialer.) My sis and I were the only girls out of 8 workers, so the boys spent most of the time goofing off and being stupid for our entertainment, but not generally in a creepy way. We still have great memories from that job.
$5.15. Yes, it was literally minimum wage. After a few months they talked about how great I was...and gave a raise to $5.25. I quit 3 months after that.
(For a comparison, I earned about $65/hr last year at my day job, and after expenses I average $100/h with my side business.)
I want to say $5.15 an hour in 2000 or 2001. Working at a local amusement park for the summer. Even then, I could hardly afford to eat at the park I was working in.
I think $5/hr in 2000/2001ish but that was for my uncle and under the table
First real job was 2002 at $7.25/hr at Target which was like $2 above PA minimum wage at the time
Fresh out of high school, a summer job. Job title was Stack/ Dump in a warehouse. I was paid Texas minimum at $7.25 an hour, and this was back in 2013.
Fast forward about a year, and I’m working at a Chinese restaurant as a server for $2.13 an hour + tips… on a “good” shift I’d go home with an extra $60 in my pocket. Regular days it was $30 or less.
Yup. Pretty shitty.
Back in 2002, $6 per hour. Which is apparently equivalent to $10.42 today. Mind you currently minimum wage in my state is $7.25 still. So if you are never wondering why shit sucks well... that's why.
$6.75/hr was minimum wage, I believe, when I worked at a grocery store for a few weeks. I then managed to get a receptionist job at $8/hr and felt like a boss
$5.15 was minimum wage when I started my first job in 1997 - I was 14 and worked a summer job on the maintenance crew of a Renaissance Fair. (Had to get special papers in New York State to work that young.)
My first job was also summer 2004. Freshman in high school and I worked as a dishwasher for $6.50 or 6.75 an hour (whatever minimum wage was at the time). Not many places would hire a 14 year old because of restrictions on working hours but my 14 year old friend was already a dishwasher and hooked me up. Would work 5 or 6pm until 1-2am. Couldn't drive so my dad would have to stay up and come get me. If I was closing on my own and was taking too long he would come into the kitchen and help clean so we could both go to bed lol. Loved the people but dishwashing is the worst job ever.
$4.55 in 1992. Job was 'student advisor" for the international student union at my university.
That is $11.46 in today's money.
(Not a millennial, born in 1972, but thought I'd put this down for perspective)
2005 right out of high school and I made minimum wage at the time for my state (PA) $5.15 an hour. I had a manager tell me you’re so new to the work force I should pay you less because you don’t know anything. He also told me to throw away an apple I was eating because the break bell went off, I came to break late but I did throw it out. Now oh boy would I have fun with that a**hole.
I don’t remember what I started at… $7 something (2005) and I thought I was balling out of control when I made it to double digits as a key holder at $10/hr in 2007
I was paid 9 an hour for data entry where I wrote scripts that wiped out my entire workload for the week in 20 minutes. No one was ever paid enough in that department to attract talent that could do this. This was 2005, too. I got a raise to $10 an hour, my own office, and enough work to keep me busy 15 hours a week if I didn't tell anyone what I built. My boss was trying to protect the department of 30 people from annihilation and spun it as "he's autistic and good at typing." A real solid boss trying to protect long time staff from a heartless company.
That quote gave me a chuckle, thanks.
2014 I was making maybe around maybe 18 an hour. Wife at the time was a bartender. Granted she did make on average a little less than me and we bought our first house and was debt free. Pretty good right? Well add divorce and a baby in the mix ten years later, I'm at 28$ an hour, living with my parents and not because I want to or that they want it.
Fucking life….
Was making $550/wk before taxes when I qualified to buy my $94k house in 2013. Take home $1200/wk now and would not qualify to buy a house in my very blue-collar neighborhood in 2024.
Yes!!!!!❤️❤️❤️. This was me! And can I add that back in 2004-2007 my college friends and I would use the phrase “Ballin out of Control” for EVERYTHING😁😁! You just brought me back!
I love that 🥹 I had a black Juicy Couture zip up hoodie with gold chains and rhinestones ~2007 and anytime I hear “Ballin out of control” I think of it haha
$5.15 an hour in 2000 at Ames. I can't believe that's only $2.10 lower than minimum wage is today, and it was worth $9.34 in today's money. I can't imagine what an absolute waste of time a minimum wage job must feel like today.
The 5.15 club! I saved months to get that first Xbox. Then around Christmas the 360 came out and I was bitter AF 😂
You didn't realize they were about to come out with a new system?
The internet wasn’t really a big thing for kids back then…
We had AOL dialup 28/56 kbps with my two siblings. Sharing between us and needing the phone line open - it was a household battle 😂 Honestly I wasn’t the biggest gamer, so my limited time spent online was usually AOL messenger or chat rooms
A/S/L? lol that takes me back
No sir not at 14
First "expensive" thing I ever bought with my own legitimately hard earned money was the Halo Edition 360. God that thing was sweet. I couldn't afford the super special addition with the helmet but the box was enough for me. Turned out a few years later I found a helmet and stand in an apartment complex dumpster. Almost mint condition. It still sits on my TV stand today. 😁 it's one of my most prized possessions.
I haven't heard the name ames in like 20+ years.
Apparently, [someone thinks it's a good idea to resurrect it](https://www.abc27.com/national/popular-department-store-ames-announces-2026-comeback/). I'm not hopeful lol.
Best part is they will probably hire you back with a raise to 7.25 an hour.
Hopefully they'll put me back in electronics so I can watch Star Wars Episode 1 on repeat for all of my shifts again.
That unlocked a major memory of my childhood watching Ep 1 on repeat in the ames electronic department.
$5.15 club here. 3rd rate public golf course in 1997. Hated that job, but I was 14 and it was the only place I could walk to. It was also the only job I ever got fired from.
Also got $5.15 at a terrible pizza job in high school around that time. The owner was telling us we were getting a big raise because we were all so valuable and come to find out the minimum wage was increased to like $5.20 or something and was the only reason we were getting more which was worse than getting nothing because of the way he talked it up. So the next weekend was some big event or whatever so I just never showed up or called out, looking back it was an immature way of handling it but it sure did feel good in the moment.
Yeah, $5.15 working at a gun club. I was able to shortly after that find a summer gig working for a roofer as a general laborer making $10 an hour first year.
$5.15 too. 2002. Deckhand on a ferry.
Yep, $5.15 as a lifeguard in 1999. Thought I'd really hit it making 5.35 two years later at the school supply warehouse driving a palletized load lifter.
$5.15 club here as well. AMC Theaters in 2000. I got all my friends into free movies, didn't have to work concessions (they put me in box office and guest services) and felt like a KING.
Same here! $5.15 in retail. Basically only covered my gas to get there....and I want to say gas was like 1.30/gallon back then?
Year: 2001. I only made $5.00 an hour at Pet Land, and now I feel like I missed out because apparently it was pretty common to start at $5.15? I live in Orange County, close to Los Angeles, and the cost of living is higher here than most places so I don't get it. Maybe they knew because there are so many people here, they were bound to find someone who would take the job.
5.15 at McDonalds. I actually needed to have my parents sign working papers. Hard to believe that was almost 25 years ago.
$6.25 as a lifeguard around 2003. Unlimited overtime. Such a cool summer, my hair was lighter from the sun and had a nice bronze tan.
Me too, in 2006. Those were some days!
Our little podunk town paid $8.50 for lifeguards in 2004. They also didn't adhere to child labor laws, I worked everyday and did before opening swim lessons and after parties. I ended up with sun poisoning ALOT.
$4.75 as a pool "attendant" in 1997. I upgraded to life guard the next summer at around 6 or 7 something.
That's where I started in 2005/2006. I remember being excited that I got a raise to $7.25 the last time the federal government raised the minimum wage.
5 dollars an hour cash picking rock on a local farm at 14. Worked 60 hr weeks for a summer. I was loaded as a 14 year going into my freshman year
My first job was at a tire shop in 2005. It was 11$/ hour changing tires, I worked 3 hours after school on weekdays and 6 on saturdays as they closed early. 20 hours a week, plus school, I quit after 2 months. I think my pay checks were close to 300$ after taxes, and busting my ass for two weeks, that was not worth it even back then.
Yeah, $300 for 20 hours a week as a teenager musta sucked so bad 😐
$6.50 at Ross Dress for Less in 1998
$3.25 an hour.
Yes, at 15 1/2 I had the training wage $3.65/hour, Subway sandwiches, but we did get free lunch, and my love affair started with pastrami!
My love for pastrami started when I worked at Firehouse Subs. I was probably getting paid $5.25 or something, but all the free sandwiches I ate were totally worth it.
[удалено]
2004. Polynesian Cultural Center in La’ie, Hawaii. $6.25/hr
I love that place. Thank you
1984 my first job at a local grocery store was $2.35 an hour. Min was 2.30.
I got $2.85 in Santa Monica 1983
Worked for Domino’s in 1991 for $4.25. I think I worked maybe 20hrs/week while in high school. Learned a lot. Had an awesome boss. Dominos was exploding at the time. Anyone remember The Noid?
If your first job was in 1984 you are NOT a millennial unless you started working at age 3
Reddit is crap anymore and thrusts random subs into our feeds so it’s a free for all. I’m 30 and when it fills my feed with /r/teenagers you better believe I’m offering my crusty old opinions.
You are my hero for today! I salute you, and take my upvote!!
I went for this and regretted it because whatever sub it was popped up MORE
Sorry, i was offering some extra perspective or data for comparison? You know us gen x, zero fucks. Lol If it pleases you ill delete my comment. Cant upset the millenials.
Leave it up. It’s good to see the inflation and how fast it took hold. My first job was 7.25 an hour at Burger King in 1996 and state minimum wage was 4.25. State minimum wage today is 7.25 an hour, has been for 14 years.
Has it only been 14 years? I remember working at my first job at McDonalds in 1998 and it was about that, or at least I know it went to 7.25 at some point in my 2 year tenure there.
This is a millennial subreddit if you were working in 1984 that's a whole generation apart Edit: I'm late to the party, as usual 🤣
$8/hr in 2001.
I worked “off the books” as a bagger for tips at $13 Had a lot of perks honestly.
7.50. I worked at a custom T-shirt and sticker shop. My boss was also my weed man, so there were times that it came to pay day and I owed him money. Needless to say now a days I earn 7x that.
I always had decent jobs or decent jobs hiring pt. Pt lifeguard on post as a civilian contractor 2002 $12.50 At 2004 19 working pt FedEx as they helped school $12.12 that got to 15.. Finished school many jobs just $15-20 till now. Jud trois something stuck hourly. Had many cdl jobs in tween. But it in is fucked I think I was amog more money warehouse at Grainger sr $18 2010 then people I know entry level shit now
10 bucks an hour as a laborer in 2009
7.25 pushin carts
$3.35
$7.25 at a pizza place, 2009.
It was $5.25 December 2004… I was hired as a cashier at Chick Fila
$7 back in 2012. I should've put all my paychecks into bitcoin. Instead I used it on food and rent like a dumbass.
I worked full-time 40 hours and made 12k a year.
$5.25 minimum wage back in 1997
$7.25 an hour at Jersey Mikes until we started hitting refund for cash customers and taking the money. Made between $20-$30 an hour until it went out of business. The manager stole 16k over 4 months. I had 5k in cash in my nightstand the day we all got fired. Going to Home Depot for $9.75 sucked. A lot of kids worked at the local movie theater which had a $19.75 popcorn and drink special for 2. So the cashiers would keep a pocket full of quarters for change then pocket the cash. The theater wouldnt call the cops on people. Just fire you so a lot of kids tried to get hired there.
Holy shit that’s a lot of theft!
Really stuck it to that Jersey Mike’s franchise owner huh?
My friend did this as McDonald's in the 90's/early 2000's. Never got caught, and he did it until we went to college 😅
Man, I've worked in places where if you tried to pull that shit you would be fired (and you better bring the money back today or im calling the cops) within the first week. 4 months? That's some PASSIVE income right there.
Not cool.
I worked at a catering hall for 13 bucks an hour.
First job? $2.8 per hour as a headhunter
$5.25 - in 2000. Golf course summer help.
$5.15 an hour in 2006 as a doorman at a local movie theater.
$2.50/hr + tips as a waitress. Then $5.25/hr as a fast food worker.
$7.25, 1998, dishwasher. Gas was $0.95-1.10/gal.
Pizza delivery in 04’ paid 5.25 + tips in Colorado. Usually 20-40 in tips. Generally around 130 a week.
I worked as a "courtesy clerk" at the local IGA grocery store for $5.15/hour.
7.25
$2.13 as a server, then $5.25 at Subway. This was back in 2000
5 bucks and hour plus tips delivering pizza. I had to sell weed while I delivered just so I could live lol
2004, I got a lifeguard certification and made $8.50 ina small rural town.
Checkers in Maryland. I think it was 2004? $6.25 an hour. I was 15.
$2.75 frys
I’m old lol
$9/hr in 2011
2012 8.25 an hour minimum wage in Connecticut at the time
$7.25
5.25 at old navy. Fall 98
1998. i was 11 making $3/hr. $30 per week.
$8/hr as a press helper/bindery hand in a printing shop in 2005/6. Eventually got up to $18/hr as a press operator at the same place and thought I was making good money in 2013ish. 11 years later I make $34/hr, Healthcare paid for, and I have 2 different retirement accounts, an annuity and a pension, that my employers pay a combined amount of $11.07/hr into.
$4.25 in 1996. I was a cashier at Rose's, which was a discount store chain. My best friend was constantly trying to get me to go work with her at Walmart, which paid more, but I feel obligated because my mom's best friend got me the job and before I got my driver's license it was close enough to walk or ride my bike to. I remember getting my first raise there too, which was $0.25 and filling a little disappointed but being told by my manager not to tell anybody because other people had gotten even less. Looking back it's absolutely wild because the majority of my coworkers were adults and likely not making much more than me.
$8.25 being a hostess at a restaurant in 2010
Minimum wage was 7.25 That was 2005-2006 I think. Guess how much Minimum wage is today? I'll tell ya 7.25$ an hour.
July of 2009 was when minimum bumped up to 7.25. It was implemented over a two year period. Prior minimum wage was set in 1996 at 5.15.
I made $5.25 working in the kitchen of a nursing home. It wasn’t that bad but doing the dishes sucked. Big industrial dishwasher and it was like 1000 degrees in there and going outside to cool off wasn’t a thing because I lived in Florida. It was probably around 2003-2004ish.
Early 2000's courtesy clerk "bagger" $6.15/hr took ten years to cap out at $14.50/hr. I never looked at pay caps before, didn't even think about them. Expanded my horizons to greener pastures and never made much more but often less. Two decades later, same job pays $16\~18/hr walking in. I laugh as I feel a straight jacket is needed. Got tenure, experience, learned multiple trades and got educated. The best I could get hired for using this criteria is $16.50 at an office job. The best pay I got is $24.50/hr with zero education requirement but working in manufacturing.
2005 Taco Bell 6.52$ an hour.
I believe it was $5.75 in 2005
First job was $5.15 working at the college bookstore in 2003. It was hard word for nothing, basically. I worked during the rush so we were constantly moving, carrying heavy boxes from the warehouse, helping in the warehouse, etc etc. I thought it was great at the time, since I need actually earning money but it sucked in retrospect.
$10 an hour. I delivered parts to final production lines. Probably walked 5-10 miles a day.
$1.10 at a camp
Must have been 1999 or so — I got a job washing log trucks on weekends with some high school kids (I was still in middle school) for $6.13 an hour. It didn’t last long though — the state sent a letter to my employer stating I was too young to be working around “heavy moving machinery”… which was funny since you don’t wash a moving vehicle. Also I’d been around tractor-trailers/semi-trucks my whole life.
$5.15 an hour working the counter at a pizza place in 2001. I couldn’t open my bag in class because it would unleash a cloud of pizza smell. Not one like “oh yum, pizza” but like the back of a shitty pizza place. Earned my class ring working that job though.
$8 at American eagle lol
5.15 in 1999
I did a lot of pet sitting in high school, but that was always informal and for people I knew. Usually it would be like $10 to $20 a day, higher end for dogs with multiple visits or me spending the night, lower for cats and me not spending the night. One time a friend of my aunt's also had horses in the mix but that was the only time it wasn't just dogs/cats (and a tortoise, but I was really there for the dog). The first job I was hired for and had to fill out paperwork was to be a tutor, but I'm not sure what the pay rate was because it was a "work when you're called in" thing and they literally never called me in. First job I was actually showing up to regular shifts etc was a cashier at a hardware store. $8 an hour.
Worked as a temp at Subaru my summers after High School. Paid $10 an hour. Then during college semesters I worked at Sears in the warehouse. I made $7.10 starting wage and they did a great job of giving me ten cent raises. By the time I quit I was making $8 an hour.
1978/79 40hr swing shift doing janitorial work. Take home pay was $99.99.
2.13 + tips. Was a hostess in high school around 2008?
$5 an hour cash
2002 footlocker $7.25
I didn’t get a job until I was 18 so $11.50 doing construction as a labourer. I showed up on time and sober everyday which apparently was hard for a lot of people at the time and in 6-8 months I was making $24.
I actually found my paystub my mom kept in a memory box for me. It had my grade cards and year books from grade school and some things from high school. So this was back in 2003-2004 about $7 an hour at Einstein Brothers in the Midwest USA.
2002 5.75 at fuddruckers
I was a hostess at a wings joint my mom worked at. I was only 13 and made $7 an hour cash under the table.
$5.15 at McDonald’s. Ohio 1999.
$7.25 circa 2010 at Hastings Entertainment in a southern state. The manager accused me of letting my family members check out at my register, which was apparently against the rules. When I told her my family didn’t shop at Hastings, she laughed and said “Oh, that was the other Black girl.” I quit about a week after.
2002 my first job was $10/hr. Only like two-three hours after work. I was 12yrs old.
2000…5.50 hr to bag groceries
6.50 in 2006. Took 2 summers to save up for a car. Today, my monthly mortgage payment costs what my first car cost me.
$4. 1988. It was actually above minimum, which was maybe 3.75 I think?
I was a door knocker in college, I think I made like $12/hr?
Maybe 1997? Local grocery store, cart wrangler/grocery bagger. Whatever the minimum wage was at the time, $5.15 or something.
2001: $7.25/hr in the UFCW union at Acme, bagging groceries.
$7.25/hr at Marshall's in 2006. They kept forgetting I was in high school and would schedule me to close. My mom would be waiting in the parking lot for me until 11pm some nights because we weren't allowed to leave until the store was reset and all our belongings were searched (but if your shift ended earlier there was no search). I didn't work there long since I had to catch my school bus at 6:40am and they wouldn't schedule me off at 9pm like all the other high schoolers.
$7 plus tips (I was a lucky one at a small family owned restaurant that didn’t make $2.13). But the tips SUCKED. I usually made between $20-30 a shift. My friends at rib crib would make $50+ in tips, so it equaled out
2004 Kroger 5.15/hr cart pusher. I couldn’t wait to turn 16 and finally get a job. That was two months of hell.
$6.85 an hour
$4.50- YMCA summer counselor (1982)
McD, $5.25/hr. A whole 0.10 over minimum wage. '98
8.85 at a grocery store in 2011
$9.65 at Nordstrom in 2007/2008
$6.75 and I’m still there.
I started in 1999 or 2000 as a dishwasher at a restaurant and I made 5.15 an hour. I remember working my first 30some hour week and making like 150 and then after taxes it was like 100 bucks. I felt fuckin rich lol. I had gotten a 91 camaro for 2 grand and my car payment was 100 bucks, my insurance on it was 100 a month, and the rest was gas and fun money. If older me could talk to younger me it would've been to put more than 100 bucks on the car to start. Just because it's a 3 year loan doesn't mean you need to take 3 years to pay it off haha
2007. I believe around $9 an hour as a waiter for a group home dining hall. In college I worked at Safeway for $8.50 an hour in 2008. P
$5.15 at video warehouse in 2007
6.40 cents working at a skatepark had just turned 16 best job ever! It was indoors with an arcade, slamball, jump platform, and laser tag 2 stories it was called city streets.
My first job was in like 2006 and it paid 6.75/hr
2007, something like 4.90£
$6.25 when i was 14 years old folding newspapers and cleaning up around a neighbors mom n pop business
I worked at a swimming pool supply store in 2003 (watched the start of the Iraq War) and I was paid $6.50 per hour.
6.25. Sheesh. — 2001.
Cleaning shoes at a tux rental place in 1997 for $5.15/hr. It was really just to fulfill my parents’ “you need a job” spiel. Even though I already had 2 jobs. Babysitting that paid $15-20/hr depending on how many kids, and I worked for my mom’s business but she never paid me.
$5.25/hr, would have been probably about 1998, I was 12 and picking and packing sweet corn for my aunt and uncle. First job outside the family, $7.40/hr milking on a dairy 3-5 days a week.
2.65, 1979
$5.25 at McDonald's in 2002, remember my first raise to $5.35. Worked there for 2 1/2 years before I quit, and refused to eat McDonald's fries for a few years afterward as they'd become tasteless to me from overexposure, lol. Went from 155 lb to 225 lb as well.
4.25, teenwork program, mlps park and rec
4.25, teenwork program, mlps park and rec
$6.15/hr golf cart kid at the course, 14 years old. 2005
$8.25 as a grocery store bagger in 2008. Then in 2012 started at a new job that I stayed at for nine years but also started that one at $8.
In high school, I worked at a hardware store making $5/hr when minimum wage was $5.15/hr. I was ok with this because I was paid cash in hand, no taxes or other fees coming out of my pay. Then I started working at a restaurant making $2.25/hr (minimum wage for tipped employees was $2.13 at the time) plus 2.5% of sales. I averaged $11-13/hr including tips, minimum wage was still $5.15/hr.
$5.15/hour at Jets Pizza in 2002
$7.25/hour I think Edit: I’m a younger millennial so this was around 2008 when I was 14.
5.25$/hr minimum wage in high school. I remember every time the minimum went up it was like getting a huge raise.
$2/hour in the early 2000's. Yes, that was way under the minimum wage and was illegal in more ways than just 1. Spent the summer months in the tobacco fields, starting at 10 y/o. There were kids as young as 7 that I worked with. This was in the rural KY and tobacco was the only industry. Working in tobacco is part of the culture here and all the parents make the kids start young because they had to do it when they were kids too. It's really fucked up too because they work those kids to death. They'd have us out there for 10 - 12 hours in the blistering Southern summer heat, most of the time without water, getting tobacco sickness from overexposure to nicotine and stripping tobacco until our hands turned green. Not a good environment for any kid to be in... and this still goes on today. The government knows they're violating every labor law in the book and doesn't do shit about it. It's a big problem in tobacco producing Southern states like KY and NC.
$7.50 working for Blockbuster Video. By the time I quit I was making $8.25 about a year later. I was there from 2004-beginning of 2006. I met a lot of fun people working there but absolutely hated the store manager. Everybody in that store tolerated the store managers antics.
$8.00 loading packages into semi trailers for UPS. 20 hours a week in 2002. Back breaking work, would not recommend
$5.75 an hour plus tips starting out. My first job, I was 15, and I worked at a local ice cream stand that took cash only. We were allowed to have a tip jar (per our boss) and he didn't count it as part of our income. He said our tips were always ours and as long as the drawers were balanced he couldn't care less how much we made in tips. On weeknights we would take home about $40 in tips each, on weekends it could get upwards of $100 or more depending on how busy it was. Each summer we came back to work there we would get a $0.75 raise. By the time I was 18 I was making $9.50 an hour there and had been "promoted" to a manager position. So I trained the newbies and let him know when stock was low. Super chill job. He was one of the best bosses I could have had for my first job. Half the time he wasn't there in the evening and just let us kids run the stand. He let us eat whatever we wanted with the rule to "not eat him out of business". Any mistake orders we made were put in the deep freeze so he could see how much inventory was lost, usually it wasn't much, and then we could take home any and all of the mistake orders, on top of taking home a quart of ice cream nightly if we wanted to. ETA this was 1998.
$5.25/hour, 20 hours a week, working for Telcomm as a telemarketer setting up appointments for Dish Network to come out and sell people satellite TV. 2004-2005, NW Florida. Minimum wage went up to $6.25 while I was working there and the company told us it was a raise, as if it was their idea lol. It was a nice little paycheck for a 17/18 year old senior in HS though. My sister and I both worked there and would go to Winn Dixie on Friday nights after getting our checks and get it cashed, screw the $3 fee. It was an easy, fun job because the oldest person in the office was the 21 year old manager, and we just sat at desks in a room talking and bullshitting around between calls (it was an auto dialer.) My sis and I were the only girls out of 8 workers, so the boys spent most of the time goofing off and being stupid for our entertainment, but not generally in a creepy way. We still have great memories from that job.
Christ it was 3.75 or some shit
$5.15. Yes, it was literally minimum wage. After a few months they talked about how great I was...and gave a raise to $5.25. I quit 3 months after that. (For a comparison, I earned about $65/hr last year at my day job, and after expenses I average $100/h with my side business.)
My first actual w2 job was at Walmart. The state minimum wage was 8.25 at the time. I got started at 8.65
$5.75/hour. 1998.
$2.13, busboy in a locally-owned restaurant. Which is still the federal minimum wage for tipped workers.
2006ish @ 8/hr (canadian dollars so more like 5 or 6 usd) Got fired for telling off a Karen. Totally worth it.
I started working at Cold Stone Creamery when I was 16. I think I was making around $7 an hour.
$7.20/h back in 2003. Double pay on weekends and time and a half in the evenings though, which is what I worked the most. Grocery store worker.
$7.25/hr to shelve books at the public library. They liked to bag that they paid above minimum wage, but only that .25c
$4.75
I want to say $5.15 an hour in 2000 or 2001. Working at a local amusement park for the summer. Even then, I could hardly afford to eat at the park I was working in.
I think $5/hr in 2000/2001ish but that was for my uncle and under the table First real job was 2002 at $7.25/hr at Target which was like $2 above PA minimum wage at the time
$3.75/hour as a grocery store sacker.
Fresh out of high school, a summer job. Job title was Stack/ Dump in a warehouse. I was paid Texas minimum at $7.25 an hour, and this was back in 2013. Fast forward about a year, and I’m working at a Chinese restaurant as a server for $2.13 an hour + tips… on a “good” shift I’d go home with an extra $60 in my pocket. Regular days it was $30 or less. Yup. Pretty shitty.
Back in 2002, $6 per hour. Which is apparently equivalent to $10.42 today. Mind you currently minimum wage in my state is $7.25 still. So if you are never wondering why shit sucks well... that's why.
My first job was $7/hour, at a time when minimum wage was $4.75. I was rich!
5.45 back in 1998 in Canada
$6.75/hr was minimum wage, I believe, when I worked at a grocery store for a few weeks. I then managed to get a receptionist job at $8/hr and felt like a boss
2010 — $7.25 — McDonalds
$2 + tips bussing tables in 1999
1975. Fast food restaurant. I worked for the princely rate of $2.15 per hour.
$5.15 was minimum wage when I started my first job in 1997 - I was 14 and worked a summer job on the maintenance crew of a Renaissance Fair. (Had to get special papers in New York State to work that young.)
2005ish and it was minimum wage ~$4.75. I was 15 and worked at the public library!
My first job was also summer 2004. Freshman in high school and I worked as a dishwasher for $6.50 or 6.75 an hour (whatever minimum wage was at the time). Not many places would hire a 14 year old because of restrictions on working hours but my 14 year old friend was already a dishwasher and hooked me up. Would work 5 or 6pm until 1-2am. Couldn't drive so my dad would have to stay up and come get me. If I was closing on my own and was taking too long he would come into the kitchen and help clean so we could both go to bed lol. Loved the people but dishwashing is the worst job ever.
$4.55 in 1992. Job was 'student advisor" for the international student union at my university. That is $11.46 in today's money. (Not a millennial, born in 1972, but thought I'd put this down for perspective)
1999. $5 an hour under the table working at an auto parts store.
2005 right out of high school and I made minimum wage at the time for my state (PA) $5.15 an hour. I had a manager tell me you’re so new to the work force I should pay you less because you don’t know anything. He also told me to throw away an apple I was eating because the break bell went off, I came to break late but I did throw it out. Now oh boy would I have fun with that a**hole.
$7.85 at Wendy's in 2003. 10 cents higher than minimum wage so they could claim they paid higher than minimum wage.
5.15 Steve & Barry's
$1.72 an hour. Lifeguard at a public pool
$1.73 lifeguard, 1974.
2001ish. $5.60 I believe.