Just wondering.
I was in grad school making $300/week. My wife - also in grad school - was making another $350/week. I did a second job (IT help desk at the university) that paid me another $150/week. At $3200/month, which is between $5500-6000/month in today’s dollars, we lived very well. Of course we had no kids and lived in subsidized grad student apartments. We had no car, as we lived in a big city and took the subway everywhere. Those were the days!
I was 22 only 3 years ago and I don’t even remember…
I was in grad school at 22. It took me 3 years to get through the program ( I transferred from another school) and I started at $28,000 a year. What shocks me the most is that this was enough money for me to live in NYC with one roommate and my own bedroom.
It probably isn’t a helpful question without knowing the age of the responder.
Graduated in 1988 and my first job paid $17,000 a year in the Boston area. At that time the fact that I even got a job right out of college was considered a great success. That salary was tough to live on but being employed professionally was not easy at that time. I worked for a year and then went to graduate school.
1986-87. The year between getting my B.S. and going to graduate school - I was making $5.50/hr, so ~$220/week.
In 1982, 17,500/year. In 2 years I doubled my salary. The first 2 years it was pretty lean.
I was in law school at 22 and not really working. My first job out of school, at 24, paid $300/week before taxes or $15K. I remember being sick to my stomach about having given up the pre-law school federal government job that in 1980 (age 21) paid about $13.5K. I still sometimes wonder if I would have been better off if I’d kept that job and just gone to law school at night. I could have stayed with the government. A year later, I got a new job that paid $26,500.
Graduated in 78, then did an internship. My first salary was around $18k.
$12 plus $24 danger allowance, so $36 a week in 1978.
In the mid 1980s: $384.615/week, health insurance, 2 paid weeks vacation, paid overtime
My first “real” job after graduating from college in 1972 was aboard a cruise ship where I started at $250 a month. Even back then I was shocked at how low the pay was, but I had no other expenses so it was all savings. Over my 5 years there I made enough money to purchase a piece of rental property, so I’d say it worked out. $-)
At age 22, inthe mid 70s I was in grad school. “Salary” was a fellowship and student loan. Cant really recall how much it was on a weekly basis, but when I completed my PhD and internship, my first job as a professional in my field paid what the faculty thought was a fabulous salary, especially compared to academic pay. It was $27K. It went up to $32K when my licensure was complete 6 mos later.
I don’t remember - something like $5 an hour full time in a temp position until DH graduated, commissioned and we moved. Then he made $1200/month, plus whatever the housing allowance was then. 1986
I was 22 in 1983 and working two full time jobs: first job as a clerk for the state paid $200/week and my second job at working graveyard at a convenience store paid about $150/week. I worked Sunday 11 pm through Friday at 5 pm and had Friday night, all day Saturday and night, all day Sunday off ~ perfect schedule for 80 hours/week. Three years later I was making almost double that working approximately 60 hours/week with full benefits as a restaurant manager.
- Just under four dollars an hour, so about 159 a week.
In 1983 I had just graduated from college and I accepted a position with a non-profit for $12,000 a year or $1,000 a month. I was living with my grandmother so didn’t have to pay rent.
In 1987, I made $417 dollars a week gross in my first full time job after college. That’s about $884 now.
In 1990, I was making $44k per year in my first job out of college.