In 1984, I made a little over $17K fresh out of college. I was a GS 7 for the federal government.
10.5k in 1982 to work in local tv (behind the scenes). I think around $750/month.
It’s not really what I made then, but what we could afford. My first job for a data company paid $650/mo, but my college roomie and I shared a very nice, large 2BR flat in SF, with a view of the Golden Gate bridge. Not a full view, (there was roof access for that,) but the total rent was$325/mo. A monthly bus pass cost $10.50. A later stint earning more, (but still not a lot,) DH and I lived a block off the beach in LA for $250/mo. (A not very large studio.) Those two places really made for some great memories. And I did like the work.
- First job out of college, salary was 32k/year.
I was 22 in 1984. I started engineering grad school that fall. My tuition was free and I received a tax-free stipend of $10,000 a year. More than enough to live on comfortably. I had more discretionary income then than I do now, with two kids in college!
1980 about 1000 a month
1978 and my salary was $8000 that year. During the go-go 80s it rose dramatically.
I made $6 an hour in my first architecture job after gad school in 1982. Since my share of the rent was $37.50 I actually felt pretty comfortable. I had great health insurance thanks to a part time job I had at Caltech while looking for my real job. It cost me $12 a month.
At 22 I was making $3.50 an hour shelving library books in college. At 23 I had a Youthgrant to drive around the country photographing fire stations.
1980 - first job out of school - annual salary $20,200 in the Boston area. Very comfortable.
in 1987, I was making $10/hr with an option for full health coverage which I declined because I had bennies through DH’s job. I was still in school working on a teaching credential. I brought home $250/week and rent was $425 for a one bedroom apt. DH made 16k/yr in his teaching job at that time. No bills other than food, gas, rent, basic utilities and a $75 student loan payment. We lived on his check and banked mine.
Wow. I guess life was less complicated then. We even vacationed in Hawaii for our first anniversary.
My first job out of college (1979) paid $9,100. I stayed with the company, and was promoted within a year to a hefty $13,500.
My first job out of college paid 12,400. That same position now pays 44,500.
You contributed 3.5% of your salary for the pension and nothing to health care.
Now you contribute 7.5% to the pension and a sliding scale of up to 35% of the health care premium. I think on the starting salary that contribution is about 20%
First job after dropping out in 1985 was programming at a small engineering company. I think I made $20,000 per year. According to an inflation calculator I found on the web, a dollar back then is equivalent to $2.16 today, so in today’s money it would be $43,200 / year.
1984, $17,500 per year in the Midwest. Like @oldfort, my salary had doubled within 2 years.
Finished college in '87, first real job was $30,000/yr.
In 1978, I was making $18,000 a year straight out of school as a “Junior Engineer” (the starting point at that agency).My husband started out a year later at a little more than that, and with no children in the picture yet, we were able to put away most of my salary and buy a house in 1980 in a Los Angeles suburb.
Mine was 22k out of college in 1985, we didn’t have a pension (was 401k), medical back then was totally covered by the company, but it also was ‘major medical’ so if you got sick, was a lot more expensive than a PPO plan would be today, no prescription drug benefit, they paid basically what out of network would pay today in a PPO.
My first job out of school paid about $33k – back in 1998. So a little over $600 weekly. Chicago taxes were brutal: if memory serves, i kept maybe $425-$450 per week. I was single and living alone, so i wasn’t saving much, but there was a roof over my head and food on the table in an awesone location. I still miss my weekly(ish) forays into the Chicago restaurant and club scene.
Why aren’t people answering the question in the format requested in the thread title (“weekly salary”)?
Because we are rebels