1982 in my first job, which paid $15,000, plus overtime. I did get money contributed to the pension plan, and when I left 3 years later it was enough to pay my chep living expenses for a year of grad school and the penalties. It never occurred to me that one day I could possibly be old enough to need that money when I retired. I don’t even want to think how much it might be worth today.
$461.50/week ($24,000/year) in 1983. I was a production supervisor in a truck manufacturing plant. Got a raise & worked a ton of OT in 1984 and earned $42,000 ($807.70/week).
After a break from professional employment while raising kids - during which time I really did NOT sit around watching TV and eating bon bons, but the internet was invented & the world decided I was no longer relevant - it took me two years to find a job that paid a whopping $38,000 in 2008.
My first job after college I earned $135 a week ($7,020 a year). I took home $185 every two weeks (net), and the rent on my studio apartment was $180. I did not feel rich – perhaps because I wasn’t!! I spent $25 a week on food, and didn’t buy any clothes for about six months.
This was a looooong time ago, in 1970, and even with that paltry salary, I was living by myself in Manhattan.
For the math challenged, my 1978 salary of $8000 a year is $153.85 per week. My studio apartment in the Twin Cities was $140 a month and I spent $25 a week on groceries. I think my bus pass was $35 a month if I recall. I don’t remember utilities from “back then” other than electric was under $10 a month, but I made enough to live on my own with no car.
I assumed others could do the math. My 32k salary comes to about $615/week. In 1988 as a new college graduate, this was a very good salary. I was able to share a nice apartment, have a car, and start saving for retirement from day one. I was very fortunate.
As a CPA, I can certainly “do the math” and am not “math challenged”. I’m used to following rules. Let the snarky comments roll. @-)
I figure anyone headed for college should be able to divide by 52. I remember the overall salary, thought the OP could do the math if they wanted to. But my guess is that the OP doesn’t really care what we parents made anyway.
Yeah, I doubt it’s useful information, but it’s interesting…
1982… $16,500 or $317 per week.
I wasn’t being snarky…I was answering your question. I did assume others could do the math…But I also took the opportunity to put my salary into context which others have been doing and I hadn’t previously.
I was kind of wondering, though, why it mattered to you how the salary was presented.
Thought back and did the math. I graduated and then went on to grad school (masters, unfunded, worked hourly job) so:
Jan-May: 14/hour at one job (32 hours/week) + 8.50 at another (8 hours/week): 516
May-June: 14/hour (40 hours/week) + 8.5 (16 hours/week): 696
July & August: nothing
September-December: 10/hour (15 hours): 150
September-December was probably the least I had made since I was about 16 but I was capped due to project funding.
LOL, for the parents, It’s been decades since most of us thought about what we earned “per week” and were rarely paid “per week” that’s all. We can certainly remember our salaries at age 22, which at our age is marvelous in and of itself 
The only reason I remember “at 22” is because that was my starting salary out of school (and a big deal to be making real money!). Any other time in my life would require research (like tax forms).
At 22, I was making around $15K (1985) a year out of college (equivalent to $33.5K in today’s dollars) and also got free healthcare, free lunch, and a monthly subway pass. Take home pay was a little less than $1000 a month (and I was paid monthly not weekly). Shared a small studio apt with then BF now husband in an upscale area (rooftop pool, 1 block from subway) for $900 a month including heat & A/C so a good chunk of each of our paychecks went to rent. I also worked part-time a few nights a week in retail for extra $. We spend about $60-70 dollars a week for for food for the 2 of us. I always cooked a lot and still do. Our only other monthly expenses were the phone bill and a monthly payment of a new Honda Accord that was around $184. We weren’t able to save much back then but learned ways to be frugal.
I remember that we had several friends that were engineers/CPAs making 2-3 times our salaries. They would invite us to do things like flying out to Colorado for a ski trip and most times we would have to pass due to the $, but would try to join them for drinks or dinners out once in awhile or have them over for dinner at our place.
Money was tight those first years but we still had fun and were happy. We didn’t need much back then. Earnings climbed a lot over the next 10-15 years and we outearned our old engineering/CPA friends. We also saved a lot more and I attribute our need to watch our pennies early on for helping with our savings and spending habits. Life’s been good and I can’t complain. I also know that I could go back to leaner times and make it work if I had to.
My first job at 24 paid $50k. It was in Silicon Valley. In today’s dollars it would be about $80k. How does that compare to what today’s kids are making?
Follow up to my post #3: I started working in 1987 at the age of 25, following 3 years of grad school.
I’ve often thought about the “old days” in context to our recently launched kiddos. Me at 22 (1981)? About $270/week but was hourly so I milked hours the best I could. DH (who was actually a potential DH at the time) was about double that and had better benefits.
So many twists and turns after 1981. We’re good looking heading to the retirement years. @doschicos so much of what you wrote on post 53 parallels our lives.
Both kids are savers and max out retirement benefits (@ 22 & 25).
I see nothing wrong with people giving annual salaries rather than weekly. It’s not a violation of the Terms of Service. 
I didn’t answer mine as weekly cause that wasn’t how I got paid - just remember the yearly total and approximate monthly income. Actually don’t remember what pay structure was - just that it was less than education majors were making as first year teachers, so not much.
$500 wk. 1994. Worked for an airline. Now that is one regular shift as an RN.