Can you remember your first wage and how much ?

[joinerisme 10]

July 1974.App joiner first wage £12-87

[Kazpa 10]

£17.50 a week at Tack Service

[clown 10]

I started on september the 1st 1958 at Engish Steel Corporation as an apprentice fitter turner in the apprentice workshop 48 hrs per week for 39 shillings and 6 pence, the 6 pence was deducted as income tax.

[swaroberts 12]

I am old

 

Started work 1951 £1 15 PERWEEK 48 HRS

N/S 1954 £2 9 SHILLINGS all found

BUS CONDUCTOR 1957 £9 10shillings extra for sunday working worked 48 hr week

married 1967 £1000 per year working days and nights about 5 12 hour shifts

and i thought i was rich

The boss gave me £25.00 raise PER YEAR AS A WEDDING PRESENT

 

My wife was earning £ 6-10 shillings for 5 1/half days 9-5 as a shop manageress

 

I bet someone will beat this

 

I can't beat it but you might find the following intersting.

 

There's a web page that lets you work out how much old money is worth nowadays and your wage produces the following:

£41.17 using the retail price index

£41.68 using the GDP deflator

£120.69 using the average earnings

£140.03 using the per capita GDP

£170.80 using the share of GDP

 

The website, so you can all try this is:

http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/

 

So your first wage actually sounds pretty good for a starting wage if you use the GDP calculations.

I think I was getting £30 a week in my first job in 1979 which gave the following figures:

£113.70 using the retail price index

£109.81 using the GDP deflator

£180.07 using the average earnings

£199.22 using the per capita GDP

£217.29 using the share of GDP

Edited October 30, 2009 by swaroberts

[Janner 10]

I joined the Royal Navy in Oct.49. I had to go to Manchester, where we were given final medicals, on completion of which it was confirmed I had joined. I was given one days pay 4/-, it was a mistake, 4/- was a man's pay, I was a Junior, my daily rate was 1/6 .

[a.oldfield 10]

My first job in 1962 at Tinsley Wire Industries Limited was as office junior for the sum of £3 7s 6d.

[handypandy 14]

1948.Started work at J.I.Fearn, agricultural engineers, bottom of Howard Street, as a shop lad /gofer. Starting wage £2 something or other, pence I think.

 

I too worked for them at Fearnco in Whitely Lane Ecclesfield/Grenoside in 1965. After stoppages I took home £2-18-6. My hours were 8.30 - 5.30 Mon-Fri and 8.30 - 12 on Saturday.

[Texas 10]

Comparing some of the wages in the late 40's-early 50's, my couple of quid at Fearns wasn't so bad. I moved just up the road to a property repairers after a couple of months, G.W.Roberts. He paid me £2.10 shillings as a so called apprentice. I left there in '51 and went on the railway as a cleaner for big money, but I can't remember the exact sum.

I recollect we sometimes worked a Sunday, emptying coal wagons. They were 16 tonners, with a drop door at the side. If you could get in one with medium sized coal you could get the door open and a lot of the coal would just fall out. But you had to clear it off the line.

Otherwise it was get in the wagon and shovel. The idea was to clear the wagon as fast as possible. If you could clear the wagon in say four hours, you got the full days pay for half a days work. Some of the wagons came with massive chunks of coal and you had to break them up first before you could get it out the door. An eight hour day (Sunday rate) got you about £4.

[my eyes only 10]

1989ish? - 1st job - YTS - £29.50 i had to work 4 days aweek and attend college 1 day 37 hours aweek.

 

1990ish? 2nd job - working for a hire firm 37 hours aweek for £52 that was crap money.

[bellis 10]

my first job was at cherry tree labs at nether edge 39.50 for a 39 hour week not bad for 1981 and i was only 16

[Antijammer 10]

1954 junior engineer, Guided Weapons Dept, Vickers Armstrong, Weybridge Surrey . Wage 8 pounds / week.

 

I saw an add in the local paper at the time for a butchers assistant at the same wage . I thought how poorly graduate engineers were paid if my wage was typical.To be fair, I must say that within three years of starting at Vickers my wage had more than doubled.

[peterpan0.0 10]

1978 17 pound aweek polishing cuttlry auther price and son on broad st