Minimum Wage...How Much Were You Paid?

[stick47]

First job was at Sonic in 1962 making onion rings & fries. Paid 50 cents/hr. Worked at a grocery store in high school & made 1.10 hr. Went in the Navy in 1966 starting at $100/mo.

[Garin]

Wow. You were able to buy a new car and a house and pay the hospital on less than $10,000.

I hope you're at least paying your fair share of taxes on the millions you've made since on your guidebook: "How to buy a house, a new car and have a baby on less than $40 a day."

Nobody said it was easy, my wife worked also... Our first house was 30k and my first truck was a dodge Dakota. I had saved up from the time I was 15 , things just always ended up working out for us. I was at times extremely hard but we survived and made our dreams reality. I wished more people had the gumption to go after it.... Because it can be done.

[zookeeper]

Nobody said it was easy, my wife worked also... Our first house was 30k and my first truck was a dodge Dakota. I had saved up from the time I was 15 , things just always ended up working out for us. I was at times extremely hard but we survived and made our dreams reality. I wished more people had the gumption to go after it.... Because it can be done.

Great it worked out for you, but others aren't so lucky and it has nothing to do with how hard you work. What would have happened if you, or your wife, would have had a serious illness at that time? Many people have the "gumption to go after it," but find themselves in circumstances not of their own making; or they worked and worked and worked and never saw anything close to a decent living while the ownership lived off their labor and saw them as expendable. It's not as black and white as you make things, Garin.

[PennyQuilts]

Absent an illness or something like that, it can be done but it isn't ever easy. It definitely WON'T be done if people are spending their money on gum and that's a fact. Let's face it, back in those days, the idea of paying for cable, cellphone, internet, etc. wasn't even on the radar and that's no chump change. We also didn't take nice vacations, eat out much and do a lot of things we do, these days. Simpler time.

[Garin]

Great it worked out for you, but others aren't so lucky and it has nothing to do with how hard you work. What would have happened if you, or your wife, would have had a serious illness at that time? Many people have the "gumption to go after it," but find themselves in circumstances not of their own making; or they worked and worked and worked and never saw anything close to a decent living while the ownership lived off their labor and saw them as expendable. It's not as black and white as you make things, Garin.

I liked it better when I thought you were a woman, you have so many excuses for people it's unreal. I don't think that an illness would affect me my whole life I have a drive to be successful and nothing keeps me down......

[gjl]

1969, Coits, 39th and Penn, Car Hop, .35/hr plus tips.
My first real full time job, 1976, Western Electric, 4.22/hr. Union job that included medical benefits and vacation time.

[Garin]

1969, Coits, 39th and Penn, Car Hop, .35/hr plus tips.
My first real full time job, 1976, Western Electric, 4.22/hr. Union job that included medical benefits and vacation time.

Did they have chicken fried steak biscuits back then?

[gjl]

Did they have chicken fried steak biscuits back then?

I'm pretty sure Coits in 1969 was just a burger and fries drive in. Their big thing was their root beer in frosted mugs. I was either 13 or 14 when I worked there, it may have been 1968. I do remember that if you came up short on what money you should have collected for the night they took it out of your paltry pay. That evil Don Coit getting fat off my labor.

[PennyQuilts]

I liked it better when I thought you were a woman, you have so many excuses for people it's unreal. I don't think that an illness would affect me my whole life I have a drive to be successful and nothing keeps me down......

Wait. What? I feel insulted!

[ctchandler]

Gjl,
They I have been eating their hot dogs since the late 40's when they were Weber's. I don't even remember their hamburgers, but I'm sure they had them. Their ham sandwich was my wife's favorite.
C. T.

I'm pretty sure Coits in 1969 was just a burger and fries drive in. Their big thing was their root beer in frosted mugs.

[Garin]

Wait. What? I feel insulted!

Lol

[Garin]

Gjl,
They I have been eating their hot dogs since the late 40's when they were Weber's. I don't even remember their hamburgers, but I'm sure they had them. Their ham sandwich was my wife's favorite.
C. T.

Their are webers in Tulsa are they connected to coits in some way?

[BlackmoreRulz]

Gjl,
They I have been eating their hot dogs since the late 40's when they were Weber's. I don't even remember their hamburgers, but I'm sure they had them. Their ham sandwich was my wife's favorite.
C. T.

Chili cheeseburgers were pretty good too, but 99% of the time, I went there for the chili dogs

Oh, and pertaining to the OP, Del Rancho at 59th & Agnew $1.25 an hour washing dishes around 1973 or so.

[Prunepicker]

Gjl,
They I have been eating their hot dogs since the late 40's when they were Weber's...
C. T.

Coit's served some good hot dogs. Schwab's you know! The rest was in
the simplicity of the condiments.

[Prunepicker]

My first job was $5 dollars a day. I then moved to, I believe this is correct,
to a minimum wage job that paid $1.15.

Oy! Sometimes a $1.15 sounds like good money, especially when I'm not
working! LOL!

[Prunepicker]

... I do remember that if you came up short on what money you should have
collected for the night they took it out f your paltry pay. That evil Don
Coit getting fat off my labor.

That's why he gave you the use of a .357. It was to encourage proper
payment or you'd put an irreparable bullet in their radiator or give them
2 flats.

[ctchandler]

Garin,
Not connected with Coit's but they were part of the Weber's chain when Coit bought them. I have researched this in the past (for this board) and I believe Coit bought it in 1952 and changed the name to Coit's in 1959. Their root beer is (or was) exactly the same recipe.
C. T.

Their are webers in Tulsa are they connected to coits in some way?

[gjl]

No it was more if you made a mistake making change. And I thought saying it was a basic burger and fries joint would have included hot dogs without mentioning them but I guess not. I sure don't remember ham sandwiches at Coits but it was 45 years ago.

[Prunepicker]

No it was more if you made a mistake making change...

The use of the .357 was also intended to encourage tipping beyond the usual
10 cents. A gun in the face was good for at least a quarter which was
sufficient to restore order to your math skills. You should have come out
ahead. Even south siders knew that, which is why there was an abundance
of flat tire repairs.

[ljbab728]

My first job was working on our family farm. Most of my pay was in the form of having a place to sleep and food to eat. LOL

I think, when hauling hay, I was maybe paid $.10 per bale. My first real job away from home paid $400.00 per month and I thought I was in heaven.

[ctchandler]

Gjl,
Sorry, I didn't read it that way, and you are right, most burger places sell hot dogs. But I meant it when I said I didn't even remember burgers, or for that matter the ham sandwich. I always remember that numbered list of dogs, mine was a number 7, chili and onions. They served the ham sandwiches from at least 1963, the first time my girlfriend (wife to be) ordered one) till they closed. Dianna was still under an anesthetic from a procedure when she told me to stop at Coit's and get a ham sandwich to take home. That was in the early 2000's.
C. T.

No it was more if you made a mistake making change. And I thought saying it was a basic burger and fries joint would have included hot dogs without mentioning them but I guess not. I sure don't remember ham sandwiches at Coits but it was 45 years ago.

[Just the facts]

Minimum wage should be high enough so that two people working a combine 48 hours per week and supporting 2 children should not qualify for any federal social benefits. We have to kill off the low-wage business model where employers are shifting an increasing amount of their employee compensation to the taxpayers.

[Swake]

Minimum wage should be high enough so that two people working a combine 48 hours per week and supporting 2 children should not qualify for any federal social benefits. We have to kill off the low-wage business model where employers are shifting an increasing amount of their employee compensation to the taxpayers.

This is why getting the minimum wage to something around $12 with a reasonable cost of health insurance is important. $12 an hour full time for two people is 50k per year, if they also do have health insurance so medical issues won't blow them up that should provide a decent working class secure lifestyle. This would mean the working poor would not have to be a drain on the taxpayers. Tell me again how paying people a decent wage for labor so they don't have to rely on welfare is not a conservative ideal?

[Just the facts]

Tell me again how paying people a decent wage for labor so they don't have to rely on welfare is not a conservative ideal?

I wish I had an answer for you on this one because this make total sense to me. If McWalmart needs fries fried or boxes unboxed they should pay the full cost of getting that work done and not use the welfare/social system to make up the wage deficiency.

[gjl]

So should that be the minimum wage for the 17 year old high school kid still living with mom and dad?