U.S. Department of Labor - Minimum Wage History (Check the state as well!)
Did you earn minimum wage at your first job? I did and the employer, a chain "Five and Dime", was exploitive. Management treated us like you know what.
It was apparently legal to not pay us for up to 10 (or maybe that was 14 minutes) after punch out, but woe to you if you didn't punch in on time. I'll never forget the time I forgot to wear my smock and got told off by the personnel manager. So night after night they kept us there working past what we would be paid.
There was no Christmas bonus or gift. Crushed candy canes were thrown on the table in the so called lounge - almost at us as if we were dogs. Many of us could not afford to buy a sandwich for our lunch. I recall cashiering without breaks and with my lunch half hour delayed and delayed, almost feeling faint and eating a lot of candy at the register.
This was not my first or last exploitative punch clock type employer and it all made me want to have my own business. With no start up capital.
Stories of your own our your parents and ancestor's employment can be part of your family history story.
Here are some questions you might ask:
What was your first paid job? How much were you paid? What did you do with the money?
How old were you?
Did you "have" to work?
Was working your idea or did your parent's insist?
I found the information on this page of interest. All the talk of "high" wages for what used to be minimum wage work today makes it sound like you can afford to live as an independent person on minimum wage. Certainly not in my area. When about $36,000 a year qualifies you for discounts on your utilities as a low income worker, you know $16 an hour is not going to do it.
However, here in the United States we seem to be proud of our struggles. Sometimes a family manages to make it past the poverty barrier. Sometimes it takes generations.
