Posted by John_NorCal on 7/22/09 9:37pm
Msg #296976

Minimum wage to increase, in case you're interested

2. Federal minimum wage increases on July 24
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The federal minimum wage for covered non-exempt employees rises from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour July 24.

Reply by Michelle/AL on 7/22/09 9:47pm
Msg #296980

John, does this mean we can give ourselves a raise? ;- ) n/m

Reply by John Schenk on 7/22/09 10:13pm
Msg #296982

When I was a kid it was $3.25 an hour. LOL In the summer I was working driving a tractor and averaging about 110 hours a week. Didn't get overtime, of course, although I should have. I'd been running a tractor almost 36 hours straight, and just got off of it about 4:00 a.m.,and my boss calls me up at about 6:00 a.m. and tells me he needs me to help them work cattle. I told him to stuff it and that I wasn't coming back to work at all unless I got a raise to $3.50 an hour (entrepreneur that I was LOL). He said the cattle market was down, blah blah blah and he couldn't do it. Called me back, and woke me up again about 20 minutes later and agreed to the raise if I would be there to help work cattle. I got my clothes on and was there with bells on and happy to be there and making about another $27 a week. I was happy as a clam.

I spent so much time on that tractor that I cooked almost all of my meals on the manifold. I could cook steak, hamburger, chicken, baked potatoes, grilled veggies and have a GREAT, hot meal a couple times a day. I'd just season it at home and put it in foil, put it in my cooler, and when I started getting hungry I'd just wire it to the manifold of the tractor. Baked potatoes were pretty difficult and took a while to cook to get them evenly cooked, but the meats were actually very easy, once I figured out the cooking times for each. My old buddy, Earl, was often running another tractor in the field I would be in (sometimes the fields would be a full section/640 acres). His mama fixed him a meatloaf sandwich almost every single day...I can still see that ketchup red bread. LOL I'd cook for him every now and then on my tractor. He was a good guy, and he was still just gettin $3.25 an hour.

I know this is OT, but it made me reflect for a sec. Actually pretty good memories. I was makin more than any kid I knew. One last thing, that's kinda funny, is that I actually enjoyed the heck out of it. I started working driving a tractor at age 7 driving an old McCormick tractor. When I went to work on the big tractors with the cab, air conditioner, radio, and not eating dirt all day long, I thought I was in heaven. It was like getting paid to be on vacation. LOL

Sounds like the price of a Big Mac may be going up.

JJ

Reply by John Schenk on 7/22/09 10:16pm
Msg #296983

You know, now that I think about it, it may have been $1.50 an hour and I got a raise to $1.75...can't remember. I'm talking about 1974. Yah...seems like it might have been. Anyway, a lot less than now.

JJ

Reply by John Schenk on 7/22/09 10:34pm
Msg #296984

Yep, it was $1.50. I remembered there was a difference for farm workers back then...we got screwed! LOL

Congress further broadened coverage with amendments in 1966 by lowering the enterprise sales volume test to $500,000, effective February 1967, with a further cut to $250,000 effective February 1969. The 1966 amendments also extended coverage to public schools, nursing homes, laundries, and the entire construction industry. Farms were subject to coverage for the first time if their employment reached 500 or more man days of labor in the previous year's peak quarter. The minimum wage went to $1.00 an hour effective February 1967 for newly covered nonfarm workers, $1.15 in February 1968, $1.30 in February 1969, $1.45 in February 1970, and $1.60 in February 1971. Increases for newly subject farm workers stopped at $1.30. The 1966 amendments extended the fulltime student certification program to covered agricultural employers and to institutions of higher learning.

In 1974, Congress included under the FLSA all no supervisory employees of Federal, State, and local governments and many domestic workers. (Subsequently, in 1976, in National League of Cities v. Usery, the Supreme Court held that the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA could not constitutionally apply to State and local government employees engaged in traditional government functions.) The minimum wage increased to $2.00 an hour in 1974, $2.10 in 1975, and $2.30 in 1976 for all except farm workers, whose minimum initially rose to $1.60. Parity with nonfarm workers was reached at $2.30 with the 1977 amendments.

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 7/22/09 10:49pm
Msg #296988

John ......

You are giving away your age .......... Oldtimer .......

Reply by KODI/CA on 7/22/09 11:03pm
Msg #296991

Re:Oldtimer???

Minimum wage when I got out of high school, and on my first job was a huge 75 cents per hour and overtime was unheard of.

Reply by John Schenk on 7/22/09 11:08pm
Msg #296993

I feel younger already LOL n/m

Reply by PAW on 7/23/09 7:52am
Msg #297018

Want to feel old? Check the min wage chart ...

http://www.dol.gov/ESA/minwage/chart.htm

Reply by Susan Fischer on 7/23/09 2:43am
Msg #297005

I was glad to get .45 cents/hr waitressing in the early

70s. Oklahoma City. Holiday Inn, 6 AM to 2PM, large cafe, not the dining room. Gas was about 35 cents a gallon, and I lived in my hippy truck, until I bunked awhile on a co-worker's couch. Annie and I worked our stations in unison, and split our tips - we consistently out-tipped the other waitresses - and they hated us, instead of picking up on the fabulous service we provided as a team. Head-scratcher.

If I remember right, my first office job paid $1.25 an hour. Bought a Chevy for $65. Ran like a top. With sideways fins - cat's eyes.

Anyway, minimum wage has seen me through my youth, and young adulthood, and I'm forever grateful for that law. With subsequent education, a work ethic, and risk-taking, I've surpassed that minimum many times over.

Reply by MonicaFL on 7/23/09 7:50am
Msg #297016

WOW - when I was a kid 50 cents an hour was GREAT. I worked in a hospital taking trays to patients and then picking them up, cleaning them off and setting them up for the next day. I also made 25 cents and hour babysitting (when I was about 10 - had a bunch of sisters that I also took care of so parents knew I could "handle the job". Yes, I am telling my age and I'm damn proud to still be here and playing golf almost every day. I will be 69 in August but look and feel a whole LOT younger.

Reply by LKT/CA on 7/22/09 11:08pm
Msg #296994

I don't remember the minimum wage when I got my first job but I do remember my first California driver's license cost $3.25.....what's the cost now, $28?

Reply by janCA on 7/22/09 11:22pm
Msg #296995

I was a waitress at the local steakhouse. Back in '67-'70 I was earning a whopping 65 cents an hour plus tips. I'd bank my paycheck, by authority of the parental unit but the tips were all mine. In a town of 2,500 that tip money went a long ways. Movie, bowling and pool time in the summer.

Reply by Linda Juenger on 7/22/09 11:25pm
Msg #296996

My first job paid 1.60 an hour. I remember telling my dad that I was going to move out. He laughed and said I wasn't going to make enough to buy my make-up much less move out. He was right as usual. lol

Reply by jba/fl on 7/23/09 12:50am
Msg #297000

Same here, $1.60 - same parent school of thought! ROFLMAO -

Reply by Gary Boehm on 7/23/09 12:14am
Msg #296997

Minimum wage to increase, in case you're interested

Hmmm, I remember working at the drive-in theater at the end of the 60's for 95 cents an hour. They couldn't keep an "over 21" manager for more than two weeks there (they kept quitting) so they "promoted" me to Assistant Manager and I got a whopping 10 cent raise to $1.05 an hour!

Then they showed an "M" rated movie and all of us under-age "kids" got fired because some lady came in and said we shouldn't be working there. You couldn't even see the screen from inside the concession stand. Come to think of it now, what was SHE doing there? lol

Reply by Stamper_WI on 7/23/09 9:15am
Msg #297030

Waitressing isn't a bad deal if you work in a place where you can get good tips. When I waitressed in collge, I was able to pay tuition room and board and put some away for a down payment on a house. The house cost $9,000 and since then you couldn't contract until age 21, my dad co signed. I got 3 roomates to pay the mortgage and escrow. That was $90 a month!
It did require me to work split shifts. Lunch and dinner and I had very little social life.

Reply by John_NorCal on 7/23/09 9:48am
Msg #297040

Jeez- I just thought I would give some...

food for thought to the nsa's who work for peanuts! Instead I brought up all these nostalgic memories! So I'll add to the fun, back in 1965 I had been in NYC seeing my gravely ill sister. When she passed I needed to get back to SF so I took a job as a Burns security guard. My net pay for 40hrs a week was $40.00. I saved $25 from each paycheck and as soon as I had $100 saved I went down and bought a Greyhound bus ticket for $86.10 back home to S.F.. I got back to S.F. on a Sunday morning with a $1.15 left in my pocket. The Muni bus fare was only 15 cents so I had a dollar left before I could get some work as a Teamster. The following January I went and got a real job with Uncle Sam's Army. My first check there was for $45.00 for a whole month of basic training!

Reply by Frenchie/TN on 7/23/09 8:38pm
Msg #297181

Re: Jeez- I just thought I would give some...

Since we seem to all be going down memory lane with this thread, I'll add my own. I arrived in this country in 1970. After three weeks I got my first job: $1.65 an hour. It was minimum wage then and I thought it was good money. My English then was the result of 4 years of High School English. Not that great but good enough to pass the interview, fill out the application and get hired. I was a ward clerk in a nursing home.