But, Back In My Day, nobody got paid minimum working for fast food restaurants, at least in my location (Philly burbs). Nobody I knew in high school, at age 16, had any problem finding a job which paid $6-7/hour, including working at fast food restaurants and call survey centers. That's about $12-14, adjusting for inflation.
All of my high-school jobs were minimum wage, or pennies above. Which, at the time was $4.35 or thereabouts. Upstate NY, late 80s. I worked in retail clothing, department stores, fast food places, a mall sit-down restaurant, the local amusement park, mowed lawns, was an under the table janitor, and finally at an ice factory.
It wasn't until college that I got a job that paid more than minimum wage: working as an aide in the RIT computer labs.
Me too (mutatis mutandis). But I thought Atrios was about ten years older than us, not sure where I got that impression. Which would make “back in my day” late 70s.
He’s 43 give or take a year. Used to be on his sidebar but I don’t see it now.
1987 I worked on a farm and got a little above minimum wage plus, as an agricultural worker, no time + 1/2 for overtime. Good times!
1975 Jack in the Box after school and weekends for $2.10/hour. That was actually about 20 cents an hour better than most fast food places at the time. Best part of the job was having to ask customers if they wanted the “Jack sauce” on their hamburgers.
In the early-nineties I got my first job making $4.25 washing endless amounts of dishes at a bakery. After about two years of this, I upgraded to (I think) $5.25 being a cook at a pizza place. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for some recreation and some gas for the car. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like trying to support my small family on minimum wage.
I made $4.25/hour the summer of 1995 working the register at McDonalds on Upper Glen Rd. I think that worked out to the price of a Happy Meal plus tax. A Happy Correlation, for sure.