How much and when was your first full time wage packet?

[cjd]

£5 9s 4d (10s 8d N.Ins....no Grad.Pension & no tax due for the first few months), 1969 as a trainee ACWA . Of that, £3 to my mum for board. I kept my paper round for the first year.....that was another 17s (85p) a week. I didn't smoke, didn't drink and fashionable clothes were things that other people had. Petrol for my moped was about 2s 6d (12p) for half a gallon.

My major expense was....the Albion...train fare, admission fee and of course, the Argus everyday....LOL.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Couple of years ago - £2000 (wasn't taxed for the first few months)

 

[MACROBLUE]

£8 19s in 1966 as apprentice electrician in Brighton

 

[EastbourneGull]

£6.10s a week at the Argus Office in North Street, in 1964. £2 for my mum, £1 on the horses, 7/6d on NW Terrace at BHA, 10 bob a week on petrol getting my Austin A30 to and from Lewes The rest I just wasted.

Perks of the job...2 hour lunch break, skating at the ice rink at lunchtime and, best of all, early warning from the newsroom that the Beatles were coming to the Hippodrome.

 

[happypig]

£181 a month at Amex in 1979.
That bought a fair few pints of Watney's Special in the Buccaneer or Courage Best in the Alhambra.

 

[Barrow Boy]

The princely sum of £2.15 shillings p/w (£2.4s/4d after deduction for Nat Ins stamp) as an apprentice ladies hairdresser at the Ivan Hair Salon in Western Road Hove in 1968. Luckily I used to double that amount in tips but still had to give my mum £1 housekeeping. Stuck it for 18 months then left for the glamour and excitement of a junior trainee with Keymarkets supermarket in Station Road Portslade for the heady sum of £8 p/w, happy days!

 

[APACHE]

£6 for a 40hr week in 1969 before deductions. Still had enough to follow the Albion, home & away and go out at the weekend.

 

[Gully]

Something like £42 for a week as a waiter in a hotel in 1984, went up to £46 after four weeks when I had learnt silver service...which to begin with was a bit hit and miss, the odd customer ended up with a potato in their lap!

 

[Stattoseagull]

I started my working career exactly 30 years ago to the day (23/11/1981) as a very young (just) 17 year old - £30 per week for a 37.5 hour week (Chartered Accountants - Old Steine - Brighton)

 

[pipkin112]

£18 per week at Albion Timbers in Southwick, in 1978

 

[Poyetry In Motion]

£52 for a 35 hour week at Alliance + Leicester, Hove Park 1987.
I was an office clerk in the New Lending Dept.

 

[Medwayseagull]

Brighton Council in 1969 - around £35 - £40 PER MONTH take home pay as an admin trainee.

 

[PHCgull]

92 quid a week for a 35 hour week at the virgin megastore on western road in 1990.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

£28 pound a week for an apprentice mechanic in 1980.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

£5 7s 6d a week, working a 40 hour week (9-6, with an hour off for lunch, Mondays to Saturdays, with Wednesday afternoons and one other half day off, each week) for Birmingham Co-operative Chemists at their pharmacy in Erdington High Street. Mid sixties.

 

[Gwylan]

I took home £8.45 after a 42 hour week at Jolyons on the corner of St James's St and the Steine - it would have been the summer of 1974. Took my mum out for a meal at Berni's Inn (oh, the glamour)

 

[Albion_Dave]

£55 take home in 1984 from Birds Eye Walls.

 

[Lush]

Can't remember how much I was paid, but I was the first ever Saturday girl for the first ever (and sadly missed) Sports Department upstairs in the 'new' Boots at the Clock Tower, selling squash rackets, athletic supporters and boxes of Dunlop Green Flash.

 

[Return of the Rev]

£105 per month before tax! amex 1977 plus luncheon vouchers

 

[jakarta]

Still got my first full time wage slip from January 1986, monthly pay after deductions £357.08 - ninety quid a week take home didn't seem too bad at the time.

It had been a short month as well as I only started on the 13th, as soon as I got my full £500 per month & unlimited overtime at £4.62 per hour I was well on my way to my Escort 1.3GL and also a Yamaha RD250LC - what Riches after kicking around on the dole for the previous couple of years.....

Funnily enough I still, on occasion, do some of the same sort of work that I was back then (I was doing asbestos analytical lab and site survey work in 1986 and was taking asbestos samples from a building site earlier this week - naughty Client hadn't had the place surveyed, there was loads of smashed up asbestos boarding lying around & I had to close the site down for the day)

Might be interesting to see how many other people are still doing the same thing they were 25 years ago - I suppose a lot of people in the building trade as well as brain surgeons may still be plying their trade from 1986?