How much you made when you where younger compared to today

[Rogue Hawk]

Here is a way to calculate modern military pay. It's more complex than it used to be. But a Staff Sergent with ten years in 2018 is said to make 66K in the Chicago area. So I was at 22.5K, and that is equal to 40K today. Throw in perhaps another 10K for benefits, and it still looks like a Staff is much better off today than I was. It could be because BAH is variable now.

https://militarypay.defense.gov/Calc...MC-Calculator/

[AnthonyG]

Joel, ive always said basically the same thing to any one on that topic.

The more money you make, the more money you spend, aka more bills lol

[pegasus1300]

expenses always rise to meet income

[k7xi]

After a short college stint where I mostly skied my way out of school, I went to Alaska and logged. I was making $1400 a month plus r&b. Later that summer I went in the army where I also had r&b at the grand sum of $124 a month. After the army, I became truck driver and bought my own truck. REALLY made the big bucks then. Good thing I'm good lookin'..... But my first job was washing dishes at a local restaurant to pay for my ham radio gear at 75 cents an hour.

[Joe T.]

In college, I worked at Central Freight Lines in Irving, TX. They started new hires at about ~$3.50/hr. Every month we got a substantial raise, considering the times. After 6 months "new hires" made top pay - $6.19/hr. Today, according to the calculator above, that would be equivalent to $35.26/hr. Not bad for a blue collar job! That is equivalent to $73,340.80 annual pay today.

Oh, Central did not work a normal '40 hour week.' It worked 45 with no OT.

Great job for a college kid in 1973.

Joe T.

[easysuper]

When I was young, I went away to a summer dude ranch camp for a couple of weeks each summer. This was a co-ed camp/ranch. The summer I was 14 years old, I worked at the ranch all summer for room and board. Bucked hay, dug fence posts, laid sprinkler pipe, and chased girls who came to camp for a couple of weeks at a time. I was in heaven. A new bunch of lovely young ladies every couple of weeks. The following summer I got "promoted" and helped take the "campers" on horse back rides. The group of campers were broken down by age into 6-7 groups and we would take each group on an hours ride each day. So in addition to riding with the kids 6-7 hours I also took care of the horses prior to and after the daily rides were done. Still zero dollar income. But, at the end of summer, the owners took me into town, bought me new boots, hat and a couple of shirts. Then the biggest surprise came. They cut me a check for $300.00 ($100.00 for each month) told me the horse I had been riding all summer was now "mine". The next summer, they actually put me on the official payroll and in addition to R&B I got paid $200.00 per month. On weekends we often went to and participated in local rodeos. So, I was an Urban kid working at the local grocery store during the school year and a cowboy living the life during the summers. I continued to work at the ranch for each summer including the summer after graduating from HS. I have no idea the value of that in todays dollars. But the experience, life-long friends and memories are priceless.

Sounds like a Dream Job to me.

[cruisinTX]

My first full time 'summer' job was at age 12 in 1966. I was paid a whopping $0.75/hr hoeing weeds for a local farmer. We typically worked 6 10hr days a week all summer.

My last job when I retired in May of 2017 paid $37.15/hr working as a lab tech in an analytical chemistry lab.

It was a long 51 years, but I can't complain too much.