Albany Residents Recall Their First Jobs

Law-makers and workers are focusing more and more on the minimum wage.   Patch used information provided by the United States Census Bureau to show how many households in Albany are earning $25,000 or less.  Fast food workers from across the country are asking for higher wages according to the Christian Science Monitor. 

We asked our Facebook followers about their first jobs and whether those jobs were minimum wage.

Ellen Davis learned a skill at her first job that she still uses today.  She wrote in Facebook, “I was 14 years old and I worked at the laundromat on Hopkins Street on Saturday afternoons folding clean clothes for 35 cents an hour. That was in the late 50s. I still fold clothes the way she taught me, and the laundromat is still there.

Some like William Smith worked at large department stores.  Smith wrote,  “Montgomery Wards at $3.14 mw. 1977.”

Read all the responses on the Albany Patch Facebook page.

In 1955 the Federal minimum wage was $.75 an hour and has increased over the years to today’s rate of $7.25 an hour.  Some states have a minimum wage different from the federal rate.  The minimum wage for hourly workers in California is $8.00 an hour and workers in San Francisco and San Jose enjoy minimum wages over $10.00 an hour.

What was your first job?  Was it minimum wage job?  Tell us in comments.