Don't pay enough for me to get out of bed for...

[Sparky Bills]

Good chance for someone to get into the industry.

Its not what you know, its whol you know!
Thats how I got into the industry and have now been there for 6 going on 7 years.

[ynot slow]

But from what I've seen, working in finance, it doesn't matter what you earn. It's what you do with it. I've seen people on 6 figure salaries struggling, & people on $25k who are saving a good part of the wages each week, and living comfortably.

Same here,started out as an apprentice clothing cutter(what)when we had a viable industry 30yrs ago,first wage cheque was $87.00 less tax $12.00(thanks Muldoon),out of the $75.00,mum got $10 board,myself kept $15,banked $50 per week,end of year had nearly $2000 saved,in todays terms would mean saving say $20000 per year,yeah right lol.

[TLDV8]

Apprentice wage at the moment is $10 ph - actually less than the minimum wage.

Once apon a time (1976) it was $1.17 per hour ($6 a day)

[Beemer]

My first job after leaving school paid me the princely sum of $108 per week - or $2.70 per hour! And I was thrilled! The dole at that stage was about $43 I think.

When I was working as a senior photographer on a local paper back in 2001 I was only earning $27,000 a year (about $13 per hour). I went from there to a call centre where I earned $11 an hour. I've temped at between $14 and $20 per hour but am now self-employed and my charge-out rate varies between $25 per hour and $100 per hour depending on the work, with the bulk of it at $65 per hour. Sounds great but I don't work 40-hour weeks - mostly I work two or three days a week - so the yearly rate isn't comparable. I've also invested hugely in upskilling, so in the past few years I have coughed up more than $10,000 to complete diplomas to improve my chances of gaining work.

But when I have been desperate for money when I first started my business, I was happy to work for any rate of pay. I'm lucky now that I can pick and choose my work (but I rarely turn any down, only the stuff I really, really don't want to do) but if I couldn't do what I do now and had to get a 'real' job, then I'd take what I could get - at least to start with.

$14 an hour for an unskilled worker isn't that bad. A friend works in retail and doesn't get much more and he's been in the job for years. There would probably be perks attached to the job, like staff discounts too.