Don’t trust the magazine covers that make it seem like these celebrities were born with a silver spoon. They were working minimum wage jobs and long hours before they made it to the red carpet. They now control fortunes larger than those of many countries. To illustrate how they transformed pennies into multigenerational wealth, we’re publishing their pay stubs before they found fame. No gimmicks. Just hard work and hard numbers.

1. Oprah Winfrey

Before she was a media mogul, Oprah was a country girl in Mississippi picking up groceries as a teenager. She made $1.15 an hour to stock shelves and clean floors. As a university student she would later make $200 a week at a local radio station.

Oprah is worth $2.8 billion today in celebrities net worth. She makes more than $300 million a year from her TV network and side hustles and investments in tech start-ups. Her “from minimum wage to big time” story proves one thing: When you own the platform and you’re good at what you do, it changes everything. More than just fame, she created a system that makes money while she sleeps.

2. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Dwayne Johnson spent one unsuccessful season in college football before being cut from the Canadian Football League; he earned $25,000 a year. No health benefits. No security. He was a furniture mover and a hammer swinger on building sites to make enough money to pay his rent. When he finally entered a WWE ring, he received $3,000 per show as well as leftovers for working bonuses and television time. He slept in cheap motels and drove a banged-up car from town to town.

Currently, The Rock is the most highly compensated Hollywood actor, earning $87.5 million in 2024. He is estimated to be worth around $800 million due to his movie salaries, Teremana Tequila and Project Rock. His transformation from NFL reject to Hollywood giant demonstrates the power of self-branding and the power of saying yes to every job, no matter how menial and low-paying it is, to drastically change what one’s bank account looks like in the future. He converted sweat into equity.

3. Rihanna

Prior to becoming a global pop superstar and mogul in the beauty industry, Rihanna worked at a Gap clothing store in Bridgetown, Barbados, making the local minimum wage. She would work tiny shows on the weekends for a couple hundred bucks a show, which she would send home to support her family. She practiced her vocals for hours, passed out demos, and honed her performance skills in clubs with low lighting.

Rihanna is now worth $1.7 billion, making her one of the richest living female musicians according to Forbes. More than just number one singles, annual sales of over $100 million come from the innovative color options provided by Fenty Beauty and a highly successful line of lingerie called Savage X Fenty. Her story illustrates that the ability to see a gap in an underserved market and provide a solution to a real problem, in this case, the need for inclusive makeup, can take you from a life of living paycheck to paycheck to becoming a billionaire.

4. Brad Pitt

When Brad Pitt arrived in Los Angeles in the early eighties, he had two pairs of jeans and a dream. He sold shoes at Saks Fifth Avenue and earned $40,000 a year in commissions to pay the rent. He also toured Universal Studios for eight dollars a day, boring tourists with the same line about Jaws. All the while working up his confidence and camera personality during his other time.

As of today, Brad has a net worth of $300 million. He usually earns $20 to $30 million upfront with backend participation on blockbusters. But his true genius is diversification. Through his production company, Plan B Entertainment, he has produced the Academy Award-winning films 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight. He doesn’t depend on a single paycheck. Brad’s transition from the retail racks to the red carpet glamor tells us that diversifying one’s skill set and investing in long-term projects pays off bigger than any one gig.

5. Cardi B

Before the Grammy’s and brand deals, Cardi B, born Belcalis Almanzar, was a Hooters waitress and worked in strip clubs across New York. She made about $600 a week, even on full nights, hardly enough to pay rent and buy microwave noodles. Instead of hiding from that history, she broadcast it all over social media, posting blunt, hilarious videos about money, romance, and the hustle that kept going; audiences identified with her struggles and flocked to engage with her content.

Today, she is worth nearly $55 million. There is an estimated $18 million in annual income from number one hit singles, Fashion Nova and Reebok collaborations, reality TV, and a digital platform that can literally shock stock prices. Through Cardi’s trajectory, the narrative suggests that radical, brutal honesty can transform the work of survival into a launching pad for massive global celebrity and significant wealth.

From the Ground Up

These five icons’ pre-fame paychecks will make you cringe. A grocery clerk’s hourly wage. A radio DJ’s weekly stipend. A tour guide’s pocket change. But they share one non-negotiable trait: they treated every opportunity as a stepping stone. Every lowly job, every small gig, every scraped-together dollar was fuel for something bigger. Today’s multi-millions and billions didn’t come from overnight luck. They came from hard work, smart branding and strategic reinvesting.