Was Your First Job at Minimum Wage?

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Paper route 7 yrs? Then dishwasher $1.60 per hr for 8 months. Asked for a raise, they upped it to $1.62 per hr. I QUIT
 
Cumberland Farms convenience store as a part time stock clerk $2.10 an hour while in high school.1974-1977
 
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My uncle hired me to mask and scuff cars at my great uncle (Denny Spencer's) body shop in Grampian Pennsylvania. $10 a car in 1983. Seems like I was called in for the crappy ones. Like that giant '72 Lincoln or the mid '70s Cherokee with all the stickers all over it. But I just liked working on cars and looking through Denny's junk yard. Thirteen years old.
 
Working in a grocery store called Falley's in Topeka for $1.65 per hour in 1966. After 3 years, I switched to an A&P grocery store. Their employees were union, so my salary went up to about $3.25. Plus we got time and a half for working on Sundays. That was decent money back then.

RustyRatRod said:
This is almost like askin "how'd you lose your virginity?"
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Well, we are waiting for your story! :lol: :lol:
Dicer said:
Walking beans @ $1.25 an hour, my friend's sister would sometimes walk with us. That alone was worth it, made the time go by faster, always a kink in my neck by the end of
day although. lol
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Walking beans?? Lima, string, pinto?
 
Grew up on a dairy farm. Pay? What pay?
Wanted to get a job and earn some pocket money, Dad said okay as long as it didn't interfere with my chores.
Went to work at a nursery up the road, weeding pots for a buck an hour. A couple hours a day after my chores, a couple hours on Saturday, they (and everyone else) were closed on Sundays. They bumped it up to a buck fifty when a customer brought in a lawnmower that didn't run, and I fixed it. Thought I was rollin' in money... I was ten.
Spent half my earnings at the downtown pharmacy buying "Odd Rod" bubble gum trading cards and them cool new "Hot Wheels" cars... my parents made me put the other half in the bank.
 
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Worked at a Chinese restaurant washing dishes at 13, don't know if I was getting minimum wage. Booger King at 14 for $3.65/hr is my first wage I remember.
 
harrisonm said:
Walking beans?? Lima, string, pinto?
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None of those beanies, "soy beans", my friend. The farmers and equipment manufacturers, changed the width of the the rows, it would be pretty hard to walk down a row of beans or corn nowadays. Althought organic farmers stick with wide rows just for this purpose, no chemicals..... so you pull weeds.

soy beans.JPG
 
Yeah, I actually made more selling RWL takeoff tires to my friends in auto shop than I did at my "job" at goodyear.

Besides being an absolute dick, the manager also violated child labor laws by working me at 17 years old on a 12 hour Saturday only shift.

If I knew then, what I know now....

Killed my Friday night and my Saturday night.

Bastards....

The cool manager that hired me had me on M-W-F 3:30 to 7:30 for my 12 hour part time job, with some extra days every now and then including 4-6 hours on Saturday if I wanted it.
 
As kids, we hustled ALL the time for money. Used to go door-to-door offering to pull weeds, wash cars, whatever. Had paper routes, and after we were done delivering on the route, we'd go to the grocery store, drop a quarter in the newspaper machine, then take all of the papers. Then we'd sit outside the store with our pile of papers and sell them to the people who were confused as to why the machines were empty.

Sold candy in elementary school for 10 cents a piece. Always a side hustle....
 
in 1965 i got my social security card at age 13
i went to work at a drive in hamburger joint
for .60 an hour
i had more money than i knew what to do with
no bills
all clear dollars
good times
 
I remember shoveling snow in neighborhoods driveways for money including during the blizzard of “78” in the northeast. That sucked!
 
Publix Grocery , 1975, $1.65 hr,
gas was 65 cents a gallon. I could fill my tank for $10, now $75
 
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My Chevron boss used to give me grief about not taking my lunch breaks. Friday-Sunday we were lucky if we got to steal a soda out of the Coke machine and sit down for 5 minutes due to the Las Vegas and LA traffic :lol: . He must have got over it though, he made me the stoopidvisor for Sunday mornings so he could go to church and breakfast :lol: Sure put a damper on my Saturday night automotive activities :BangHead:
 
1975 Junior in HS. Day porter Dunkin Donuts 3-7 after school Mon.,Wed., and Thurs.. Friday and Saturday nights 11Pm to 7am. Frying donuts. Made around $2 hr. Took home around $40 bucks.
 
Dad owned a restaurant when I was a kid. In 1968 at 12 years old I was a dishwasher. Well, half a dishwasher. I was too small to keep up by myself so my brother (10 at the time) and I worked the job together, also splitting the pay of $1.25 an hour. So no, not minimum wage at my share of 62-1/2 cents. At 14 I was the cook and continued that as my job in various positions until I got out of college.

First job not working the restaurant was a dollar an hour cleaning the shop for my buddy's dad who had an excavation business. The pay sucked, but said buddy had a younger sister that was fun to be around.
 
Besides hay, we could also pick asparagus or strawberries for a couple farmers within walking distance of our houses. Usually $20-$25 a day, depending on how fast you wanted to work.
 
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