Your first job, what and what pay?

[TriggerMan]

Reading the political threads and reading discussions of taxes and "when I was a boy", I thought we could lighten the mood and share what we were paid for our first job and what we did. Feel free to talk about that part time High School job but also the first real FT job you held.

My first job was in a family owned drugstore. I enyoyed it for several reasons.

1. Pretty girls to work with
2. My own cash to spend (parents didn't require me to pay any R&B at age 16-18)
3. Got to mix compound drugs under the direction of the Pharmacist
4. Got to drive occasional deliveries in their car. A nice chance to sit after standing anywhere from 2 to 10 hours.

Wages per hour? $1.05 to start. One free soda and small chips on breaks.

My first job after getting a degree, $8,800 annually as a State employee in the welfare department. Left after five years and went into insurance for 32 years until Reduction in Force in August 2010.

[Scoundrel]

My first job was an entrepreneurial business selling citrus flavored refreshment to thirsty travelers (lemonade stand). I suspect that the venture capitalist who subsidized us on our startup business (mom) lost money on this one.

My second job was a newspaper route. I don't remember how much was made on this. I didn't get to keep the money.

My first REAL job was, I think, McDonalds. I made whatever minimum wage was all of those years ago (late 80s, early 90s).

I did a string of fast food and sit-down restaurant jobs. But the first job that I consider worthwhile and career-building was telephone technical support for a company providing dial-up internet services back in 1997, for something like $8/hour. I clawed my way up from there, one step at a time, with each job paying better and being higher on the technology professional food chain.

These days, I'm back to the single-owner limited liability corporation as a computer network consultant, and I'm making a lot more money than any high school dropout has justification for.

[LaP]

Not counting mowing lawns and shoveling snow from driveways, my first real job was working as a cleanup guy at a family resort facility. At 13 yr old, I had to clean up the snack area, help maintain the pool, run errands, direct the parking area, and any other odd job that needed cheap labor.
I can't remember the pay, but I certainly remember the benefits....Lots of pretty girls in bathing suits.
Come to think of it, I don't even remember if I did get paid in cash.

[Barth]

Fry Cook at KFC - $1.65 per hour

[TriggerMan]

Scoundrel

You reminded me of a forgotten paper route I hated. For a year or so, I delivered a rag called the Redford Record. It came out only on Thursdays and was mercifully thin. I hated collecting and learned what idiots some people are.

Junior year, for the Summer break, I was also a janitor at the Chevy Engineering center. Got full UAW wages and learned I washed walls to quickly...not to mention I learned I wanted to do something else for the next 45 years. $3.45 / hour. I covered for guys on vacation and did a two week stint cleaning offices and bathrooms.

[Scoundrel]

Scoundrel
You reminded me of a forgotten paper route I hated. For a year or so, I delivered a rag called the Redford Record. It came out only on Thursdays and was mercifully thin. I hated collecting and learned what idiots some people are.

Yeah, collecting sucked. I also hated the advertising inserts.

[Antriess]

My first job was washing dishes at a restaurant for I think $5/hour. I didn't realize at the time how awesome this was, but I was paid under the table.

[EZ Land]

Started at the age of 12 working on a large farm
In the TX panhandle; drove large tractors and moved irrigation pipe, and other farm work as directed. I did this every summer through my high school graduation. My wage was $4.00/hr.

Went to college on a baseball scholarship, but worked one summer on a golf course, and then as a roustabout in the oilfield $7 or $8 an hr). That was some of the hardest and dirtiest work I've ever done. But it was fun as a 19 yr old working in the oil patch. Learned to drink plenty of beer. It was a great incentive to stay in college!

[muggsy]

My first job was stocking shelves at a Mom & Pop grocery store for $.50 per hour. Big money for a 12 year old. Two hours a day after school and 4 hours on Saturday. Gas was $.21 a gallon back then.

[jdlott74]

1st job was working after school in my high schools office. Can not remember the pay. 1ST Full time job was doing data entry for a company that did billing for emergency rooms.

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[Cokeman]

I made $3.35 working at a nursery in CA. I picked up trash that the illegal workers threw on the ground and pulled weeds out of the rock hard ground when the trash was all cleaned up. I did that long enough to finance a guitar.

[Husky44]

First job was working on an alfalfa hay farm every summer through high school. Averaged 1000 bales a day, every day, all summer long. If we didn't have bales to pick up from the field, we were delivering out of the barn to horse farms. $.03/bale. Bales averaged 90# each. 100 degree weather, 90+% humidity. Then you went into the lofts, were it easy reached 140+. Worked there for 3 summers. The last summer we got a raise to $.04/bale. Hardest physical labor I ever worked, and after about the first week, I loved the job. That first week almost killed me.

Next job was working in the kennel for a vet. Made $2.50 an hour. Never had to deal with a single customer. Got paid to clean up poop. Beat working at McDonalds, in my book.

Next job was wearing green clothes, and getting paid to go to the range and camp a lot. Did that job for 23 years.

My fourth job is working for an oil company. Been doing that for 5. That's it--4 jobs in 30 years.

[cgpeanut]

I was fixing Commodore 64, 128 and Amiga computers got paid 20 bucks per, I remember there where good days and not so good days

[guido4198]

I got my first real job during the Summer between my Junior and Senior years of High School. I was able to spend that Summer, and several after it working in a Meat Packing plant in Cincinnati, OH. I spent a LOT of time scrubbing dried blood and maggots out of the plastic "lugs" we used to ship boneless beef. Coupla times a day, the boss would call me inside to work in the cooler, carrying quarters of beef off refrigerated trailers.
Pay that first Summer was $1.65 per hour, and I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world. I was making the same pay as the other unskilled, inexperienced "laborers" in the plant. I STILL think I was the luckiest kid in the world to have had that opportunity.

[crazymailman]

My first job was working for my dad at his gas station, but don't remember the pay. My first full time job was detailing cars at a local dealership, minimum wage $3.35/hr. I think my first 40hr ck was something like $110.