Aw, what the heck, I’m back.
My first job was being a masonry assistant (I was 15). I got paid five bucks an hour.
My on the job tasks were:
*Loading/Unloading equipment
*Mixing Cement
*going to get materials.
*laying brick
*moving/hauling brick
So what was your first job?
My first job was at the age of 13 or 14. I was a boxboy in my dad’s grocery store. Now days they call them “courtesy clerks” if you happen into a store that even HAS them. I think I made something like $1.25 per hour. Really big wages, but that was in the early 60’s.
My first real job was at 14.
I worked as a sales clerk in my step-moms exercise wear store called “Dance Pants”.
I don’t remember how much money I made but I liked putting out the new arrivals on the racks and got a lot of free stuff since I was in dance classes and my parents owned the store.
It was in a failing mall though even though Jazzercise was in there. But we had a Woolrich outlet, a pre-Ross type store (discount department store goods), a makeup outlet and a few other small stores along with an Orange Juilus (sp) yummy. I hate retail jobs but this one wasn’t so bad.
I was a clerk in a hardware store. Started when I was 14, and, a few month later, almost got the store in trouble 'cause the state found out I was working until close (9:00), and 14-year-olds could only work until 7:00. It was an honest mistake, though, and nothing came of it except I was restricted to working Saturdays for a month until my birthday.
I only got 85% of minimum wage, which was legal because I was underage. It was actually a pretty cool job because I learned all about hardware, and the correct names to call things, and the existance of some pretty obscure pieces and parts. Plus it was a proper hardware store. It was kinda fun seeing someone’s face light up when I could dredge up the perfect gizmo to do whatever job they had in mind.
My first, second, and third jobs were as waitresses, and I was a damn good one. To this day, I have great sympathy for wait-people and I’m a great tipper. Of course, on the other hand, I have zero tolerance for crappy or surly wait-people. I was pleasant to you when I was standing there with the little apron and the name tag, and I expect you to be pleasant to me.
My first job was at my father’s store – cashier and clerk (which actually took some skill, since the store had a wide variety of stock – from toys, to bait, to records, to housewares – and wasn’t in any apparent organization). I started doing it when I was 14.
My first job outside of the store was as a medical assitant (I was 18). I did EKGs and drew blood.
I was a file clerk in the medical records department of a hospital. I think I was about 15 or 16. Made about 5 dollars an hour. I hated the job–it was boring as hell and I was surrounded by a bunch of old ladies.
my first job (other than mowing yards) was pulling hay bails of of the conveyor and throwing them to the guy in the back of the loft.
I was 13 years old and got paid 5 bucks an hour.
the next two days were the sorest of my life.
1st job: fast food place, $1.65 per hour - it closed when the owner owed $$ to both the Mafia and the IRS (not sure which was worse)
more boring is that exactly the 3rd place I recieved paychecks from, back in 1977, I’m still there - though I run the place now…
Milking cows.
The hours are lousy, it’s exhausting and often disgusting - but hey, you get to walk in manure up to your knees!
I was a tutor at school, for the rather unbelievable sum of $15/hr. in high school. That was really occasional, though. My real first job was waitressing at a local Italian restaurant when I was a senior in HS.
It was a small restaurant with five booths, four tables, and a counter. It was under new ownership and the owners were in the process of moving from a diner-that-happens-to-serve-spaghetti-and-pizza to a more straightforwardly Italian menu.
I had to seat customers, distribute menus, talk about the specials, take the orders, fix the drinks, fix the salads, take them to the table, put the entree orders in, take those to the table, write up the tickets, work the cash register, make change and bus the tables. Before opening and after closing I had to tear up all the lettuce and chop the salad veggies, make the salad dressing, wash dishes, wipe counters, clean soda machines, etc.
Typically it was just me on a shift, although later they hired a second waitress, and later still, a busboy.
All for $2 an hour plus tips, and all under the table! 
Now when I go out and get good service I tip like a madman.
Last summer at the age of 18, and freshly graduated from high school, I stumbled across a job at the used/new bookstore in town. Now, the Book Nook is by no means a Barnes and Noble’s, but it is much more pleasant and friendly. In a small town, they have what seems like 5 million used books, and can order pretty much anything new you were looking for; they also have used CDs and videos for sale. For the standard starting salary, I shelved books, sorted magazines, organized videos and CDs; after the other employee took an extended leave for a death in her family, I was also responsible for cataloguing things, and finally (joy of joys!) running the register…erm, actually, the adding machines and the cash drawer. It was a wonderful job, and spoiled me rotten. I still go by and say hello to the owners every time I go back to the town to visit, and wish that I could work there this summer…sigh Oh well. Anyhoo, that’s my story.
McDonald’s, 1970, $1.45 an hour.
My first job was for my grandfather in his strawberry patches, when I was 11. I was in charge of irrigation, walking down the rows, for each row knocking the bung out of the wooden trough that carried the water and hammering it back in again after enough water had come out. Great job for an 11-year old: your main tool was a big mallet, and you were expected to get muddy.
My second job was also for my grandfather, and it was the first (and only) one I was fired from. This time I was 12 and it was in his apricot orchards. I picked, and also pushed the flats of cut 'cots into the sulfur shed. After getting treated in the sulfur shed the flats, which were pretty large, were put out on the ground for the drying process. There was a little track from the cutting shed to the sulfur shed, and each flat of newly cut cots was put on a little car to be rolled down the track. I was pushing one when I tripped over one of the railroad ties and bellyflopped across two flats in the drying area, spraying mushed apricots everywhere, right under the gaze of my grandfather. Fired on the spot.
My first job must have been around 12 or 13… My sisters boyfriend would take me to the Racetracks every Saturday, where his parents owned the concession stands. I worked in the stands making hot dogs for $20/night. (I don’t know how much per hour).
My first “real” job, was working for a company called Jest For Fun as a “childrens entertainer.” OK… i was a Clown! Mainly I made balloon animals, but did some other basic magic/juggling type of things, too. No magic for adults, I can’t do anything really cool, and I can only juggle 3 balls, but little kids were amazed.
That was a whopping 50% of whatever they paid the company.
Screeme
I was 15 or 16, and I worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant.
No – I was the dishwasher; they didn’t have a machine (probably a violation of health codes). Just my two hands, some sinks and an enormous pile of dishes.
My first night on the job, eventually I asked the smartassed slacker cooks if I could take a break. They looked at the pile of dishes, then at me, then said, “Sure,” cracking themselves up. The implication being, Take as long a break as you want, but before you leave tonight, you’re doing every dish.
Went from there to McDonald’s, which was cool at the time because many of my friends worked there.
I heard somewhere that something like 10 percent of the U.S. population has worked at McDonald’s. Can that possibly be true?
My first job was making the graphics for a corporate website. It was a one project thing I did during my spring break, and I got $7/hour.
I recently started a new job, one I hope will last much longer. I’m doing construction type stuff. The current project I’m doing is removing old rotting boards from the roof of an old warehouse near LAX, and replacing them with good, solid boards. I’m getting $9/hour.
My first job was at the tender age of 14 collating the Sunday editions of the Chicago Tribune in some massive, cinderblock, windowless warehouse looking structure. You know how in the Sunday paper, you have all those little sections like Home, Fashion, Auto, Travel, etc? Well, it was my job to take all the Home sections and tuck them into the Travel sections and tuck both of those into the LocalNews section and so forth. We weren’t paid per hour, we instead got piecemeal pay. For every bundle of 100 Home sections we stuffed, we got 60¢ for example. In a good hour, with high paying sections, we could maybe make $2.00 an hour. The hours went something as follows:
Friday: start at 4:30pm and work until 12:30am
Saturday: 8:00am until 2:00pm
Sunday: 3:00am until 5:00am where we filled everything into the latest editions of the main section.
My guess is that the place had to be violating some sort of child labor laws, but almost all of us were under 16. In the defense of the Tribune, I’m pretty sure the place was contracted to do the work and not owned by the Tribune itself.
I was 15, and bussed/waited tables in a “family” restaurant. After 2 months, the place was sold and the new owner fired everyone, and subsquently went under in about 6 months
–tygre
I believe I was nine years old when I started delivering 1000 Zellers flyers, every Monday.