What year did you get your first job, what did you do, and how much did you earn?

[JohnT]

Two answers:

1. My grandparents started me working around the age of 4, $.25/hour to help them clean their rental homes. I could pull weeds, help my grandmother sweep (dust pan duty), etc. And no complaining!

Do not think working for family, even as a child, was easy. 10 hour days, 5 days a week:

@JohnT

At 10 years of age, I was almost certainly the most experienced American installer of coaxial cable in my age group. In early 1977 the decision was made to pre-wire every new mobile home with the latest technology, a coaxial cable for cable television, and to wire every existent mobile home so they can subscribe to cable as well. The equipment came in early June, and with over 60 lots sold and installed, and more coming in weekly, it was quickly found that the very thin 10-year-old was the perfect size to slide underneath a mobile home (about 1.5 feet of space between the home and the ground…

And then, when the seawall was being replaced when I was 12, it was even harder:

@JohnT

My job was to descend into the pit , guide the anchor into place, insert the galvanized beams, sliding them to the back, guide the wall frame into place, pull the beams forward into the wall frame, centering them properly, and then… while still in the hole … had to wait while the concrete was being poured 4 feet above my head and 6 inches in the side, my grandfather and the rando holding the chute. If the rods started sliding because of the vibration, I was to shove them back in. When done, I climbed out of the pit, my brother got into the next one, and randos 2 & 3 started filling in the rod pit with sand, close to the top of the frames.

150+ times, 75 each, my brother and I did this over 5 weeks. Noseeums biting, the heat and humidity so bad that at times I would see everything encased in a purple haze, the discipline it took to stay in the pit to get the job done is well beyond what I would do today, to be honest.

2. My first W2 job was when I was 13, maybe 14. Whatever the minimum wage was in 1980 was what I was paid.

It was in an ice cream shop and was the easiest job I could have imagined.