What was your first job and what did it pay?

[dxartist]

Since joining this forum in May of 05, I've had a chance to find out the professions of some of the forum members. There was a thread way back when of what we all did for a living. It was pretty diverse to say the least, from financial specialists, architechs, small business owners, and bankers to name few. However, we all had to start somewhere. Whether it's McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Carowinds, etc, etc., almost no one forgets his/her first job.

Since most of have much better paying jobs now, I'm curious to know:

1. What was your first job

2. The pay

3. The minumum wage at the time

My first job ever was pumping gas at a full-service station (Hocker Oil Company) in high school in the summer 1989 in Missouri. It was hot, the gas pumps had no canopy the block the sun, and the lines were long with impatient customers I was making a whopping $3.35 hour back then which was also the minimum wage. A great learning experience to say the least.

[Charlotteman]

My first job was at Lowe's Grocer on Sandy Ridge Road in Hickory. I was a 16 year old cashier, and the year was 1971. I made the minimum wage at the time: $1.60 an hour.

[Raintree21]

Around 1994 at Party City. I think I made something like $4.50 and the minimum wage was around $4.25.

[cltheel.sdl]

2003, reffing soccer for USSF doing anywhere from U-11s to U-18s. I was paid per game, which would range anywhere from $12 to $40.

My first wage job was in 2005 at Christ Lutheran Church here in Charlotte. I only worked there for 2 and a half weeks doing handyman jobs (painting, cutting hedges, ripping up carpet, etc.) and earned $7.50 an hour. I believe minimum wage was $5.15.

I found this chart on the internet for minimum wages since 1955. Looks like the best year to work was 1968, with $7.21/hr. in 1996 dollars.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

[JBGB]

I was 15 about to turn 16 and had to get a workers permit. My first job was the Chick-Fil-A at the Arboretum and got paid $4.15 an hour which was under minimum wage. After 6months with no raise I left and went to work at a chinese fast food place in Carolina Place Mall. They gave me a dollar more an hour and it was half the work. I ate chinese everyday for 3years which turned me cau-asian.

[monsoon]

Busting my ass in a tobacco field picking tobacco for $12/day. (at times this worked out to $1/hour) Got paid in cash however so it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I was 14 at the time.

[Charlotte_native]

Burger King across from Eastland Mall. $3-something an hour. Started in the kitchen, moved up to cashier! 16 years old at the time, mid-80's (my mullet looked fantastic in the BK headgear).

Worked there a month or so before taking a "better" job bussing tables and managing the salad bar at the now-gone Steak & Ale on Albemarle Rd.

[swampfox43]

Mine was Baskin-Robbins on South Blvd. in 1975. I was 15. I worked there for 2 months and was fired by the owner for not properly mopping the floor. I was making minimum wage but can't remember exactly what it was. $2.35/hr maybe.

[CLTNative]

My first was the Big Dipper Restaurant on Shamrock near the Eastway intersection. I used to run the kitchen alone during dinner because the owner would sleep in a booth in the dining room. I was making $5.15 (Minimum wage in 1997, I was 15) They still have footlong hot dogs and soft serve ice cream!

[cltheel.sdl]

When my grandpa was growing up (from when he was just a kid through his teens) in the late 1920s-1930s he picked cotton in Shelby (Cleveland County). The cotton-picking job was at it's best for him in the late 1930s when he was earning $10/month and was given room and board in a shack at the landowner's farm. In 1942 he joined the army for WWII. Lucky for him, or he still might be picking cotton today.

We have it so easy these days.

[voyager12]

My first job was at a dog kennel on Hilton Head Island where I grew up because my parents were friends with the owner back in 92 or 93 or something. I think it paid 5.75 which was the norm. It was fun but then I got fired for losing control of a Great Dane. He jumped the counter and took out the register and the computer. Funny how things come full circle...I am 29 now and am a pet sitter/dog taxi driver when I am not freelancing.

[Vitamin_N]

1990. Friendly's resturant in Newark, DE. Dishwasher. $4.25 / hour. Not a bad job, actually.

The best part was that the management there was lax, so we were often allowed to make for ourselves free ice cream sundaes. (If you've ever seen the ice cream menu at Friendly's, you can imagine how much fun that might be.) When I worked there the next summer, there was a strict new manager with a "no free food" policy, alas.

[New Name]

I worked for a place called Taylor Rentals on Cape Cod, Mass, who did party set-ups, tents and tables, and also lawn equipment and pretty much any kind of junk they could rent out to people. I was 13 and had to get a special work permit from the town hall. I guess this was in 1990 or '91 and the minimum rate was $4.95. I have no idea what I was paid. But we got to do party set-ups for the Kennedy Compound in Martha's Vineyard regularly. They also had me clean the vinyl party tents, which meant I would stretch them out on the lawn and mop them with water and bleach. I would lay them out, and then get down to a pair of shorts and slip and slide all over them. Now that I think about it, all that bleach was probably pretty bad for me... hmm, well I don't remember that job fondly anyway.

[rolltide35401]

My first job was in 1998 at a Fox's Pizza Den in Trussville, Alabama. Making a huge $5.50 an hour was a pretty good deal as minimum was only $5.15.

If you haven't been to one get a Wedgie sandwich...they rule

[Charlotteman]

Thanks for sharing folks! This is a fun thread.

Interesting as you read these posts you start to realize almost all of us have a special place in our hearts for our first job. I guess that rush of having your own money, and not having to ask your parents for it, is a lasting memory.

Funny, looking back on it now, my first job was perhaps the only job I ever had that I looked forward to going to work.

[Miesian Corners]

1984. DJ at WCRE (1420 on your AM dial with 1,000 watts of power!) in Cheraw, SC. I was paid $3.35 an hour. In addition to spinning vinyl adult contemporary hits in the afternoons after school, I got to show up every Sunday morning at 5 to power up the transmitter and run the sound board for Rev Jerry Hardison's live gospel/prayer fest. Now there's a good time!

[Raintree21]

Thanks for sharing folks! This is a fun thread.

Interesting as you read these posts you start to realize almost all of us have a special place in our hearts for our first job. I guess that rush of having your own money, and not having to ask your parents for it, is a lasting memory.

Funny, looking back on it now, my first job was perhaps the only job I ever had that I looked forward to going to work.

[cinco]

first job was a bus boy gig @ the bridge and rail restaurant in waxhaw. i was 14 (1989). i can't remember how much it paid, but it afforded me some sweet patent leather shows, baggy plaid pants and weekly visits to CLUB METRO on independence blvd.

funny... my friends mom would drop us off @ that club - wearing those shoes and pants with a solid color tee overtop a CURE t-shirt. i would dance in the club room, take off the solid tee - then go to the "alternative" room with the CURE shirt on.

it's always been about - working for the weekend.

[Nostyle]

1. Burger King

2. $4.25/hour

3. $4.25/hour

[Matthew.Brendan]

I held my first job at 18, doing web design for a Philadelphia bank in 1999. I was salaried at just under $30,000.

[ohioaninSC]

I was a lifeguard at my community swimming pool in Pepper Pike, OH. I was 16, and it paid $8/hr. Min wage was $4.25 I think as this was in 1995. I had that job for the summer, then I moved over to the local YMCA and lifeguarded there during the fall, winter and spring. They only paid $7/hr. I loved lifeguarding, b/c I got a hell of a great tan, made some nice money, and got to talk to a lot of cute girls .

[underoak]

1. An independent bookstore.

2. $2 an hour, plus all the books you could read, as long as you treated them very gently so they could be sold later.

3. Minimum wage was about $1.65 an hour.

I don't have to say what year it was; the money gives it away.

Thank goodness at least one person here is older -- I think Charlotteman has me beat.

[suburban george3]

My first job was cashier at Food Lion on Hanes Mall Blvd in Winston-Salem. I made $3.35, the minimum wage at the time in 1988.

[Jettanout]

Reviving and old thread...

Worked as a bag boy at Food Lion (Hwy 51 and Idlewild Rd.) for $5.15 an hr. I walked up there on my 16th birthday to get that job. Quit a few months later to work at Autobell where the big money was ($5.15 and all the tips you could pocket).

I sure don't miss washing cars in the snow, rain, sleet, lightning, heat and frigid weather. But you couldn't beat the money for a 16 year old.

[Bled_man]

Since this was brought back to the top of the page, I'll add my first job. I worked as a bus boy/diswasher/cook for Harwards Steak and Fish House in New London when I was 14. I made whatever was minimum wage at the time, either 4.25 or 4.75/hr. Only lasted a few months, but it was good to make some money.