First time I worked and got paid, I helped a neighbor, pulling 1st primings for 6 hrs.
I made $2
I made $2
Minimum Wage!
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Blackwater
Twelve Pointer
While working the farm we didn't get paid, just clothed and fed. Once I was driving and dating I might get $5.00 to tide me over for the weekend. After a couple of stops at the E&R Drivein in LBT and a couple of packs of smokes that stipend was history. If working for someone else it was $4.00 dollars a day working in tobacco, same for cotton, $4.00 per hundred pounds. First commercial job was after graduating HS and working at a Burlington worsted plant in Raeford for $1.15 per hour. After two weeks of that mind numbing job I called the Air Force recruiter and told him I was ready to go.
I was under-age and paid 'under the table' at $3/hr to flip burgers, run the deep-fryer, take out the trash, and mop floors at a family restaurant right down the street from our neighborhood south of Atlanta.
It was convenient and paid for my fishing and hunting, as well as gas for the car and an occasional beer or two as I got older...
It was convenient and paid for my fishing and hunting, as well as gas for the car and an occasional beer or two as I got older...
Working in tobacco. Worked for whatever my uncle thought I was worth. Don't know what that worked out to be per hour. Mowed lawns for $5/lawn...with a push mower.
My first "real" job was working at a movie theatre back in 1980. Sub-minimum wage...2.65/hr. Eventually got a dollar /hr. raise after several years.
My first "real" job was working at a movie theatre back in 1980. Sub-minimum wage...2.65/hr. Eventually got a dollar /hr. raise after several years.
Heck fellows,, didn’t know we were counting family place chores- thought that type of unpaid labor was a given! Had to earn your keep somehow
I think it was 2 bucks an hour around the jobsite when I was about 13. I did that about 3 days a week. My "second job" at the same time was digging clams - I think I was selling them for 3.33 cents each - they have to be at least and inch thick.
I find it somewhat surprising how many of us here worked farms as a beginning. It also seems a bit telling that our membership that were subjected to the "honest days work" syndrome, are the same ones that vehemently support our constitutional rights. Sure, others claim to, but are willing to give up bits and pieces on the "it's for the( )" .........insert any of several reasons....
At age 12, I started priming tobacco for $2.00 an hour.
Was a great time in my life. 12-14 driving farm tucks around and the tractors. Fighting over who got to run brush hog. Lol
Weren't getting rich, but it was rewarding. Made drivers Ed a breeze time I was 16.
Use to test ourselves who could stay in the pen longest with Ram sheep. He was a mean SOB, haha
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dlbaile
Ten Pointer
Working in Chicken houses getting up eggs and cleaning out the houses, can't even remember how much i was paid ,best perk to the job was the farmer had a couple nice ponds on the property , and with those houses plenty of bait to be found
witler
Eight Pointer
Priming tobacco for .75 p/h, later bagging groceries at A&P for 1.25 p/h. Looking back, all was good.
thelivecanary
Eight Pointer
Picking rocks for about a dollar an hour, selling pumpkins at my family Halloween Hayride and I'd also sweep the parking lot for cans and make $0.10 per can up in MI. I was industrious and very wealthy at ten.
NCST8GUY
Frozen H20 Guy
3.35 per hour was minimum age when I was legal to work. Ended up getting a job as a waiter at a retirement community with some of the hottest chics in my high school making $7.50 per hour. All my friends were jealous 
. Gave every check to my mom and she would put it into an account and give me a $20 for the weekends. Ended up saving enough to buy my first car (a 67 mustang) when I was 15 years old, before I even had a license. Valuable lesson she taught me.
. Gave every check to my mom and she would put it into an account and give me a $20 for the weekends. Ended up saving enough to buy my first car (a 67 mustang) when I was 15 years old, before I even had a license. Valuable lesson she taught me.bryguy
Old Mossy Horns
Mine was picking cucumbers. Think I was like 7 or 8. Never saw a dime of my check, dad kept it and put it in a bank for me. When I turned 16 and wanted a car, he told me what I had, and that was my budget. I didn’t have enough for what I wanted so I waited another year and worked picking cukes and barring tobacco for like $5 an hour.....had enough stashed away to pay cash for my first new car.....
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CRC
Old Mossy Horns
About 5 an hour I think
spittinfire
Six Pointer
My first job was at the age of 12 and I made $4.25/hour making pizzas. It was a good gig and I worked there for several years.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
first paid job was at tobacco warehouse in mullins, sc......$2.17/hr
Southern
Ten Pointer
ripping out carpet in my Dad's rental houses. I got to live.
Another tobacco job here. $3.25 an hour though it was mostly about helping relatives, friends and neighbors so they would help us when we put in a barn. When evaluating the cost, and value, of things I want to buy today I still convert it to "How many hours in a tobacco field would it take to pay for it?" Makes it easy to walk away from a purchase sometimes!
After the2nd grade, started helping daddy frame houses. I ran the saw and toted a lot of lumber. Fat boy didn’t do good on the roof. He never took taxes out on me. His accountant told him not to worry about it. My first tax paying job was making pizzas for about $4 an hour.
Homebrewale
Old Mossy Horns
Around age 12, I was delivering newspapers. At 16, I was a lifeguard.
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georgeeebuck
Ten Pointer
Summer 1965 $ 1.25 per hour push mowing at the golf course. Move up to tractor mowing same pay. When school started in the fall went to work at the new mcdonal's $1.20 per hour . Worked 40 plus hours every week while in high school and other part time work during the summers. Good times.
Greg
Old Mossy Horns
I think I started at about $2.70/hr late in high school delivering auto parts, cutting brake drums and rotors, counter man, and stocking shelves. Ended at about $3.50/hr at the end of college working at an auto repair garage / filling station. About doubled that at my first 'real' job. LOL
Of course, I did A LOT of mowing lawns, landscape / construction type work earlier on in my life, and PLENTY of chores around the folks house for nothing or next to nothing. Heck … they fed me.
Of course, I did A LOT of mowing lawns, landscape / construction type work earlier on in my life, and PLENTY of chores around the folks house for nothing or next to nothing. Heck … they fed me.
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The first job was on granddady's shrimp boat. $6 a week, work the whole summer and you had enough for school clothes. The first taxable job I had was grading blue crabs from 3-11PM and stacking the culls 5 high in the ice room for steaming and picking the next day. Paid $1.65 an hour and I bought my first car with it...wasn't bad money at the time.
Buffet Trout
Twelve Pointer
Washing cars for $1...I brought bucket, rag, soap to your house...you supplied hose and water
Dang,,,I had blocked all the rock picking! Folks wonder where those rock fences come from up north,,,,,,,
NCST8GUY
Frozen H20 Guy
Any chance you're still interested? I'll pay 20X!!!
wl704
Ten Pointer
Paper carrier $. 03 per daily paper (~. 21 on Sunday!)
Picking drop apples off the ground. 24 cents per Bushel piece wage.
First restaurant job i think was $2.25/hr.
Picking drop apples off the ground. 24 cents per Bushel piece wage.
First restaurant job i think was $2.25/hr.
you sure obsess about money good Sir,,,,you start many a thread on earnings or what folks pay out,,,
BarSinister
Old Mossy Horns
My 1st official job was in 76 @ 12 YO. Me and my buddy went to an auto body/salvage yard and asked if they needed help. They offered us $ 1 per hour to pull weeds and clean debris out of the lanes of junk cars. I remember finding a car with a good battery and putting it in another so we could listen to the radio, lol. I also remember we started about 2 weeks before the start of the school year and decided we would leave our homes like we were going to school and go work there instead. 4 days in our parents got a call from the school. Unemployment and a tanned backside were to follow.