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.:cool:

[Barth]

http://www.thecouponess.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/chicken.jpghttp://www.seriouseats.com/images/20080918-video-kfc.jpg

[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.

[ripley16]

My first job, when I was in the 10th grade, was as a dishwasher for a small diner near my home. I worked weekends and holidays. I also worked monday after school when the diner was closed and I would mop the floor and clean the butcher block. I made $1 per hour, cash, off the books. It took a few months but I was able to save enough for my first pistol, a beautiful Colt Woodsman Match Target for $75. Crappy job, but a great gun.

[ponycarman]

My first real job was when I was 15 I think. I was home schooled so I could work somewhat more than other teens. I worked for a small company called fastlane graphics. I think there was about 3-4 employees total including me and the owner. We made signs and graphics for just about anything. Signs, banners, vans, realestate signs, magnet signs, 18 wheeler trucks and trailers, and every now and then we did a race car. I think it was the best job I could have started out with. Pretty much made stickers all day and put them on. I got payed minimum wage which was 5.25 at the time I think.

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[QuercusMax]

In my first real job (i.e. with W-2 wages) I worked for the USDA as a GS-5 surveyor and materials inspector on flood control construction projects during summers in college. A few highlights:

* I got to drive around in an old olive-drab full-size Ford with "US Government - For Official Use Only" emblems on the doors. It was amazing how many people thought it was a cop car and suddenly slammed on their brakes, especially Canadians. I also eventually did determine the maximum velocity of that car.

* As a teenager, it was cool having the grizzled old construction foremen suck up to me because the tests I ran on their concrete mixes might cause them a lot of extra work and $$$ if things didn't turn out right. I have never worked with sailors, but it would be hard to imagine they are any better at colorful language than construction bosses!

* The main highlight: I often had to perform "slump tests" on concrete mixtures before they were poured, to test the amount of water in the mixture (which varied). To do the test I would take a bucket of wet concrete from each incoming truck, take out some for testing, and discard the rest. One day the incoming concrete was running fairly stiff (dry), so I started dumping each bucket on top of the previous one, which soon formed a neat column several feet tall. By luck, the next truck contained a much wetter mixture. When I dumped that bucket load on top of the previous ones, instead of adding to the stiff column, it slumped into a shape like a Hershey's Kiss. I will leave it to your imagination as to what the resulting 4-foot tall concrete result looked like, but the whole thing soon hardened into an obscene monument for all to see. They eventually had to knock it down with a front-end loader. :D

[jlottmc]

Wow, my first real job aside from keeping the ole' man from killing us all was to run his business (machine shop, construction and other odd jobs like gun smithing). First one the IRS knows about was Wendy's and I did about everything they could do, all for minimum wage of $5 per hour (remember this was in 95).

[MLESa7990]

Delivery driver for local Pizza restaurant during high school from 2004-2006

Made $6 an hour plus tips...which would equal out to anywhere between $10-$15 an hour.

[Rodenmg]

Cleaning my room. 25 cents a week. :(

[Frankhenrylee]

Ahh, the good ole days. My first job was at Little Ceasers Pizza, early 90's, I think $4.25 an hour. I rode my bike to work in the rain, sleet and snow, and it was uphill both ways. Couldn't even afford a tire, the bike just had one, so I had to ride a wheelie all the way there, while beating down packs of angry dogs with a stick I had to steal from a neighbor cause we couldn't even afford sticks.

[JFootin]

Ahh, the good ole days. My first job was at Little Ceasers Pizza, early 90's, I think $4.25 an hour. I rode my bike to work in the rain, sleet and snow, and it was uphill both ways. Couldn't even afford a tire, the bike just had one, so I had to ride a wheelie all the way there, while beating down packs of angry dogs with a stick I had to steal from a neighbor cause we couldn't even afford sticks.

http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee486/John_England/Misc/laugh.gif

[Tinman507]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_40wwNlUt57k/SNczi6IFKtI/AAAAAAAAADg/IQpulye5-PQ/s320/six_miles_walking_to_school.jpg

[melissa5]

My first job was in high school and was helping my Mom clean our church. I don't remember what the pay was.

My first job after high school was as a cashier in a discount store. I think minimum wage was around $3.25 -3.75 then.

I can't count the number of jobs I've had over the years, but I can can count the jobs I've really enjoyed on one hand.

[OldLincoln]

My first Social Security paying job was pumping gas for .25 per hour. Of course that included checking water and oil, inspecting fan belts, checking tire pressure, washing windshields, collecting money and returning change, and a very "happy to see you" attitude filled with sirs and mams. It was a full time summer job and I was 12 years old. I was very proud of that job and worked as hard as I could.

[Bawanna]

Other than substituting on a paper route my first job was at a gas station. Pumping gas, fixing tires, oil changes, cleaning the place up.
Did that thru High School. Started @ 1.65 cents an hour. After 3 years he liked me so well I got a raise to 1.90. All shortages in the till were taken out of my check since the owner and his kid didn't make mistakes. Didn't know it was against the law to do that at the time.

After that I tried making it as a Gigilo, didn't pan out so got into building fence as a part time fill in. Didn't miss hardly a day for 13 years.

I see my brother Old Lincoln was in the same trade. We also did the full serve thing. I actually enjoyed that part of it. The boss treating me like Cinderella, not so much.

[Dirt doc]

My first job was working on my Uncle's farm. I was driving a tractor long before I had a drivers permit. I don't remember the complete pay scale but I got a penny a bale when mowing hay and 75 cents/hour walking beans. My first full time job was a gunners mate on a tin can. First job out of college was a sales Agronmist at a local elavator.

[Cokeman]

In my first real job (i.e. with W-2 wages) I worked for the USDA as a GS-5 surveyor and materials inspector on flood control construction projects during summers in college. A few highlights:

* I got to drive around in an old olive-drab full-size Ford with "US Government - For Official Use Only" emblems on the doors. It was amazing how many people thought it was a cop car and suddenly slammed on their brakes, especially Canadians. I also eventually did determine the maximum velocity of that car.

* As a teenager, it was cool having the grizzled old construction foremen suck up to me because the tests I ran on their concrete mixes might cause them a lot of extra work and $$$ if things didn't turn out right. I have never worked with sailors, but it would be hard to imagine they are any better at colorful language than construction bosses!

* The main highlight: I often had to perform "slump tests" on concrete mixtures before they were poured, to test the amount of water in the mixture (which varied). To do the test I would take a bucket of wet concrete from each incoming truck, take out some for testing, and discard the rest. One day the incoming concrete was running fairly stiff (dry), so I started dumping each bucket on top of the previous one, which soon formed a neat column several feet tall. By luck, the next truck contained a much wetter mixture. When I dumped that bucket load on top of the previous ones, instead of adding to the stiff column, it slumped into a shape like a Hershey's Kiss. I will leave it to your imagination as to what the resulting 4-foot tall concrete result looked like, but the whole thing soon hardened into an obscene monument for all to see. They eventually had to knock it down with a front-end loader. :D

Awesome!

[JohnR]

After graduating from college with a Master's degree in '89, my dad told me if I got offered $8 an hour to be an intern architect I was lucky. There was a recession going on, but I asked for and got offered $10 an hour. Unfortunately the guy who offered it stopped paying it due to personal (marriage) problems so I quit.

[Popeye]

You mean we were supposed to get paid? They told me it was a priviledge to work there.:001_huh:

[O'Dell]

My first job was at age eleven carrying papers after school. This was in 1955 and I had one hundred customers. The cost of the weekly delivery was 40 cents of which I made 11 cents profit or 11 dollars a week. I missed all my family's vacations for two years because I had to stay home and take care of the route. I went on to a job in a service station when I went to high school at 50 cents an hour. Since that paper route I have had at least one job continually for 57 years.

[TriggerMan]

I shouldn't be suprised, but I was a little, by so many of you starting so young and doing such physical work. It also seems to be a generational thing. You older guys kicked some ass. You didn't get paid much but you developed a work ethic many of our under 25 set has yet to learn.

[yqtszhj]

$2.30 an hr. washing dishes, 8 hours a day.

$120 every 2 weeks take home and I could still burn through it all in one weekend.

[HDoc]

Camp counselor at Camp Curtis S. Reed, Boy Scouts of America, near
Sarenac Lake North of Lake George, NY. $125 for the whole summer.
Probably came to about .15/hour. But I had a bolt action Savage .22lr rifle with my name on it and unlimited ammo at the range!

[Scoundrel]

Camp counselor at Camp Curtis S. Reed, Boy Scouts of America, near
Sarenac Lake North of Lake George, NY. $125 for the whole summer.
Probably came to about .15/hour. But I had a bolt action Savage .22lr rifle with my name on it and unlimited ammo at the range!

That's a hell of a perk!

[Ol'coot]

First real job when I was 15 was working weekends cleaning up floors at the local optometry lab (The General Manager was a family friend) where they ground the lens for prescription eyeglasses. It took the biggest part of both days to fully clean the office and shop area a good 14 to 16 hours of hard work sweeping first, then vacuuming to get up the remaining glass grinding dust then mopping the floor with strong cleaners to get up the dye spilled from the tinting process. And I was paid $50.00 cash a lot of money for a kid in 1969 so I worked my A$$ off to keep the job and keep them happy.

[Tinman507]

Camp counselor at Camp Curtis S. Reed, Boy Scouts of America, near
Sarenac Lake North of Lake George, NY. $125 for the whole summer.
Probably came to about .15/hour. But I had a bolt action Savage .22lr rifle with my name on it and unlimited ammo at the range!

It's about $3500/summer now and still comes to about .15/hour. Lotta hours in those 8 weeks.

[Ubaldo99]

Hey Trigger-Man, my wife is from Trenton, MI, just downstate from you. She says to say "hi". Anyway, I grew-up on a dirt farm in north Texas and so my first job was unpaid slave doing all kinds of grunt work around the farm. My first "real" (i.e. paying) job was working on the loading dock of a small truck refrigeration plant about 25 miles north of Dallas. So what did I do? All the dirty work from unloading deliveries to loading outgoing shipments to cleaning the restrooms, mopping floors, etc. What did it pay? $1.25/hour. Ah, those were the days! :D

[ltxi]

Skipping the paper route, caddie, etc. thing, my first Social Security paying job..thanks for that phrase Old Lincoln!...was after school selling shoes in a local store during my last year/year and a half of high school.

Needing a full time job after graduation, I hired on with our small town as a cop for $60/week. Kept my "motorized" rural paper route for awhile, too, for the extra money.

[Cokeman]

Skipping the paper route, caddie, etc. thing, my first Social Security paying job..thanks for that phrase Old Lincoln!...was after school selling shoes in a local store during my last year/year and a half of high school.

Needing a full time job after graduation, I hired on with our small town as a cop for $60/week. Kept my "motorized" rural paper route for awhile, too, for the extra money.

Al Bundy, is that you?

http://guyism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Al-Bundy-Shoes.png

[ltxi]

Nope, I was was skinnier, had better hair, and my knees were more knobby.

But Al had it right in that shot. LE paid 50 cents more an hour, not counting unpaid overtime, you didn't have to deal politely with plus size women insisting their shoe size was 1/2 to a full size smaller than it was, and the department was issuing almost new Model 10 Smiths.

[Jeremiah/Az]

First job was a stock boy & floor sweeper in a hardware store for the crabbiest man I ever knew, 50 cents an hour. I had a paper route of 200 customers delivered on a bicycle before school too. Collecting was a b!tch! After college, I became an electrical lineman apprentice, $1.46 1/2 an hour, became a journeyman lineman. It was 1956.

[1radman]

'75-'77 my last 2 years of high school I dug holes and put up for sale signs for the local real estate company my mom worked for...$10 per sign I thought was good money. After that I worked every job known in the restaurant business. Bartending in my 20s was the best!

[JFootin]

Skipping the paper route, caddie, etc. thing, my first Social Security paying job..thanks for that phrase Old Lincoln!...was after school selling shoes in a local store during my last year/year and a half of high school.

Glad you didn't turn into Al Bundy! :behindsofa:

[Husky44]

Somebody mentioned the paycheck amount. For some reason, I remember my MONTHLY base pay when I joined the Army in 1983: $495, before taxes. Got paid an extra $82 per month (I think that was the right amount) for jumping out of airplanes. Would have done it for free, but back then, jump pay was a significant bump over base pay.

[LaP]

After reading all the accounts of us working while 9, 10, 11 years old, It reminds me of why I will ALWAYS pay the kid down the block to shovel my driveway.
This kid comes out every single time it snows and walks door to door with a shovel (and he's always covered in layers of snow and sweat). He rings your doorbell and asks if you want your driveway & walkway shoveled. He says to pay him whatever is fair to you!!!! (That's a confident kid.)
I've never given him less than twenty bucks. I want to encourage that type of entrepreneurship in this young kid. If I were hiring for a company, this is the type of person I want working for me.

[Tinman507]

Agreed. A rare occurance to see a kid hustling these days. Most of them are too wrapped up in resume building (sports, band, clubs, etc) to learn how to make a buck.

Hell, I have kids in my scout troop who earn Eagle and have never held a job of any kind.

[Bronco302]

Clean up boy for a brick mason crew at 16. Payed under the table $3.00 an hour, been a construction worker ever since. Fifty-five now Third generation Pipe-fitter and Plumber.

Joe W.

[Bawanna]

Agreed. A rare occurance to see a kid hustling these days. Most of them are too wrapped up in resume building (sports, band, clubs, etc) to learn how to make a buck.

Hell, I have kids in my scout troop who earn Eagle and have never held a job of any kind.

That's an issue I had back in my scouting days. We'd get kids in that went fast track and make Eagle in a couple 3 years. Parents pushing for performance but the kid misses out on alot of whats learned by not doing the hikes and camp outs and the miserable soaking wet nights, and blistered feet. Maybe they were the smart ones after all.
I made Eagle but it took me several years. Was in Order of the Arrow (that was a fun initiation) Went on 3 50 mile hikes and countless weekend trips etc. Looking back it was good times, at the time there were some pretty miserable moments.

[Tinman507]

I didn't make Eagle and regret it to this day. Made it one of my missions to enable as many kids as I could to make it. Been doing the adult leader thing for coming on 20 years now. There's a huge difference between enabling or supporting and shoving a kid through the program.

I like to think the kids I've mentored (my son included) gained as much from the experiences as they did from the advancement. Parents today are so damned goal oriented, they just want their kids signed off, and get the rank.

We lament the kids who end up being "paper eagles" but it's the society we live in. It's all about the college resume for many parents.

Ok, Rant off, sorry to the OP for the hijack but thank you for letting me vent a little.

[Armybrat]

!962-1966, as a high school & college student I worked part time in the local public library. Started at .68 cents/hr, ended up making $1.55/hr after 4 1/2 years.

First full time job was as a high school teacher - started at $5,044/year in 1967.

[O'Dell]

That's an issue I had back in my scouting days. We'd get kids in that went fast track and make Eagle in a couple 3 years. Parents pushing for performance but the kid misses out on alot of whats learned by not doing the hikes and camp outs and the miserable soaking wet nights, and blistered feet. Maybe they were the smart ones after all.
I made Eagle but it took me several years. Was in Order of the Arrow (that was a fun initiation) Went on 3 50 mile hikes and countless weekend trips etc. Looking back it was good times, at the time there were some pretty miserable moments.

I made Eagle and also Gold in the Explorers, but I don't remember missing out on anything. I too, was in "Order of the Arrow". I was looking through a drawer a few months ago and came across my old red, white and blue Eagle neckerchief with the leather eagle on the back.

[dkmatthews]

My first part-time summer job was when I was 14 as a "helper" in the local lumber yard. Being the low guy on the totem pole, I did whatever anyone more senior than me (everyone) told me to do. I think I was getting paid $2.50/hour. Good honest work.

My first FT job was the US Navy; did that for seven years.

[Tinman507]

I made Eagle and also Gold in the Explorers, but I don't remember missing out on anything. I too, was in "Order of the Arrow". I was looking through a drawer a few months ago and came across my old red, white and blue Eagle neckerchief with the leather eagle on the back.

A REAL thread hijack but I can't resist.

http://www.scouting.org/alumni.aspx

They're looking for a few good old scouts.

[JFootin]

Its very strange, but I have always had a selective memory. I can remember an incident when I was just a few months old and couldn't walk, yet. I can remember gasoline as low as 17¢ a gallon. But the details of hourly rates and weekly earnings are something that I apparently never committed to long term memory. I can't even say $1.xx or $2.xx or $3.xx. I can remember I paid $75 for my first car (a really beat Plain Jane 4 door '57 Chevy) and got $250 trade in for it, but I can't remember what I paid for the '65 VW Beetle I traded it for. And I cannot remember what I paid for other cars way back then, nor even more recently except for my current car. Not a clue. So, to me it is amazing how all of you can remember such details! :o

[Scoundrel]

My memory has always been very selective too. I didn't remember being asked to clean out the cat litter box or take out the garbage, but I remembered when the ice cream truck was going to come by.

[Zippo Guy]

I had a job at the local drug store cleaning up the back room, mopping the floor after closing, and stocking shelves while in high school. I started at $.50 an hour and after two years got bumped up to $1.00 an hour and spent most of my time making home deliveries of the presciptions. This was back in the mid '60's.

[Anger]

Not counting the paper routes. A bicycle store, St. Clair Shores, MI. Early 80's. Min wage was $3.35/hour. The owner decides he wants to pay me under the table as I work off my huge $1200 bicycle purchase. He explains to me how social security deducts 7% and how he's going to subtract that from $3.35. So I end up working for $2.85/hour to pay off my $1200 bike purchase. Needless to say I went without a paycheck for many many months. Almost 9 months to a year as I recall. But the free beer the manager used to buy for after hours was worth it to a 15 yo. haha.

[TriggerMan]

Its very strange, but I have always had a selective memory. I can remember an incident when I was just a few months old and couldn't walk, yet. I can remember gasoline as low as 17¢ a gallon. But the details of hourly rates and weekly earnings are something that I apparently never committed to long term memory. I can't even say $1.xx or $2.xx or $3.xx. I can remember I paid $75 for my first car (a really beat Plain Jane 4 door '57 Chevy) and got $250 trade in for it, but I can't remember what I paid for the '65 VW Beetle I traded it for. And I cannot remember what I paid for other cars way back then, nor even more recently except for my current car. Not a clue. So, to me it is amazing how all of you can remember such details! :oI paid $2720 for my first brand new car, less than a year out of college. My payment was $96 / mo. It was a 1973 Toyota Celica (before they came loaded with lots of std. options). I sold it 18 months later for $2250 and bought a 1974 Fiat X1/9 mid engine for $4425. Probably 5 months pay at the time. Been a lotta cars since.

[BrewerGeorge]

McDonald's for $3.15 back in about '86.

[MuchoUno]

Stacking hay in the mow for....$1 per load. Made $63 for a Summer of hard work.

[yote]

Farm hand. Hard work for about $3.00.hr back in 1980.

[sharpetop]

My first job that taxes were taken out was at a greenhouse, picking tomatoes for $1.35/hr.in about 1971 or 72'. Nowadays the illegals do the same job for roughly the same wages.

My next job was in Uncle Sams Services for a whopping $311/month! I guess it wasn't bad as long as you lived on base where room and board was paid for. All I had to buy were smokes for .35 cents a pack and beer for $1.00 a pitcher!

[MW surveyor]

Installing and repairing (helping anyway) air conditioners in sunny south Florida at $1.50 per hour. Man those attics were hot!