Whats the lowest paying real job youve ever had?

[TC6969]

A post in another thread made me think about this.

My first real job (On payroll, paid taxes 20+ hours a week) was pump jockey/mechanics assistant at a gas station age 16.

This was pre minimum wage and I got the princely sum of $1.00 an hour!

[stnmtthw]

I busted tires for a summer when I was 14. The shop owner paid me $2 an hour under the table. Sucked, but I couldn't legally get a real job at that age.

[mngsp]

First job at Burger King. Minimum wage of $3.35/hour. My first paycheck consisted of a one hour meeting, after taxes I took home a whopping $3.08 :)

[Mjark]

$1.75 an hour working at a flag factory - 1970. I spent every nickel I made on weed.

[sacizob]

US Army $72 a month in 1960.

[ASC67]

My first job at the age of 14 was at a small local market as a stock boy for around $2 an hour.
Seemed like good money to me at the time.

[Brian J.]

i was a janitor in the mid 80's for a whopping $3.15 per hour

[ce24]

$1.00/hr 1968. pumpin tane down in Wyoming.

[Larry F]

I started picking fruit at 15, getting paid by the box. At 17, worked at a potato processing plant that produced frozen french fries and tater tots. After a week on the line trimming awkward growths on potatoes and spotting potatoes with "hollow heart" (the potato is rotting inside), I was pulled to sit in the middle of loud, hot machinery and to empty a bucket of hot oil that would drip from a pipe. At random intervals, the drips would give way to gushes of hot oil. It was strangely peaceful, and I mentally recreated the Buddy Rich big band arrangement of Norwegian Wood. It was my first experience of being in a yucky physical situation and drawing inward to do music. Air travel and subways are a walk in the park when I do that. I was paid minimum wage, but I don't remember what it was. We were told to get haircuts, and if we didn't by the following Monday, they were going to load us on a bus and take us to the barber in town. I quit, rather than wait to find out if that was really going to happen (it didn't). A month later, I got a job teaching guitar in a music store for $2 per half hour lesson. I had 40 students by the end of the month. That set my life in music in motion.

[Jamie Black]

I started washng dishes at 14 for something like $2.65 an hour.

[Ironwolf]

$2.10 an hour flagging for crop dusters. This involved waving flags (or lights if it was night time) while a plane at an altitude of under ten feet flew at you. Pace off the next swath after he was lined up and hope he didn't drift in your direction (they often did, I went belly flat in the dirt or mud many times with a propeller passing directly over me). And, of course, you were getting parathion, or malathion, or some other bad nasty dumped on you with every pass. Best paying job for a teen available at the time due to the hours per week put in. The only days off were when it rained. Not very often in the high desert.

[Ringo]

KFC when I was about 15, think minimum wage was $1.35 an hour, I worked there just long enough to pay off a cheap stereo that I bought.

Didn't eat any fried chicken for about 5 years after I quit, and I'm still not keen on KFC, I do like Popeyes!

[cowboytwang]

My first paying job was playing guitar in a band at the local Moose lodge and VFW. I was around 16 years old and the rest of the band were all in their 40s & 50s. They played a bunch of old country, some rockabilly, and CCR. They were all really bad alcoholics and those clubs looked like a fog machine was running all the time from how thick the cigarette smoke was. I got paid $45 a night for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So the $135 a week is about the lowest I've ever done for a full time steady gig. Before anyone says something negative about playing music for a living, YES IT'S A REAL JOB!!!!

[Dflo]

Minimum wage, burger flipper. I did learn a lot about working though.

[telepicker52]

My 1st job at age 16 was at a local ice cream stand for $.85 an hr. plus all I could eat!!

[wired to go]

W.T. Grant Janitor at $1.15/hr.

[dougmon]

I guess I did better - my lowest paying job was shipping and receiving in a record store. I think it was about $5/hr in 1979. On the other hand, after taxes and record purchases (we got a good discount) there wasn't really much left of the paycheck. But boy, did I have a great record collection.

[Justinvs]

First summer I worked on the ranch was $1.00 a day, $5.00 if I was driving tractor. I was 11 and thought I was doing pretty good for a kid my age. Spent the 80's getting $400.00 a month, but didn't pay room or board so I got by.

You think crime doesn't pay, try cowboying...

[Frodebro]

Paper route, about fourteen years old. Ninety bucks a month.

[SteveO]

First job was delivering milk on Saturday mornings.Started a 3:00 am , ran until 8:00 and got paid $3. A whopping $.60 per hour.. The up side was I got to drive around in a cool Divco milk truck with my Dad. Good lesson for a 12 year old.