$1.25/hr 1963.
Started the day I turned 16 at the local pharmacy working as a clerk / soda fountain / pharmacist's assistant (counting pills, etc.).

First real job: 1972. Site Oil Co. Pump jockey.
$1.80 per hour.

Would’ve been about 1985. I had a job in a framing store.

1962 or 1963, Bellhop at a local resort, $.075 cents an hour
1965 E-1, USAF $98 per month

Under the table, cash, when I was 10 in 1984. Before school throwing papers. After school selling subscriptions to same paper, under the table, paid cash. Amounts varied. Didn’t pay taxes. First time for that was at 15, washing dishes at a Steak and Ale. Think it was $4 an hour or something, $4.85.

My first legal tax-paying job was in 1991 at age 14 for $4.25 an hour. I had jobs before that but that’s not what you asked. I quit within the first 15 minutes, which is a different story for a different thread. But I got another job for $4.25 an hour a week later that I kept for 4 years until I joined the Marines.

That job taught me a very valuable lesson. I started as a host/busboy but hated being in the dining room in front of customers. I envied the dishwasher who didn’t have a uniform and got to be in the kitchen only. So in my downtime I learned how to wash dishes (not a very hard thing to learn) and told my boss that I’d prefer to do that if possible. One night the dishwasher didn’t show up so I was asked to fill in, and was then moved to that job instead. When I was moved my boss gave me a $0.25 an hour raise and told me that he did so because I was now more valuable to him since I could do two jobs. While working as the dishwasher I spent my downtime learning how to be a cook, and eventually got promoted to cook and got another raise. By the tine I left I was kitchen manager.

I worked hard to learn new skills and was rewarded for it. That taught me a lot about how to make myself more valuable and it’s a lesson I’ve used for my whole life.

$3.85 in 1990 at a 1 owner country store/deli.

$3.35/hr as a stagehand at the theatre at school.

1999 Bussing tables at a little Italian Restaurant in Jax, FL for 5.15 an hour which was minimum wage of course at the time.

$5.25 per hour at Micky D's in 1996.

$1.65 in 1971 when I was 16 .Worked in a grocery store bagging groceries, stocking shelves and running cash register if needed.

1971 chrome shop in Detroit, $1.95 per hour.

1994, Chick-Fil-A, $4.25/hr.

Couldn’t wait to start working a real job as soon as I turned 14. Had it lined up and ready to go. Continued to work there through most of college.

I used to think I should have taken an opportunity I had at one point which would have led to me being a very young owner/operator, but since Dan Cathy went semi-woke last year, I’m very glad I didn’t.

-Rob

$3.35 an hour in 1988 and was happy to get it. Delivered pizza for dominos pizza. Pretty good gig all in all. Averaged about $120 in tips a night for a ten hour shift.

$3.35 / hr. 1982. Busch Gardens, the Old Country, Williamsburg, Virginia.

1981, Michigan State University dorm dish room.
$3.35 and my favorite job ever since

1997, $4.75/hr, pollinating corn...led to my first 10/22!

$8.75 an hour as a theater usher at Paramount’s Kings Island Amusement park in 1999.

Prior to that I had been a Caddy at the local country club and mowed lawns.
Painted 1 chain link fence to quickly realize I would never be doing that again. But those were all cash jobs.

In the summer of 1963 I went to work for an apple orchard in Yakima, Washington picking apples paid $1.27 and hour plus a bonus for extra trees. I was 16.

1968 after graduating from High School. Stock boy at a department store, $1.25/hr as I recall.

Got a (illegal, as I wasn't old enough) job as a shovel monkey for a construction outfit, bumped my pay to something like $2.00

Turned 18 in October, went to work for Oldsmobile making the Big Bucks at $3.65 or something like that.

I had pre-enlisted in the Navy and was supposed to go to Boot Camp the following April, but my recruiter called me in February and asked if I would be willing to go early. Seeing as I HATED working the assembly line, I jumped on it. Huge pay cut, $84 a month. OTOH, no car-related expenses, no room and board. Probably actually had more spending money. Just no chance to spend it...