The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Grocery store , first W2, I think I paid them to work.
OT: What was your hourly pay at the first W2 job you held?
- Thread starter horshack.sixpack
- Start date
$5.00 construction for my Dad. No real construction just clean up and gopher
In summer of 1984 I was doing a co-op semester on a construction job in Miami, just a general flunky pretty much cleaning up, moving stuff around with a front end loader, loading and unloading trucks etc. It was a union job and our company paid the union dues for us and while on that job instead of regular fed minimum of $3.35 an hour I was bumped up to $9.50, I was ready to quit school and do that full time baby!
We had a union tower crane operator on the job that came in every morning w/ a big lunch box full of snacks and lunch, a stack of newspapers and magazines and 2x 1 gallon jugs. He would climb the tower to get in the cab on top of the tower and he had a walkie talkie w/ him. Some days he was busy every minute of every day. Some days he never lifted a finger, just read the newspapers and magazines and pis-sed in his empty gallon jug so he wouldn't have to climb down. Either way either busy or sleeping till he got a call on the radio he was making $100/hour, in 1985! He was the "Cock of the Walk" as far as all of us peons were concerned..........
We had a union tower crane operator on the job that came in every morning w/ a big lunch box full of snacks and lunch, a stack of newspapers and magazines and 2x 1 gallon jugs. He would climb the tower to get in the cab on top of the tower and he had a walkie talkie w/ him. Some days he was busy every minute of every day. Some days he never lifted a finger, just read the newspapers and magazines and pis-sed in his empty gallon jug so he wouldn't have to climb down. Either way either busy or sleeping till he got a call on the radio he was making $100/hour, in 1985! He was the "Cock of the Walk" as far as all of us peons were concerned..........
5.75 an hour when min wage was 4.25. Was a lifeguard for city of Meridian parks and rec. Got another quarter every summer we came back, and more for the more Red Cross cards you had (had to have lifeguard card to get hired but I also got the swimming instructor, lifeguard instructor and CPR instructor cards). Before it was over with I was making around $10 with some overtime on that. Great job and fun times. Plus once me and a buddy became lifeguard/cpr instructors we got to pick the new guards for the next year. Not saying the skill level went up but we had some of the prettiest female lifeguards of any public pools in the state.
My granddad had one of those. I remember going there shortly after it was put in and I thought it was amazing.
Grocery bagger, $2.15 an hour.. minimum wage was 3.35. 1978 I worked that job all during HS and it beat the hell out of hauling hay or even cutting yards.
I worked at a movie theater from 1994 to end of summer in 1995 then back for Christmas holidays and then summer break in 1996.
I made a nickel over minimum wage, which I think was $5.15 an hour, so I would have made $5.20 an hour. I also got free movies too.
I made a nickel over minimum wage, which I think was $5.15 an hour, so I would have made $5.20 an hour. I also got free movies too.
just under $2/hr sacking groceries 1968 $2/hr working as an apprentice plumber 1969 (just a fancy name for a flunky gopher) 1970 labor at fishmeal plant in Gautier those of you that are familiar with SE Mississippi, you know the smell of the Menhaden fishmeal and you don't wat to work in in. It took 2 months to get the smell off me
In the 80s we loved to ride around out in the country on Sunday mornings looking for satellite dishes pointed straight up ..that was supposed to be where they had to point to watch porn. ….”look at that ole bill had it going last night better turn it down before his folks see it “. Not sure if it was true but it sure was funny
I remember the Sack-N-Save. I had a grandmother that loved to shop at the one in Vicksburg. I also remember the Pump-N-Save gas stations as well.
IIRC, $3.35/hour in 84 or 85. Putting together center pivot irrigation systems all over the delta.
$00.50 per hour in Summer of 1965. Not a typo.
Two of my buddies, me, and three black guys about our same age. We met up at 0700 each morning to pile into the back of our supervisor’s pickup to ride to the worksite. 30-40 minute ride each way and pay didn’t start until we got there and stopped when we left to go back to town. Poisoning trees for a timber company. Don’t know what the chemicals were but they didn’t smell good. We’d work 8 hours ($4.00) and then pile into the back of the pickup to ride back to town. At the end of the week we got paid in cash ($20.00) and felt rich. Getting paid in cash was common back then, even for adults so I’m sure there were no W-2s (if W-2s were even a thing back then). Job lasted pretty much all summer. It was my first “real job”. It taught me how to work. That’s a valuable lesson that some people never get to opportunity to learn.
Two of my buddies, me, and three black guys about our same age. We met up at 0700 each morning to pile into the back of our supervisor’s pickup to ride to the worksite. 30-40 minute ride each way and pay didn’t start until we got there and stopped when we left to go back to town. Poisoning trees for a timber company. Don’t know what the chemicals were but they didn’t smell good. We’d work 8 hours ($4.00) and then pile into the back of the pickup to ride back to town. At the end of the week we got paid in cash ($20.00) and felt rich. Getting paid in cash was common back then, even for adults so I’m sure there were no W-2s (if W-2s were even a thing back then). Job lasted pretty much all summer. It was my first “real job”. It taught me how to work. That’s a valuable lesson that some people never get to opportunity to learn.
$3.80 bagging groceries at Kroger in 1989. All my grandmother and mothers friends shopped at that store, and I made $2-3 in tips for every old lady I bagged groceries for and took to their car. My friends I worked with would get pissed because they may get a quarter or .50.
The only hourly job I have ever had was when I was ten years old. I was such a cute kid a lady who owned a store paid me 1.00 an hour just to be in the store to say hi to everyone.
That's funny. All I did at Freds was put bicycles together and mop the floor. I'd assemble every bike that came in and then put it out on the display rack. I hope nobody ever got injured from all my shoddy work.
Two months later I left and went to work at a local grocery store. That was an awesome job to have for a high school guy. I ended up working there through college.
$3.35/hour in '88 when I was in high school, working at a local business in my home town. Did general clean up, moving heavy stuff, cutting grass, etc. Every once in a while I'd get to work behind the counter and even answer the phone, which made me feel wildly professional.
But the BEST** side hustle I had in high school was: we were family friends with the folks who owned the Piggly Wiggly in my home town. One Saturday morning when I was a junior in high school, my mom tells me that Mrs. Piggly Wiggly called her and and said they needed somebody to wear the Pig costume on the store's float in the town Christmas parade that night, would I want to do it?? and my mom told her YES, she'd gladly pimp me out for the job.
The outfit consisted of a white shirt, black apron, black pants, big shoes, and was topped off by a giant fiberglass replica of the Pig's head. The eyeholes were in his snout, to give you a sense of scale and proportion. The price was $20, and my dignity.
But the BEST** side hustle I had in high school was: we were family friends with the folks who owned the Piggly Wiggly in my home town. One Saturday morning when I was a junior in high school, my mom tells me that Mrs. Piggly Wiggly called her and and said they needed somebody to wear the Pig costume on the store's float in the town Christmas parade that night, would I want to do it?? and my mom told her YES, she'd gladly pimp me out for the job.
The outfit consisted of a white shirt, black apron, black pants, big shoes, and was topped off by a giant fiberglass replica of the Pig's head. The eyeholes were in his snout, to give you a sense of scale and proportion. The price was $20, and my dignity.
$2 bussing tables at Country Squire in Meridian, 1974.
I believe it was $7.25 as a student worker at Mississippi State circa 2001/2002.
Was a lifeguard at a large public swimming pool in 1970 for $ .50 per hour. Was paid $5 a day for a 10 hour day. Best benefit was getting to wear mirror sunglasses on the stand and watching all the hot chicks in REAL bikinis without them knowing it.
1984...3.35/hr working at the snow cone stand in Hazlehurst, Miss., ~20 hrs week at 14 y.o. Sucked having taxes taken out. Netted like $48 / week (which was 'good money' back then. )
ETA also stuffed newspaper on Tuesday evenings for the Copiah Courier same rate. Netted like $10 each time.
ETA also stuffed newspaper on Tuesday evenings for the Copiah Courier same rate. Netted like $10 each time.
Yep, was like 15/16 years old. That's how they got away with paying us so cheap. I was a good swimmer and had been through lifeguard school, but no telling how many people I let drown from being err, well......distracted. If you know what I mean. (;o)You DOG, Lee
4.25, my first raise after a year was 4.35. My next raise after a "promotion" was 4.50.
But it gives you a quarter toward Social Security when you retire. You only need 40 quarters to qualify.
You were the man! I think I got a marginal raise to go to Woolworth but I can't recall exactly.
Before the Arabs raised the price of oil, I made $1.20 an hour for a work study job in college. That was in 1971.
I did have a neighborhood lawn "empire". I made about a $60/hr if I was hoofing it behind my 22in push mower.