OT: What was your hourly pay at the first W2 job you held?

grinnindawg

Redshirt
Aug 22, 2012
165
14
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$7.25 at Carrier in 1984. Worked 10 hours one Sunday for double and half. That was a sweet paycheck.

Took a pay cut to $7 at my next job.

Had a roommate at State turn down $20/hr at Chevron??? summer of 86 because the $7.50/hr work where I was sounded more interesting. My dad would not have approved.
 

theoriginalSALTYdog

All-Conference
Jul 10, 2021
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I remember my best friend in HS got a job at Fred's. His first assignment on his first day of work was to clean up a pile of human turds someone had laid on aisle 3. Good times.

I've never **** in the floor of a store or anywhere else for that matter but I did throw up in a Wal-Mart after a long night of drinking. I was hungover really bad (you know the kinda hangover I'm talking about, the kind where your hair hurts) and had to go by Wal-Mart the next morning on my way into the office. As I was walking down an aisle in housewares it hit me, projectile style. So, instead of throwing up in the floor, I just grabbed a pot off the shelf and let loose. I looked around to see if anyone was looking and there wasn't so I just put it back on the shelf. I've often wondered whatever happened to that pot. Did they clean it and put it back out for sale, possibly on the "reduced" aisle?
 
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grinnindawg

Redshirt
Aug 22, 2012
165
14
18
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..........
About 15m to quitting time at Carrier in the winter of 85 the lady that scheduled the electricians would start paging them. One of them was in the lab sitting next to me when she paged him. His head dropped and he said "I made $73,000 last year, but I'm tired of working all the time". Valuable life lesson.
 
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Mjoelner

All-Conference
Sep 2, 2006
2,686
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$3.35/hr at Raspet Flight Lab as a student worker in '86. High school jobs were cash from picking/loading/hauling watermelons and painting houses.
 
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Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,225
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I did have a neighborhood lawn "empire". I made about a $60/hr if I was hoofing it behind my 22in push mower.
Man, mowing lawns can teach you so much about business at a young age. The lawns that I was doing at the time maxed out at $75 for a large corner lot, and I thought I was real smart by going after those early on. That is, until I realized that I could do 3-4 side by side $35 yards in the time that it took me do one corner lot on some days. Not to mention when those bigger yards happened to be on a big a$$ hill which were tons of fun on a 99 degree Memphis summer day with the ol' push mower. Live and learn!
 

00Dawg

Senior
Nov 10, 2009
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$4.25 an hour as an electrician's assistant for my uncle's company. It wasn't easy, but I got some good experience and good tales. I don't recall getting a raise before I graduated high school.
Next two summer jobs were for Georgia-Pacific/The Timber Company at $8, then $10 an hour, and I felt rich.
Topped them all with a summer internship in 2000 at International Paper at $13.89 an hour and they paid for my apartment.

Went to work for IP as a contractor after graduating, and actually had less disposable income than I had that last summer.
 
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woozman

All-Conference
Nov 13, 2004
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I had to look at what minimum wage was then, so $3.35 when I started working at a local drugstore when I was 14. Then made $7 working construction for my uncle when I was 17 and thought I was loaded and retiring early…
 
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kbanes

Sophomore
Jun 5, 2002
461
167
43
I was w-2 at a movie theater in Vicksburg when I was 12. I got $1 an hour. (around 1973). The Theater was cited by the IRS for underpayment to a child, and I got paid .25 an hour for all of the back hours. Wound up being about $300. (Yes, minimum wage $1.25 when I started.)
 
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Theconnormead

Senior
Jan 26, 2023
310
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another thread got me thinking back to my McDonald's days: $3.35/hr which was the minimum wage at that time. as an inflation point of reference gas was usually $0.85 - $1/gallon
Summer job from 87-91 paid me $125 then increased to $150 a week for working 12 - 15 hours a day on a farm 6.5 day a week. I got off a half day on Saturday and we worked all day Sunday. Made roughly $1.80 an hour. Both of my kids wait tables and that week would be a slow night for them.
 
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Villagedawg

All-Conference
Nov 16, 2005
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$2 bussing tables at Country Squire in Meridian, 1974.
Loved the country squire in Tupelo when I was young. It was my parents go to on Friday night. Still remember them bringing out the whole steak and moving the knife till you said good on the thickness. It was on Eason about where Tupelo Farm and Ranch is/was.
 
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maroontide06

Senior
Dec 14, 2023
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I was w-2 at a movie theater in Vicksburg when I was 12. I got $1 an hour. (around 1973). The Theater was cited by the IRS for underpayment to a child, and I got paid .25 an hour for all of the back hours. Wound up being about $300. (Yes, minimum wage $1.25 when I started.)
Are you familiar with Tingleville?
 

Villagedawg

All-Conference
Nov 16, 2005
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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.
They made us courtesy clerks wear dress shirts, ties, slacks, and an orange and white vests to mop spills and drag carts off the lot in July. No telling how many “church shirts” I ruined.
 

maroontide06

Senior
Dec 14, 2023
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They made us courtesy clerks wear dress shirts, ties, slacks, and an orange and white vests to mop spills and drag carts off the lot in July. No telling how many “church shirts” I ruined.
I had to dress that way when I started at Walgreens. Just had a navy blue vest instead. It definitely is a look that you don’t see anymore.
 
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Dawgbite

All-American
Nov 1, 2011
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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
It was true. We had one back in the early 80’s If it was pointed straight up , you could see some really bad pornography.
 

Dawgbite

All-American
Nov 1, 2011
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Mowing grass before I could even drive I learned pretty quick that the real money was in churches and cemeteries. House lawns were a waste of time. One good cemetery was equal to ten home lawns.
 
Jan 9, 2016
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1985 $3.15/hr stocking shelfs and making deliveries for a china shop. Summer and Christmas breaks in college, I worked as a deckhand for Ole Man River. Pay was $50/day. It was fun but dangerous.
 

HotMop

All-American
May 8, 2006
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$20 a week as a 14 year old working as a Camp Counselor at Camp Tiak. I know I had to have some of you earn a Wood Working or Metal working merit badge back in the summer of 1985.
 
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kired

All-Conference
Aug 22, 2008
7,028
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$5.15 working as cleanup crew at a sawmill, 4 - 8 pm after school. After a couple of months we talked them into a raise to $6. I've still got my last paystub from there when baseball practice started and I had to quit.
 

TaleofTwoDogs

All-Conference
Jun 1, 2004
4,101
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$1.25.hr as a stock clerk in a department store. Before that I cleaned old used bricks at a brickyard for 10 cents a brick. We did about 20 in an hour. Worst part was we sat in the middle of the yard in the coast's summer sun doing the work. Hell of a tan.
 
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tcdog70

Junior
Sep 24, 2012
1,376
250
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****. I'm old.. before w-2 i worked in pulp wood yard leveling train cars for $5 a day cash money. Then went to brick plant stacking bricks for $1.10 an hr.
 
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L4Dawg

All-American
Oct 27, 2016
10,424
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If I have ever had a W2 back then I don't remember it. I had a few summer jobs growing up but never made enough to have to file. My first regular summer/afterschool job paid $1.25, when the minimum wage was $2.50.
 
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Dogdazey

Sophomore
Nov 16, 2012
251
166
43
5.25 garbage collector for one of the beautiful state parks in the great state. Summer job but turned into lifeguarding the next several summers at said state park.
 
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o_Hot Rock

Senior
Jan 2, 2010
1,854
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About 15m to quitting time at Carrier in the winter of 85 the lady that scheduled the electricians would start paging them. One of them was in the lab sitting next to me when she paged him. His head dropped and he said "I made $73,000 last year, but I'm tired of working all the time". Valuable life lesson.
1984, $73,000 was alot. I made $35,000 in 1985 and that is about $120,000 in today's $$$'s per social security prorating. 73? That's a 1/4 mil job right there.
 

BoDawg.sixpack

All-Conference
Feb 5, 2010
5,428
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5 bucks per hr working in a busy restaurant. That solidified my decision to get a college degree. I had to dispose of every article of clothing I ever wore in that kitchen because they smelled like grease.
 
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