what was the first job you had where taxes and SS were taken out. I worked on a work study program at Penn State in the

[debm55]

Last edited Thu Jun 26, 2025, 09:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Dining Hall making 2, 50 an hour after taxes. and SS.. What about you?

[Beatlelvr]

1. Waitress at local hangout

1969: "Waitress wanted" sign at fave after-school ice cream hangout. Table jukeboxes and everything.
Perfect ! I thought.
Worked part time all through jr college.
$1.10/ hr plus tips. Great first job!

[debm55]

3. Thank you very much Beatlelvr.

[Woodwizard]

2. US Army.

Went in at 18, my paper route and dishwasher jobs previously were off the books.

7 day a week paper route builds character.

[debm55]

4. Thank you very much Woodwizard. I had baby sitting jobs. too. US Army-great.

[KarenS]

5. First 'real' job,,,, a life guard and swimming instructor,,,,

I don't remember how much I made,,,, it was seasonal. I was 16.

[debm55]

7. Thank you very much. KarenS

[Arger68]

6. Pumped gas and fixed tires

at the local gas station starting in my sophomore year of high school at 16. $3.35/hr starting, a couple years later I got a huge raise to $3.65/hr

[debm55]

8. Thank you very much Arger68, I remember when the gas station guys would wash your windows and you would give them a tip

[RoadRunner]

9. Worked in a funeral home my first year in college

Driving hearse & flower truck, attending funerals when nobody else showed up, sitting at the front desk at night, & partying with the other kids. We put the fun back in funeral. Lol.

[debm55]

11. Oh my, Thank you Roadrunner, My dentist told me he put himself through dental school by driving bodies up to Penn State

for medical students.

[justaprogressive]

10. Kitchen at school

4 pennies.

[debm55]

12. Justaprogressive. what did you have to do to earn the 4 pennies?????

[justaprogressive]

13. took out the trash

[debm55]

14. HAHAHAHHA. Thank you justaprogressive. Well it was a start.

[Submariner]

15. Hawking scorecards, peanuts, and gum in the grandstands

and bleachers of Fenway Park during Red Sox baseball games making 5% commission for pay.

[debm55]

16. Thank you Submariner. My husband, Rich, is from Boston. Fenway franks are the best. I would have loved your job. Loved

baseball. Started out by watching at Forbes Field.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. I worked in a grocery store at 16. Started paying into Medicare a year later.

[debm55]

18. Thank you very much, Sinkingfeeling.

[boonecreek]

19. Delivered blueprints in the Chicago Loop.

1966, I was 15. I think the minimum wage was $1.25, so $50.00 but it was mine all mine!

[debm55]

42. HAHAHAHAHHA. That is great boonecreek.

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Pump jockey

Summer of 1974, right after I graduated. Minimum wage, of course, but that was $2.50 in California then -- enough bucks to woo women, buy car sttuff and 8-track tapes et cetera.

[debm55]

41. hanahahaha. Thank you Oeditpus Rex. Sounds like a fun job.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Janitor's Assistant At A Banquet Hall

Saturday & Sunday mornings.
I was a few months shy of 16.
I actually stayed there, alternating full & part time until I graduated from college.

[debm55]

40. Thank you very much ProfessorGAC, Interesting job.

[arkielib]

22. Also work study in college.

Tutoring principles of accounting.

[debm55]

39. Thank you very much arkielib.Sounds likr s great job.

[surrealAmerican]

23. Summer camp arts and crafts councilor .

I think I made about $400 for the summer.

[debm55]

38. Thank you very much surrealAmerican. . I worked as a summer playground art and craft instructor. Paid under the table.

[AllaN01Bear]

24. i worked for a church. janitorial.

[debm55]

37. Thank you very much AllaN01Bear.

[LogDog75]

25. I worked in a carpet cleaning business

Local business, back in the late 60s, that sold and cleaned carpets. We'd go to people's home to clean carpets using a machine identical to a floor polisher. Other times, we'd roll up and take a carpet to the store and clean it behind the store on a concrete slab and then hang it to dry on a rack about 20 feet high.

[debm55]

36. Thank you very much LogDog75. Sounds like a hard job.

[chicoescuela]

26. 1969-11 years old and watered plants at a local condominium

complex for 1.65 an hour. Rode my 5 speed bike uphill to get there.

[debm55]

35. Thank you very much chicoescuela. Sounds like a great job.

[FuzzyRabbit]

27. Messman (dishwasher and cook's helper) on an ocean going tugboat.

Sixty years ago, back in the 1960s, some companies provided a few good jobs to students. My dad got me a job on an ocean going tug that towed freight barges to Alaska. I was able to earn enough to pay for a year at college.

Mom was afraid that I, her only son, would be associating with a rough class of men, sailors you know. However, the other crewmen were all first class people. Well, my best friend on the boat had just been released from the state prison for beating up a policeman. He was a really nice guy though. I never told mom about him.

[debm55]

34. Thank you Fuzzy Rabbit. That sounds like a very unique job.

[MIButterfly]

28. I was 18 and living in Nashville. My first job was at Woolco, an affiliate of Woolworth.

We got paid in cash because their Accounting department would cash everyone's paychecks anyway. I thought that $54.00 was a fortune. I lasted there six weeks before I got fired. I was rearranging some items on some shelves (I've forgotten what) and left everything on the floor and punched out because it was the end of my shift. I didn't care. I didn't like that job anyway.

[debm55]

33. Sounds like a crummy job. Thank you for sharing MIButterfly.

[3catwoman3]

29. JC Penney's women's clothing section when I was 16 in 1967. $1.60 an hour.

At some point, after asking, I got a raise to $1.65. The boss was a finicky, fussy sort of guy who always wanted us to "look busy" even if there were no customers in the department. If you worked until closing, all the stock had to be straightened before we could leave. If you worked first thing in the morning, and there were no customers yet, you still had to look busy so we would go around all the racks and shelves pretending to straighten stuff that was already all tidy from the night before. Kinda silly.

While a 5 cent raise seems like nothing, it was 3%, actually a bigger raise than the final raise I got at my last nurse practitioner job. There had been no raises for a few years because practice income had been stagnant. OK, understandable. When the managing partner told me, during my annual performance review, that they were finally able to grant a small raise, she wasn't kidding - it was a 65 cent increase to my base hourly rate - equal to a paltry 1.3%. Not even a dollar! I was so pissed I felt like telling her to keep it. It was insulting.

[debm55]

32. That's was insulting. 3catwoman3 , Did you quit?

[3catwoman3]

43. I was tempted, but getting too close to retirement...

...and while not ready to stop working, I figured the likelihood of finding a new job in my 60s was pretty nil. I liked my patients, and most of my colleagues, and the idea of starting over somewhere else, and possibly needing to learn a new electronic medical records system just wasn't appealing.

When I did retire, I was given a pretty crystal vase at a nice dinner held in my boss's home. Given the past history of relative stinginess (the 65 cent raise wasn't the only such incident over my nearly 25 years there), I looked up the item. It was priced at $75 dollars, so essentially a retirement gift that cost a mere $3 for every year I was there. I would think that length of service for an income generating employee should have been worth at least $250.

[nuxvomica]

30. Dishwasher/soda jerk at Seward's Family Restaurant

Seward's was famous for its ice cream so I also had to man the soda fountain. I was 14 or 15 at the time and I don't remember what I got paid but I got one free cheeseburger per shift and they had the best cheeseburgers.

[debm55]

31. Thank you very much. nuxvomica.

[malthaussen]

44. Busboy at the Waterfall Lounge in Willow Grove PA.

Housed in an incredible Populuxe-style building with what may have been the world's biggest concrete porche-cochierie. Also home to what was then advertised as the largest bowling alley in the country.

Torn down to build a K-Mart. Damn shame.

-- Mal

[debm55]

50. Thank you very much, Mal, Yes, that is a shame. Was wondering if the KMart was torn down also.

[malthaussen]

58. Yup. It was eventually replaced with a three-store strip mall...

... which was pretty silly, because it was right next door to the Willow Grove Mall (which had been an amusement park before they tore it down in the early '70s. I worked at the amusement park too, but the pay was under the table).

-- Mal

[debm55]

63. Thank you very much, Mal

[Figarosmom]

45. Candy stand at a movie theater

I made 90 cents an hour. Which was minimum wage. I was 15.

[debm55]

51. Thank you Figarosmom for sharing with us. Ps I loved your tiny horse post.

[usonian]

46. McDonalds. About this time.

[debm55]

68. Thank you very much usonian. 15 cent burgers. I love the cars parked in front of the sign, too

[yellowdogintexas]

47. a bank teller at the Harvard Trust in Harvard Square, Cambridge nt

[debm55]

69. Thank you very much yellowdogintexas.

[OldBaldy1701E]

48. Working on the farm with my father.

I was twelve.

[debm55]

49. Thank you OldBaldy1701E, That was some very hard work.

[littlemissmartypants]

52. Grading and packing tomatoes. I had just had my 15th birthday.

I started babysitting for a neighbor when I was nine for a dollar an hour. I usually only sat with the baby for two hours or less, when they went out to eat.

I can still remember Miss Karen giving me my first two dollars. I was so happy to have helped her and the baby that I tried to give it back. She explained that I had earned it. So I took it so I wouldn't hurt their feelings.

❤️

[debm55]

70. Thank you very much littlemisssmartypants. You are so kind.

[UpInArms]

53. 1974

$1/hr at Dunkin’ Donuts

[debm55]

72. Thank you very much, UpinArms.

[CanonRay]

54. I sold bikes at Toys R US

for $1.60 an hour.

[debm55]

66. Thank you CanonRay. Did you have to put them together?

[CanonRay]

67. Just handlebars and seats, as I recall

[debm55]

71. Thank you CanonRay,

[crud]

55. I worked in a shoe store

like Al Bundy. This was around 1971. We played Led Zeppelin on the PA when the manager wasn't there. Neil Diamond when he was.

[debm55]

65. HAHAHAHHAhahha. thank you very much crud.

[Turbineguy]

56. Part time job in a newspaper press room.

1966. $1.25 an hour.

[debm55]

61. Thank you very Turbineguy. That must have been a interesting job.

[Historic NY]

57. Paper route......in my teens

When I sent my paperwork to SS they said you started young.

[debm55]

60. Thank you very much, Historic NY.

[Srkdqltr]

59. 1960 JL Hudson Detroit. Don't remember the hourly.

[gladium et scutum]

62. Setting chokers

for Jensen & Grove Logging Company out of Woodland Washington. This was in 1965, I was 18 at the time.

[debm55]

64. Thank you very much for sharing with us, gladium et scutum.