What was your first paying job, where taxes were taken out? Mine was a French Fry maker. How about you?

[debm55]

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Busboy at IHOP

[sdfernando]

2. I had a paper route when I was in Jr. High

but no taxes on that meager income. My 1st for paying taxes was as a busboy at a Buffum's department store restaurant. Used that to pay for my college.

[MichMan]

3. Burger Chef while in HS

The last summer I was working there they had a throwback special pricing on regular hamburgers to celebrate an anniversary of the founding. Regular hamburgers were 15 cents. It was the first fast food restaurant in the town, so very popular.

Instead of people ordering a large sandwich like a Big Chef like (a Big Mac) or a Super Chef (think Whopper) they would order a dozen 15 cent hamburgers. So, instead of making one sandwich, we had to make twelve instead. People were ordering 20 to 30 at a time; it was crazy. They were so cheap, they would buy them without buns for their dogs and even a couple parking lot wars where they would throw them at each other. It was super busy all summer.

[underpants]

4. Bagging groceries at Winn Dixie (1980-81?)

I’d say that taxes were taken out but I got everything back + due to EITC that had recently been started.

My first day in the job (slacks, shortsleeved shirt, tie) some old lady knocked over a 1/2 gallon glass jar of molasses. New guy got to clean it up.

[DBoon]

5. fry cook at Jack-in-theBox

[Historic NY]

6. Paper Route they deducted a small amount

[MontanaMama]

7. I was a puller and scorer at the local trap and skeet club in 1977.

I was 13 years old and my dad had to drive me to and from work. I made $3.10 per hour and taxes were indeed taken out. I did receive tips when I pulled a particularly good round, however and we were not asked to declare those.

[Borogove]

8. Picking rocks from freshly-plowed fields. Got paid 75 cents an hour.

[Wicked Blue]

9. Sales clerk in a stationery store

[CanonRay]

10. Sold bicycles at Children's Bargain Town

Now Toys R Us if they're even still around. $1.60 and hour.

[Walleye]

12. $1.60 an hour for my first job too

[Walleye]

11. Dairy Queen, served up cones and milkshakes

[catbyte]

13. Waitressing in a Chinese restaurant

It was a real trip. Sundays were the worst. After-church people were the lousiest tippers ever but the most demanding, lol.

[Lifeafter70]

38. I hated working sundays when I waited tables

Not only was the church crowd lousy tippers, they would let you know how wrong it was to work on the "lord's" day.

[Midnight Writer]

14. Field work for a big seed corn company.

I worked on farms since I was ten (weeding beans, detasseling corn, mowing), but the local farmers always just paid us cash.

I got a summer job with a seed corn company when I was fourteen, and actually got a paper check with deductions and the whole works.

[deRien]

15. Starter at a

golf course- I was the one who called the golfers when it was their turn to start playing 🙂 $1.55 plus free lunch

[no_hypocrisy]

16. 25 cents to babysit my sister & brother.

Certain that the real reason I was tapped b/c the former babysitters got 50 cents an hour.

[MichMan]

21. Your parents withheld taxes ?

[ms liberty]

17. Cashier at a grocery store. I was 16. Hated it, didn't last long.

My second job was as a concourse girl at a bowling alley. That's the person who cleaned off the tables, set up the lanes in between groups, changed the trash. I liked it pretty well.

[rsdsharp]

18. Clean up boy in the meat department of a small grocery store.

I was 15, and made $1.35 an hour.

[Norrrm]

19. IGA, high school

[Mad_Dem_X]

20. Summer morning program for little kids

I was a teenager. We would watch the kids play outside from 9 AM until Noon. They behaved themselves, for the most part.

[Nittersing]

22. Camp kitchen aide and then camp counselor.

Loved going to Girl Scout camp... getting paid to go was sweet.

My first "real" job was either a meat wrapper at our local coop or gopher at a Datsun dealership. Not sure.

[Luciferous]

23. Fast food drive thru

[hunter]

24. Custodian / Handyman for a large commercial preschool.

Cleaning the bathrooms after all the kids had gone home was yucky, especially the boys bathroom.

It wasn't much different when I had similar jobs in restaurants. Still lots of pee on the floor and walls, but the vandalism was much worse.

I went from that to refurbishing the worst sorts university student housing.

Oh, the things I've seen...

[Emile]

25. I was a car hop at Marty K hamburger. 25 cents per hour.

Second job also a car hop at Steak-n-Shake for 30 cents per hour.

[sinkingfeeling]

26. Cashier and stock person at small, local grocery. I was 16. Paid 95 cents an hour back in 1964.

[Diamond_Dog]

27. Sales clerk in a department store.

[The Blue Flower]

28. Ran a cash register at Publix Market in Orlando

No scanners in 1967. Had to manually punch in the numbers.

[3catwoman3]

29. JC Penney's women's clothing section.

$1.60/hr.

[surfered]

30. Boy Scout Camp Counselor as an Explorer Scout at age 16

[dgauss]

31. Worked at a Gino's on the East Coast.

A combination of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a burger menu that was basically a McDonald's ripoff.

I was a grunt in the back shoveling coal into the steam engine, or maybe it was churning out chicken from the pressure cookers, I don't remember which.

[kacekwl]

32. Stock boy and cashier

at a local book / gift store.

[Nanuke]

33. Cook/server at a big discount store (Holiday) snack counter. Was very greasy and I had to wear a hairnet. Age 16.

[ProfessorGAC]

34. Janitor

Well, assistant to the janitor.
I was 15 and worked M, W, F, Sat, & Sun.
From 6:30 until noon.
The summer before college & for 2 summers after, by lucky circumstances, I was full-time. So, I got paid what the janitor got paid. $4.50 per hour was good money in the early to mid 70s.
In fact, my first job as a chemist at a national laboratory only paid $6 per hour.
(That was why I jumped to industry. Much better money.)

[FuzzyRabbit]

35. Messman (cook's helper) on an ocean-going tugboat, Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska.

Back in the day many large companies saved a few summer jobs for students. Dad's connections got me the job. About $1.75 per hour, pretty good pay for a high school student.

I got to see the inside passage to Alaska several years before the cruise ships, and one evening they even let me drive the tugboat, which was towing two freight barges.

Best job I ever had, now that I think about it.

[lpbk2713]

36. Bagging groceries at Winn-Dixie

.75/hr... It was the early 1960's. Usually got more in tips than on my paycheck.

BTW the manager was a real asshole. But I didn't know any better.
It was my first job and I thought all bosses were like that.

[nuxvomica]

37. Busboy/dishwasher/soda jerk

That was all one job and I was either a sophomore or junior in high school. Prior to that, I was paid with an acoustic guitar to work in my cousin Steve's music store. He was a one-armed trumpet player and his band, "The Blue Jacks," appeared in the movie Marjorie Morningstar.

[Doc_Technical]

39. Busboy/Dishwasher at a steakhouse in 1969.

The steakhouse sold a steak dinner (minus drink) for $1.65.
I made $1.35 an hour

[LudwigPastorius]

40. I was a busboy at a seafood restaurant.

I was making something like a buck and a half an hour, and yes, taxes were withheld from that.

After a while I got “promoted” to oyster shucker and made a whole dime more per hour.


I remember that I’d calculated that an hour of work equaled about 2 gallons of gas or a quart of beer. That thought kept me from quitting some days.

[Hekate]

41. Seasonal worker for Dole Pineapple in their Honolulu cannery. They sent reps to the high schools to recruit

My parents had to sign a consent form for the summer because of my age. I gt paid a $1.35 an hour. Good experience; highly motivational for proceeding to college.

Favorite comment from a co-worker: “You still here, haole girl? “

There was an exit interview with a woman from the personnel dept. She told me I had a good record and could return any time. I thanked her most sincerely (I don’t burn bridges) and went away thinking equally sincerely that I’d have to be very hungry to work in a cannery again.