My first year of SS contributions

[Revlefty]

1967. Burger King. Still love the taste of a char-broiled burger.


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[mickeyd]

Too lazy to look it up but it must have been around 1964 or so. I worked on a ranch outside of town ($1.15.hr) for a couple of summers. They paid in cash each Friday, but made deductions that were written in pen on the outside of the pay envelope. You guys recall cash, don't you?

 

[rodi]

Junior in HS - worked for Seaworld one Christmas school break. Minimum wage with the added "bonus" of wearing the most gawd-awful powder blue double knit tunic and pants uniform. I worked the gift shop and did some inventory shifts before the park opened. That was interesting because I learned just how much the souvenirs were marked up.

Favorite experience - being required to ask every customer if they wanted to buy a "reusable sea world gift bag" for 50 cents. Even if they were buying a 25cent bumper sticker or 10 cent pencil. I got busted for not asking a 10 year old who was buying a pencil.

 

[FI by 2024]

$168 in 1998. I worked for a few months at Samurai Sam's after turning 16, then switched over to Quizno's late in the year. I think minimum wage was $5.15, so that adds up to only 32 hours. That can't be right. I was working 2 days a week after school, plus 6-12 hours on the weekend. Is it possible Samurai Sam's didn't report my income?

I decided to look my income up and post here because I'm reading another forum and a 14 year old girl is claiming she has made ~$21,000 so far. She hasn't said what jobs, but she claims it is from working and not because she is rich. My total reported income from junior year of high school through college graduation didn't equal $21K. I probably hadn't earned $100 before age 14. I know I'm older than her but I don't think fast food income have changed QUITE that much since 1998.


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[pb4uski]

1970.... I was 15 and worked part-time in the family business of self-service car washes in two adjacent small cities (about 7 miles apart). When I was 16, I became the "manager"... was responsible for making sure the bays were running, doing repairs, collecting money, routine maintenance, painting, jack-of-all-trades. I netted $30 a week.

 

[cooch96]

1994 working concession at a 2nd run movie theater. It was a special theater; it was attached to a bar and there was a kitchen between them. So you could sit in the theater and order a meal and even cocktails before the show.

On Friday and Saturday nights, the midnight showing was usually The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I got a real eduction on life from the regulars that came to that one.

I also felt super cool carding clientele and serving beer at 16 (we were supposed to have someone 18 or older actually hand the beer to the customer, but some nights there'd just be a bunch of us young teenagers running the place).

 

[HFWR]

1971: $159

 

[lem1955]

1971 - I was 16. I earned $479 working as a retail clerk at Snow Country - a ski clothing and equipment store in Rochester, NY. I remember telling lots of "old" women (over 30) how good they looked in ski parkas and tight fitting ski pants. I loved skiing and loved the job.

 

[Rustic23]

1958 - $61


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[sdtech]

1973 - did scuba shows at a marine tourist business near Mount Rushmore. Stated at $0.35/hour. Got promoted to train sea lions and move up to $1.25. Not many people worked with seat lions in South Dakota at the time!

 

[karen1972]

$168 in 1998. I worked for a few months at Samurai Sam's after turning 16, then switched over to Quizno's late in the year. I think minimum wage was $5.15, so that adds up to only 32 hours. That can't be right. I was working 2 days a week after school, plus 6-12 hours on the weekend. Is it possible Samurai Sam's didn't report my income?

I decided to look my income up and post here because I'm reading another forum and a 14 year old girl is claiming she has made ~$21,000 so far. She hasn't said what jobs, but she claims it is from working and not because she is rich. My total reported income from junior year of high school through college graduation didn't equal $21K. I probably hadn't earned $100 before age 14. I know I'm older than her but I don't think fast food income have changed QUITE that much since 1998.


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Maybe, but it may be she's doing something else. I got paid $1/hr per child to babysit, but I know people paying $11-13/hr for babysitters..so maybe she is doing something like that where she isn't making just minimum wage and if she babysat 2 people's kids it could add up quickly assuming she lives in a rich neighborhood (ie. she doesn't have to be rich but just knows rich people). It can not be very common though

 

[dtbach]

$246 in 1966. Worked for a local seed corn farm at $.65/hr weeding, cutting out stray corn and detasseling. $14.76 went to SS. Got a great tan, kept out of trouble and bought my first phonograph. Still remember those days fondly.

 

[rodi]

Junior in HS - worked for Seaworld one Christmas school break. Minimum wage with the added "bonus" of wearing the most gawd-awful powder blue double knit tunic and pants uniform. I worked the gift shop and did some inventory shifts before the park opened. That was interesting because I learned just how much the souvenirs were marked up.

Favorite experience - being required to ask every customer if they wanted to buy a "reusable sea world gift bag" for 50 cents. Even if they were buying a 25cent bumper sticker or 10 cent pencil. I got busted for not asking a 10 year old who was buying a pencil.

I just looked up the earnings record for that lovely experience.
$177.

 

[Happily Retired]

First job

My first job was, at age 15, working at a FULL SERVICE gas station. Remember when they were all FULL service. When the automatic shutoff at the pump became common, that's when the service went away. I think the wage was $1.35 an hour.

I worked all year long for 2 years after school... and fulltime in the summers at a Skelly (now obsolete) station. There were 5 grades (octane) of gas, which really confused customers.

Remember the GAS WAR days of 1971 or 72? Wow! Gas prices went down to 19 cents a gallon for the lowest octane level. Filling a 20 gallon tank at that price (20 * $0.19... meant change back from $4.

 

[Koolau]

Remember the GAS WAR days of 1971 or 72? Wow! Gas prices went down to 19 cents a gallon for the lowest octane level. Filling a 20 gallon tank at that price (20 * $0.19... meant change back from $4.

Yup! Filled up my Opel with 10 gal (never more than $3 and sometimes closer to $2.) I was good for a whole week of driving - up to 300 miles. Think my salary by then was in the $7 or $8 range - not like now, though prices are coming down for a while.

 

[ScaredtoQuit]

$57 in 1967. As a high schooler, I sold orange drink at Eagles games during the 1967 season. Actually, it was a pretty good job. I typically made about $15 per game. Assuming that I worked about three hours per game, that was $5 per hour which was 4 times the minimum wage at that time! From the amount recorded by SSA, it appears I only worked about 4 games.

 

[sayhey24]

$512 in 1976 stocking Similac and feminine hygiene products
How mortified I was when a girl from school would come down the row.
I think they asked "where is this brand or that brand?" Just to jack with me It worked.
Paper route didn't count I guess
8-10 years back I cashed in the last of the savings bonds from the paper route
And stock boy jobs......pretty cool

 

[meierlde]

Yup! Filled up my Opel with 10 gal (never more than $3 and sometimes closer to $2.) I was good for a whole week of driving - up to 300 miles. Think my salary by then was in the $7 or $8 range - not like now, though prices are coming down for a while.

I recall in 1972 when I arrived in La to go to grad school gasoline was .22 per gallon. I recall a gas station with token operated pumps, you bought tokens and stuck them into the slot as if it were a vending machine.

 

[RISP]

Great thread. I'm not American, but can I play, too?

In 1999, at age 17, I made 1,935 Deutsche Mark as a museum attendant. That was my first job that was 'sozialversicherungspflichtig'. I think the city paid 10 DM/h, which was great, given that it was no real work. Most of the time I just read or did my school homework.

 

[abbvie]

$800 in 79 washing Dishes. I think min wage was $2.30/hr.

 

[Nodak]

1959 - I was the projectionist at the local theater at the age of 12. Worked there until I went off to college. Same family still owns the theater and I still have my lifetime pass. The last time I paid for a movie there it was 25 cents.