My first job was mowing yards at age 12. I mowed 14 yards a week every week for two years. That was one a day Sunday through Friday and 8 on Saturday. I made anywhere from $2.00 a yard to $3.00 a yard, depending on size. I guess today that would be called child labor and I would not be allowed to do the job.
I have also worked a warehouse job staring at $9.75 and hour and leaving at $12.50 an hour. I considered myself quite lucky to have that job in an area where the largest employer paid mostly minimum wage and actively tried to keep higher paying businesses out.
Now I am self employed and it seems like I work all the time. I love people that tell me they wish they could be self employed and set their own hours. Yeah sure you would all 24/7 of them. When I am not working no one gets paid, and I am the last one to get his paycheck.
And do not get me started on the mentality of entirely to many employees who think that you owe them a paycheck and that making them work for it is abuse.
I also like the ones that think there is nothing wrong with sitting on their rear end drawing unemployment while not looking for work until it runs out. Their excuse is, they paid for it and are entitled to it. Most seem to not realize that no where on their pay stubs is a deduction for unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance, both state and federal, are paid for by the employer. And when a former employee is awarded unemployment the employer's insurance rate goes up to pay for it.
I will now relinquish the soapbox to someone else.
Apache