I had a paper route when I was 9. My brother did 1/2 of the route and then I did the other 1/2. When he got too cool for the route, I inherited his half. The pay escapes me... we got a certain % of each subscription. We had to collect, door to door, on a monthly basis. That was no fun.
My first "job" was a worker at
Indiana Beach, in the "ecology department" when I was 14. This job consisted of walking around with a hand broom and a bucket on a stick, sweeping up cigarrette butts and popcorn. The job got bad when I had to clean up after someone who spun around too many times on the Twister. The nice thing about this job was that I sometimes found loose change. Also, walking around an amusement park is not a bad gig, especially since I got to know the gals who would run the concession stands and give free samples of their food when they were bored.
I think that my starting wage was $2.20 per hour. This was legally below minimum wage, since it was "seasonal" employment.
The next year, I moved up to Paddle Boat operator. woo!
Andy B.