What is the smallest pay that you worked like a Hebrew slave at work to get?

Inevitably, the jobs that pay the least are the ones you wind up doing without renumeration for friends and relatives. And believe me, it can become tiresome.

I cleaned at a school, and office and a private home for minimum wage. I was in my 30’s and my previous job I was paid $56,000. My mistake was moving to a different country. It was humbling.

When I was 19, I worked as a cook at Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was pretty hard work, and I was paid $1.85 an hour to start. My boss told me I wasn’t worth it. I worked there for 2½ years.

We unloaded and put away hay bales all day, in hot miserable conditions for the princely sum of $5.00 a day. And we thought we were on top of the world.

When I was 14 I worked on a farm baling hay for the then-minimum wage or $1.25/hour. Like @Adirondackwannabe said I felt like I was on top of the world!

Nurses aide in a nursing home for $3.45 an hour. No one can tell me that people who make insane amounts of money do so because of hard work. The hardest work I’ve ever done in my life paid the least. The more money I have made the less hard I have had to work. And the reason I have made more money over the years and am able to be retired in my early 50’s has had more to do with good connections and lucky breaks than with hard work and smarts. Sure there was an element of that but really, I just happened t know the right people at the right time.

$1.60 an hour digging trenches with a pick and shovel.

@bossob My dad used to use that profession for what I call his “excellence” proverb:

I don’t care if you grow up to be a ditch-digger, as long as you dig the best ditch in town!”

That would have to be my first real job, a horrible one, at a ladies ready-to-wear store when I was around 16. The minimum wage was $1, but I may have been making a little above that—but not much. Did I mention, it was a HORRIBLE job! Being Jewish, I actually was a Hebrew slave!

Uggh that sounds horrible. The hay bales at least smelled good. Well, there was also the job working for the priest that loved his vodka. And he shared. The vodka that is.

@Yetanotheruser My dad used to say the exact same thing!

Fortunately, I didn’t have the strong back it takes to last very long at that job.

@Yetanotheruser and @bossob , My dad too.

@filmfann It was pretty hard work, and I was paid $1.85 an hour to start. My boss told me I wasn’t worth it. I worked there for 2½ years.
You actually stayed that long when he told you that? Did he believe you were worth the money after 2 ½ years, or that is why you quit?

@Adirondackwannabe We unloaded and put away hay bales all day, in hot miserable conditions for the princely sum of $5.00 a day. And we thought we were on top of the world.
Hopefully that was a summer job, did they squeeze mucking the stalls out of you too?

@Judi And the reason I have made more money over the years and am able to be retired in my early 50’s has had more to do with good connections and lucky breaks than with hard work and smarts.
Chalk up one more for it is not what you know, it is who you know.

@Pachy Being Jewish, I actually was a Hebrew slave!
Had to lurve that, had me ROLLING!

She was miserable when I left. I won her over.

^ And she did not give you a fat raise to keep you on?

My first job was delivering milk very early in the morning and in all weathers for a little less than three shillings an hour which is about 16 pence. I also got a lot of tips when I collected the money at the weekends and I have never felt so rich.