How do you know where or when you have paid your dues?

That all depends on what the dues are.

If you have to ask, then you haven’t paid ‘em.

It’s a false concept. Nobody is keeping a celestial scorecard. Life happens and you deal with it one way or another but there are no earned dividends.

@janbb Good Answer!!!

One does not know until someone says so, recognizes one for hard work, effort, and significant time put in, usually to become a master at a craft or skill.

I posit that no one can declare themselves to have “paid their dues”; to do so means they have done little more than worked to nurture a resentment and become angry that they have not been recognized for something that does not deserve recognition.

You have paid your dues when you don’t need to ask this question.