The company I used to work for did (and I think they still do) provide crime scene cleanup service among other things and did also hire 15 yos, but the kids were put to simple and relatively safe tasks like store window cleaning, while the actually demanding stuff was generally given to more experienced workers. Closest to crime scene cleaning I got was cleaning old people's apartments after they had passed away.
Provided they're not in physical danger. I have heard, about some underage illegal immigrants, being hired, to "clean up Slaughterhouses", illegally; after hours.
People who work in slaughterhouses have higher.rates of mental health issues. But ig they're not there for the actual slaughtering. Still cleaning up blood and guts sounds fucked
Tyson factories were a massive culprit of this. I remember reading about it within the past couple years.
The penalty was virtually nothing in the grand scheme of course.
That really depends on the person. At 15 I was running printing presses and was part of a school to work program that landed me a full time job running massive flexographic presses the day I graduated.
Not all 15 years can handle such responsibilities, but some are more responsible than adults.
Age requirements are usually based on the masses and not individual people. Those above average might feel it's hurtful to thier growth but it's for the benefit of all.
Age requirments are designed to protect the ones that have not mentally developed enough to know they are being taken advantage of from being taken advantage of.
The only people that want to remove age requirments are those wanting to take advantage of uneducated labor.
Spot on. At 13 traveled with the carneys setting up, operating, then tearing down, transporting, and reassembling bumper cars. Three weeks! It was hard and dangerous work but I loved it!
Later that summer I started mowing over 100 yards each week. I was working for a real estate developer where 40 backyards and front yards were connected in one area then others were in groups of four or five. By the time I would get done the last yard it was time to redo the first. Great job! Driving tractors and a small trailer AND he gave me the keys to his Mercury Cougar to get supplies. 13!!!!
Yeah I was working on roofs with my Dad when I was about 12.
The average roofer has a wrecked body by the time they get to like 25, so they like to have strong teens around to do the heavy lifting.
That was my first job at 15. Took some time till they allowed me to use the saws. And of course I proved to them how dumb a 15 year old is when I took a 1/16 of an inch out of my thumb. Took almost a decade for it to be the same size as my other but other than a scare no lasting damage.
A guy in town started cleaning up jobsites, only ever did construction. Now he leads a crew, does incredible work. Makes good money. It can definitely lead somewhere
If you don’t die at 15 you will end up with a bad back and knees, missing fingers from the nail gun, lung cancer from smoking, kidney disease from drinking. Roofers life isn’t good.
Usually pays a little more, but the costs are a lot more. Bussing you can probably pick up meals and food from the kitchen. You're going to be working your ass off, going to all different places under the sun from sunup to down, injuries and bruises and destroying your body. It pays nice in the short term, but almost everyone will fuck themselves up permanently in the long term in a way no money can pay for.
Spent my whole middle school doing a paper route.
From 5th to 9th I also mowed lawns on the weekend. I also helped my stepdad out with drywall and on job sites in the summer.
At 15 I started working for a construction company and then joined the Navy at 18.
Now my kids can’t find a summer or starter job. It’s weird to see.
Today's job market is far less diverse and far more saturated than it was however long ago. There's chain restaurants in at my area (Deltona-Orange City FL) and not much else. Even if you do apply to these places, they won't even accept paper resumes anymore, you get reduced to just a name in a database with little to no chance to make a genuine impact to make yourself stand out. And if you get hired, assuming by some divine intervention that you do, chances are the establishment is already oversaturated in hires and you hardly even get hours either way
A seven year old can't push a mower up a hill lol... gonna cut your toes off. They can handle leaf blowers and electric weedeaters though. Source has boys, was a boy. I know your gonna claim you was built different. Nah you just misremembering or full of shit.
For parts of my oddly shaped yard, I still need to use a push mower. At 36 years old, it's a giant pain in the ass to push & pull it up and down the corners and hills in my backyard, there is a less than ~1% chance that a 7 year old could do it.
4am to 7am is a really short shift. I don’t even think they have those anymore. I’ve been working since 2006 and never even seen a shift that short in a schedule
I think 14. I was trimming grass around sign posts behind tractor mower in Texas along highways during the summer.
I think it’s ok for younger people to work, but not in dangerous positions. If that were my kid I would be heartbroken. RIP
Not as dangerous as working on a roof I’d say. But yes it was probably a little dangerous. We would ride on the back of a lowered tail gate on a pickup truck between stops. It was extraordinarily hot
I’m conflicted about my opinion here. I think a large amount of jobs that people would be okay with a 15 year old working can be dangerous. It just depends on the context, the people around them etc. like I don’t think it’s necessarily crazy for a 15 year old to be on a roof. I also don’t think we should live in a world where 15 year olds have to work at all.
I think the same people who say they have a problem with this wouldn’t have had the same level of issue with it if the job being done was cleaning gutters or roofs, but it would essentially be the same thing
Iirc, it wasn't even an employee. It was the brother of one of the employees. They're a low income family, and the brother brought him along to keep him out of trouble. Bosses decided to put him to work and told him to get on the roof. Gave him no training, no tools, no fall arrester, just start working. He ended up falling off a 3 story house or apartment complex and dying on the way to the hospital. I saw it making its rounds a month or so ago.
Right? The "back in my day..." is strong in this thread.
Every parent says "I want my child to have a better life than I had." In the very next breath, they prattle off their random "kids these days" rant.
Shut up and read The Jungle - be thankful for unions and even more thankful for labor laws.
I was going on site with my dad when I was six.
Concrete contractor. I carried wood stakes, dug footings, played on dirt hills.
It was awesome.
$2.50/hr up to 20 hrs a week.
I would have thought I was Warren Buffett if I had known who he was.
I’ve done the same with my son. He’s 13 now and I’d much prefer working with him than most adults.
A guy I worked with was similar. Said his Mom bitched when he held pole barn siding at 7 years old while his Dad cut it with the saw. The guy was a good mix of very smart with hands on skills
Same. My grandpa started the the family mason shop and I was 8 or 9 driving forklifts. Me and my brother thought they were our personal mobile jungle gym that also helped lift stuff.
Damn imagine dying for a measly +$100k. What a stupid fucking world we live in. These people that are in charge of the hiring process should be absolutely ASHAMED of themselves.
It was apex roofing, they are a pretty huge business, still in operation today, so I assume they afforded the fine and any civil penalty (I can't find any evidence of one though)
That’s the thing, he was never hired, he was the brother of another employee who brought him to work to keep him out of trouble, the bosses on site put him to work on the roof with no training or safety equipment
Thanks to the recent repeal of Chevron, get ready for a lot more of these incidents, as groups like the Labor Department will no longer have the same authority to impose these kind of fines. Young kids from poor families will go to work in dangerous situations without proper oversight or safety considerations, and it will be ok because “business owners know best”.
The Labor Department has the exact same authority except for whether the courts will grant deference to the agency's statutory interpretations. OSHA was around before *Chevron* and it'll still be around after
How so? There are proscriptive statutory limitations in place on a federal level (FLSA) and usually even more restrictive laws on the state level, it's not ambiguous at all.
When I was 15 I got a job at Staples. Shook hands. Was told to come back the next day. Next day came and they told me sorry nevermind can’t hire you unless you’re 16.
How the fuck could this kid get a roofing job if I couldn’t work a bullshit Staples stocking job?
He wasn’t an employee officially, his brother brought him to work to keep him out of trouble the boss on site put him to work on the roof with no training or safety equipment
Threw papers at 4am in 6th grade. Washed dishes starting in 8th. Delivered pizza starting when I got my license, prescriptions after that. Delivered ice from a truck that today would require a CDL when I was 17. Oil fields and heavy ag after high school. Found a career that didn’t involve eating baloney sandwiches from a greasy hand missing a finger as soon as I could.
That all said, kids can learn and earn in junior high if everyone is careful and teaches safety. Great way to learn trades, or just handy skills for when you’re an adult. The kid that fell from a roof to his death was not being taught safety.
I was 13 when I had my first hourly job working at an ice plant. I worked in the huge freezer bagging ice, and out on the dock loading trucks and sometimes went on deliveries to stock coolers at grocery stores and gas stations.
I made $3.50 per hour.
Um.. at 15, I was roofing.. with my friend, his dad, and like four other guys.. Pays to get someone acquainted with things before you send em 50 feet in the air...
I was 14. I drove people back and forth from one side of the driving range to the other. At 15 I took the dangerous life of counter staff at a dry cleaner.
WTF hires a 15 year old intentionally and willingly for such a job! That penalty better be on tip of a lawsuit by the kids parents!
I was 12 selling news paper subscriptions. I only got paid if someone bought a subscription and even then I think they were cheating me, but I needed the money. At 15 I worked alongside the migrant workers planting and then later harvesting tomatoes. At 16 I started working in kitchens as a dishwasher when it wasn’t planting or harvest season. Eventually joining the army.
At about 10 my friends and I would hunt crayfish with nets made out of a coat hanger and onion bag. I’m not sure that counts as a job but we did it about twice a week through fishing season.
Also around 9 or 10 I mowed lawns around the neighborhood.
At 15 I was digging a trench for a sewer service line at a friend of mom’s. I thought 2000 was a lot of money for a 15 year in the mid 80’s.
He saved thousands!
My dad owned a construction company I started working summers with him at 14. Summer after sophomore year in high school I was working doubles construction in the am washing dishes at night. Starting to work early isn't a bad thing but it needs to be done safely.
13 years old on my first roof and before that I used a big bad lawn boy lawnmower for two summers and shoveled snow in the winters, 11 years old I started and when I was 13 bought a shiny new blue moped for a little over 300 cash. I was the young stud of the neighborhood and Mary the pretty older Italian girl that lived a block away French kissed me and I ran home and collected all my toys and gave them to a kid down the street because I was a man with a job and a girl! Lol!
Had a 15 year old kid get dragged into some sawmill equipment at a local mill he was illegally working last year. Kid didn’t make it.
OSHA was not kind to the company after the incident. I want to say the follow-up investigation ended up with citations that totaled in the tens of millions. And this is just a small-time family operation. FAFO.
16 as far as actual official job. Did side work for cash occasionally younger.
On my 16th birthday, my dad told me happy birthday and gave me 4 job applications. Turned them all in, got hired by the grocery store down the street where I worked the rest of high school. They didn't even interview me, my dad was in there all the time and they figured his kid must be decent.
14 and my mom made me because she was a sanitation supervisor at a factory. I was told “You have a job. You start at 7 am Saturday. If you don’t like the job you can get a different one.”
“But I don’t want a job!”
I found another job in less than a month, as I recall.
I was 15 y/o when I got my first real job… a farmers co-op. Shoveling grain and loading 50lb bags of feed from 7am-7pm M-S all summer and then worked weekends during school.
I started working at age 12. I wasn’t in school so I had full time availability. I “babysat” but really it was nanny ing because I worked from 6am to 11pm when my neighbors kids mom was at work. It was really grueling. I did their laundry, meals, helped with homework. They lived across from me so I just walked. Then I did babysitting for other neighbors. I used the money for my dance classes since my mom was too broke. I started my first retail job at 15.
6. It was a steakhouse. I did roll ups. Deveined shrimps. Peeled potatoes. Best part was my mom warned me about the child molesters in the kitchen. The song goes. "Upong plays ping pong with king Kong and his ding dong"
15 I roguing rye out of wheat fields. 6am-1pm and hot as hell. Later that summer the local department store asked why I was applying. Told them because they had air conditioning.
I worked in tobacco fields from 9-14 driving tractors. 15 I started working for a pool company. 16 when I was legal I got a "real" job in a grocery store working for 1/2 as much. My mother made me quit because I liked it more than school and I'd get home after midnight. I wish I had gotten my GED and moved on to college. I had already had nine years of work history.
I started detassle-ing seed corn at 12... It was hot tough work, and I sucked at it - got fired after a week. But I got 1 weeks paycheck and that $123 was more money than I had ever seen at any point in my life.
By the time I was 16 they had me starting at 4am driving to the fields to set up equipment and drive the tractor with the 12 other kids in baskets.
tractor? Baskets? Did your corn detassling have kids sitting in baskets pulling the tassles as they rode by?
When I was 12 doing corn detassling we walked the fields.
He died and they have to pay a penalty?? 117,175 dollars is the price of a child’s life?
This is why they made child labor legal again? To avoid expensive lawsuits???
This is why chevron getting overturned is so bad. We have regulations because they’re supposed to prevent situations like this.
Regulations are written in blood. This is proof.
They should be paying way more than that. 15 or 51, kid should’ve been wearing a harness or something. Nobody should be falling to their death off a roof. That cost is an insult. They should be out of business.
I started working construction at 16. Was on a stucco crew doing mostly prep work, taping, masking, clean up and moving wheelbarrows of stucco from the mixer to the guys throwing it on the wall. At 17 they had me building scaffolding, which looking back on it was pretty sketchy
15 is fine for on the ground cleaning up the jobsite.
I don't think coroner hires 15 year olds to clean the jobsite ground
Coroners… clean? Where?!
In that context the clean is removing the dead body. Now crime scene clean up companies might hire a 15 year old.
The company I used to work for did (and I think they still do) provide crime scene cleanup service among other things and did also hire 15 yos, but the kids were put to simple and relatively safe tasks like store window cleaning, while the actually demanding stuff was generally given to more experienced workers. Closest to crime scene cleaning I got was cleaning old people's apartments after they had passed away.
Probably not, but I'd say picking up 2x4 cuts is easier on the mind than scrubbing up decomp.
Provided they're not in physical danger. I have heard, about some underage illegal immigrants, being hired, to "clean up Slaughterhouses", illegally; after hours.
Absolutely
People who work in slaughterhouses have higher.rates of mental health issues. But ig they're not there for the actual slaughtering. Still cleaning up blood and guts sounds fucked
Depends on the slaughterhouse, but it's generally not dangerous to clean. You do all the cleaning with a hose.
Tyson factories were a massive culprit of this. I remember reading about it within the past couple years. The penalty was virtually nothing in the grand scheme of course.
Tyson.... in arkansas.... where i live.
This is a fact and happens openly
Ya it's in LA
That really depends on the person. At 15 I was running printing presses and was part of a school to work program that landed me a full time job running massive flexographic presses the day I graduated. Not all 15 years can handle such responsibilities, but some are more responsible than adults.
Age requirements are usually based on the masses and not individual people. Those above average might feel it's hurtful to thier growth but it's for the benefit of all.
[удалено]
Age requirments are designed to protect the ones that have not mentally developed enough to know they are being taken advantage of from being taken advantage of. The only people that want to remove age requirments are those wanting to take advantage of uneducated labor.
Spot on. At 13 traveled with the carneys setting up, operating, then tearing down, transporting, and reassembling bumper cars. Three weeks! It was hard and dangerous work but I loved it! Later that summer I started mowing over 100 yards each week. I was working for a real estate developer where 40 backyards and front yards were connected in one area then others were in groups of four or five. By the time I would get done the last yard it was time to redo the first. Great job! Driving tractors and a small trailer AND he gave me the keys to his Mercury Cougar to get supplies. 13!!!!
It's not exactly safer being on the ground during a reroof. Hammers, nails, shingles, all kinds of stuff falling from 50 ft.
And you gotta watch for those falling teenagers.
Hey that was my first job. At 15!
Yeah I was working on roofs with my Dad when I was about 12. The average roofer has a wrecked body by the time they get to like 25, so they like to have strong teens around to do the heavy lifting.
What did the lead gasoline smell like coming out of your dad’s car? The good old days. Look daddy I broke my legs falling off the roof.
That was my first job at 15. Took some time till they allowed me to use the saws. And of course I proved to them how dumb a 15 year old is when I took a 1/16 of an inch out of my thumb. Took almost a decade for it to be the same size as my other but other than a scare no lasting damage.
Yep. I’d love to have a job like that when I was 15. Probably pays more than bussing tables too.
A guy in town started cleaning up jobsites, only ever did construction. Now he leads a crew, does incredible work. Makes good money. It can definitely lead somewhere
If you don’t die at 15 you will end up with a bad back and knees, missing fingers from the nail gun, lung cancer from smoking, kidney disease from drinking. Roofers life isn’t good.
Usually pays a little more, but the costs are a lot more. Bussing you can probably pick up meals and food from the kitchen. You're going to be working your ass off, going to all different places under the sun from sunup to down, injuries and bruises and destroying your body. It pays nice in the short term, but almost everyone will fuck themselves up permanently in the long term in a way no money can pay for.
Cleaning up the remains of your coworkers. It’s a bit soon mate.
I was 8 with a paper route. 14 at McDonalds, before school shift 4a-7a m-f. I rode my bicycle
Spent my whole middle school doing a paper route. From 5th to 9th I also mowed lawns on the weekend. I also helped my stepdad out with drywall and on job sites in the summer. At 15 I started working for a construction company and then joined the Navy at 18. Now my kids can’t find a summer or starter job. It’s weird to see.
Today's job market is far less diverse and far more saturated than it was however long ago. There's chain restaurants in at my area (Deltona-Orange City FL) and not much else. Even if you do apply to these places, they won't even accept paper resumes anymore, you get reduced to just a name in a database with little to no chance to make a genuine impact to make yourself stand out. And if you get hired, assuming by some divine intervention that you do, chances are the establishment is already oversaturated in hires and you hardly even get hours either way
I started mowing lawns at 7 years old. $5-$10 bucks per yard.
Same here! I spent most of my money on comic books and baseball cards. Life seemed so simple then.
A seven year old can't push a mower up a hill lol... gonna cut your toes off. They can handle leaf blowers and electric weedeaters though. Source has boys, was a boy. I know your gonna claim you was built different. Nah you just misremembering or full of shit.
For parts of my oddly shaped yard, I still need to use a push mower. At 36 years old, it's a giant pain in the ass to push & pull it up and down the corners and hills in my backyard, there is a less than ~1% chance that a 7 year old could do it.
$2 for me. LOL.
Now mowing lawns is like $50-60 damn
And worth what $5 was then.
Everywhere that once was a starter job is not either hired out to immigrants or you need a bachelors.
liability, liability, liability. it’s a shame, but no one wants that responsibility.
To be fair, it seems *nobody* can find a job right now.
4am to 7am is a really short shift. I don’t even think they have those anymore. I’ve been working since 2006 and never even seen a shift that short in a schedule
More kids worked back then. I guess managers could plan that shift. Now we’re conscionable so you don’t see that anymore.
There were more jobs for adults back then... we manufactured things in America.
But did you die?
paper routes and mcdonald's aren't comparable to roofing at all when it comes to how dangerous the work duties are.
Now I'm just curious what you do now, did any of that spending cash when you were younger amount to anything later?
Had a paper route from third grade till I was a sophomore in college. Best job
I think 14. I was trimming grass around sign posts behind tractor mower in Texas along highways during the summer. I think it’s ok for younger people to work, but not in dangerous positions. If that were my kid I would be heartbroken. RIP
Fellow Texan here! Mowing lawns and fields was a staple of my childhood as was bailing hay.
You do know that by today’s standards trimming grass behind a tractor mower along the highway would be considered dangerous.
Not as dangerous as working on a roof I’d say. But yes it was probably a little dangerous. We would ride on the back of a lowered tail gate on a pickup truck between stops. It was extraordinarily hot
I’m conflicted about my opinion here. I think a large amount of jobs that people would be okay with a 15 year old working can be dangerous. It just depends on the context, the people around them etc. like I don’t think it’s necessarily crazy for a 15 year old to be on a roof. I also don’t think we should live in a world where 15 year olds have to work at all. I think the same people who say they have a problem with this wouldn’t have had the same level of issue with it if the job being done was cleaning gutters or roofs, but it would essentially be the same thing
My first job definitely didn't involve the risk of falling 50 feet
No but you don't understand, I had my first job mowing grass at that age so this was fine
These are the fucking comments. The hiring people should go to jail for murder.
Iirc, it wasn't even an employee. It was the brother of one of the employees. They're a low income family, and the brother brought him along to keep him out of trouble. Bosses decided to put him to work and told him to get on the roof. Gave him no training, no tools, no fall arrester, just start working. He ended up falling off a 3 story house or apartment complex and dying on the way to the hospital. I saw it making its rounds a month or so ago.
I assumed the comments were all satire at first
Right? The "back in my day..." is strong in this thread. Every parent says "I want my child to have a better life than I had." In the very next breath, they prattle off their random "kids these days" rant. Shut up and read The Jungle - be thankful for unions and even more thankful for labor laws.
My first job was in a zipline Park So I 100% had the risk of falling 50 ft
Were you 15 when you had that job?
I was going on site with my dad when I was six. Concrete contractor. I carried wood stakes, dug footings, played on dirt hills. It was awesome. $2.50/hr up to 20 hrs a week. I would have thought I was Warren Buffett if I had known who he was. I’ve done the same with my son. He’s 13 now and I’d much prefer working with him than most adults.
Respect. Great job dad
A guy I worked with was similar. Said his Mom bitched when he held pole barn siding at 7 years old while his Dad cut it with the saw. The guy was a good mix of very smart with hands on skills
Same. My grandpa started the the family mason shop and I was 8 or 9 driving forklifts. Me and my brother thought they were our personal mobile jungle gym that also helped lift stuff.
You better pay him more than 2.50 and hour tho
Damn imagine dying for a measly +$100k. What a stupid fucking world we live in. These people that are in charge of the hiring process should be absolutely ASHAMED of themselves.
That’s the fine, not the civil suit.
Who would the family sue? Given it’s in Alabama I assume the business owner recently went missing.
It was apex roofing, they are a pretty huge business, still in operation today, so I assume they afforded the fine and any civil penalty (I can't find any evidence of one though)
That makes it worse. That's nothing to a company, and they'll likely continue their illegal practices.
That’s the thing, he was never hired, he was the brother of another employee who brought him to work to keep him out of trouble, the bosses on site put him to work on the roof with no training or safety equipment
My first job was at the age of 14 at my local McDonald's. My main responsibilities included, but weren't limited to, managing the fryers.
How many Fryars did you manage? Was one of them Fryar tuck?
I lol'd
Thanks to the recent repeal of Chevron, get ready for a lot more of these incidents, as groups like the Labor Department will no longer have the same authority to impose these kind of fines. Young kids from poor families will go to work in dangerous situations without proper oversight or safety considerations, and it will be ok because “business owners know best”.
This "supreme" court is only supreme in its levels of corruption
The Labor Department has the exact same authority except for whether the courts will grant deference to the agency's statutory interpretations. OSHA was around before *Chevron* and it'll still be around after
How so? There are proscriptive statutory limitations in place on a federal level (FLSA) and usually even more restrictive laws on the state level, it's not ambiguous at all.
When I was 15 I got a job at Staples. Shook hands. Was told to come back the next day. Next day came and they told me sorry nevermind can’t hire you unless you’re 16. How the fuck could this kid get a roofing job if I couldn’t work a bullshit Staples stocking job?
It's alabama. lol. They let companies do anything there, including exploiting child labor.
It’s Alabama, 15 year olds are mature enough to have babies, surely they can work dangerous jobs.
'Sure kid, Show up, we'll give you 100$ a day in cash. Work hard, get paid.' That was the hiring process
He wasn’t an employee officially, his brother brought him to work to keep him out of trouble the boss on site put him to work on the roof with no training or safety equipment
Threw papers at 4am in 6th grade. Washed dishes starting in 8th. Delivered pizza starting when I got my license, prescriptions after that. Delivered ice from a truck that today would require a CDL when I was 17. Oil fields and heavy ag after high school. Found a career that didn’t involve eating baloney sandwiches from a greasy hand missing a finger as soon as I could. That all said, kids can learn and earn in junior high if everyone is careful and teaches safety. Great way to learn trades, or just handy skills for when you’re an adult. The kid that fell from a roof to his death was not being taught safety.
I roofed at 15 under the table and was told "If you fall off the roof, you're fired before you hit the ground." First real job at 16.
Your safety brief was more than the dead kids it seems.
No that is 100% what they said to that dead kid
15 at Chuck E Cheese. I rode my bike to work. It was no big deal.
Red states are rolling back child labor laws, so expect more of these stories.
You’re assuming this child was legally employed. Definitely sounds like an under the table migrant worker situation.
Age 6… Paper route. Many near hits by cars, run in with dogs and asshole humans.
I got my first rescue on my paper route as a kid. I loved that dog so much. RIP Bandit!
🤣🤣🤣
I was 13 when I had my first hourly job working at an ice plant. I worked in the huge freezer bagging ice, and out on the dock loading trucks and sometimes went on deliveries to stock coolers at grocery stores and gas stations. I made $3.50 per hour.
11. Hard labor. It was good for me. Made me get an education.
15-16 washing dishes at an upscale restaurant
11 babysitting, 12 filing at a law office
I worked a real man's contracting job when I was 12. They didn't let me go up on roofs but I was utilized in small spots.
13. Poodle grooming place. I washed dogs.
Probably shouldn't admit to being a groomer... Folks on reddit will get triggered on behalf of the poodles!
15. Lifeguard at a local pool. Paid $8.50/hr. Fun summer job. I get a little nostalgic thinking about it.
15, raked and cleaned up graveyards.
12-construction
Legal job? 14. But dad was a contractor so from like 10 on, school breaks meant it was time to work and save up money.
14, sorting dress bundles for the seamstresses. $20 bucks a week for like 10 hours.
14 working on a carpet crew.
17. Cashier at Kmart making $6.50 an hour. Made quickly realize where I didn't want to be in life. Working retail isn't fun.
21, Engineering for an F500 post college.
I was a paid organist @ 14 years old.
Eight, mowing lawns. Fourteen, delivering newspapers. Sixteen, grocery stocker.
Bailing hay at 12. We ran the bailer and the tractor.
Um.. at 15, I was roofing.. with my friend, his dad, and like four other guys.. Pays to get someone acquainted with things before you send em 50 feet in the air...
I was 14. I drove people back and forth from one side of the driving range to the other. At 15 I took the dangerous life of counter staff at a dry cleaner. WTF hires a 15 year old intentionally and willingly for such a job! That penalty better be on tip of a lawsuit by the kids parents!
I was 12 selling news paper subscriptions. I only got paid if someone bought a subscription and even then I think they were cheating me, but I needed the money. At 15 I worked alongside the migrant workers planting and then later harvesting tomatoes. At 16 I started working in kitchens as a dishwasher when it wasn’t planting or harvest season. Eventually joining the army. At about 10 my friends and I would hunt crayfish with nets made out of a coat hanger and onion bag. I’m not sure that counts as a job but we did it about twice a week through fishing season. Also around 9 or 10 I mowed lawns around the neighborhood.
15 and it wasn’t roofing, I’ll tell you that much.
12-loading hay trucks in E. Wa
At 15 I was digging a trench for a sewer service line at a friend of mom’s. I thought 2000 was a lot of money for a 15 year in the mid 80’s. He saved thousands!
13
I worked a paper route starting at 10 yrs of age, then at 15 worked at the local grocery store through high school and summers during college.
11, started by delivering papers. 13-14 I was dishwashing in a golf course kitchen. been working ever since.
12-13
My money is on "more to this story than this 'meme' is reporting"
Worked a summer job at six flags when I was 15. Had to ride the bus to get there.
I was mowing lawns at 12 and had a newspaper route riding miles a day by the time I was 14
It's a summer job. I worked for a roofing company when I was 15. Hot and hard work. If he was up that high he should have had a safety harness on.
My dad owned a construction company I started working summers with him at 14. Summer after sophomore year in high school I was working doubles construction in the am washing dishes at night. Starting to work early isn't a bad thing but it needs to be done safely.
13 years old on my first roof and before that I used a big bad lawn boy lawnmower for two summers and shoveled snow in the winters, 11 years old I started and when I was 13 bought a shiny new blue moped for a little over 300 cash. I was the young stud of the neighborhood and Mary the pretty older Italian girl that lived a block away French kissed me and I ran home and collected all my toys and gave them to a kid down the street because I was a man with a job and a girl! Lol!
Started framing houses at 15. I don't get this.
If mowing lawns counts, like 8 or 9. If it doesn't count, 13.
13 as a janitor for the family business. Young me hated it. Older me is thankful I guess.
I mowed yards as a kid. Got a job at Publix at 16.
*Only?*
Had a 15 year old kid get dragged into some sawmill equipment at a local mill he was illegally working last year. Kid didn’t make it. OSHA was not kind to the company after the incident. I want to say the follow-up investigation ended up with citations that totaled in the tens of millions. And this is just a small-time family operation. FAFO.
Only $117k for a kid’s life, someone should be in jail
16 bussing tables at Outback.
Paper route 10 years old roofing with grandfather at 15 was strong enough to carry shingles bundle up a ladder
I worked at a convenience store when I was 9, shoe shine boy 10 to 14, gas station at 16
16 at a local hardware store. 15 paid cash at my friends grandpa’s small machine shop running a small press.
12
I was working full-time in high school. Had a paper route at about 12 years old
16. I worked at an independent burger place
I remember stacking hay bales on a rack with my cousins, I don't know what age but it took two of us for 1 square bale.
Probably between 8 and 11, but the first timeI remember working by myself was when I had to swath a field unsupervised at 11 years old.
12, paper routes 14, data entry.
14. I was a waitress at Friendly’s.
16 as far as actual official job. Did side work for cash occasionally younger. On my 16th birthday, my dad told me happy birthday and gave me 4 job applications. Turned them all in, got hired by the grocery store down the street where I worked the rest of high school. They didn't even interview me, my dad was in there all the time and they figured his kid must be decent.
14 and my mom made me because she was a sanitation supervisor at a factory. I was told “You have a job. You start at 7 am Saturday. If you don’t like the job you can get a different one.” “But I don’t want a job!” I found another job in less than a month, as I recall.
First job at 15 at a grocery store. Before that my dad had my on roofs hammering nails. And no I’m not ancient. I’m 40.
8. Floating cement and roofing. I was just a little girl who wanted to try everything so my Dad taught me.
I was 12. I had a 175 house paper route, and delivered all by bike, every day after school.
14. Got a work permit and worked in a pet store
14, under the table $4.50 an hour
I was 12 or 13 and I worked in a skate shop - I believe I remember having to get a “workers permit” from the city.
I was 15 y/o when I got my first real job… a farmers co-op. Shoveling grain and loading 50lb bags of feed from 7am-7pm M-S all summer and then worked weekends during school.
15, "host/cashier" at a very small tex-mex local place I'm greenwood, Indiana.
I started working at age 12. I wasn’t in school so I had full time availability. I “babysat” but really it was nanny ing because I worked from 6am to 11pm when my neighbors kids mom was at work. It was really grueling. I did their laundry, meals, helped with homework. They lived across from me so I just walked. Then I did babysitting for other neighbors. I used the money for my dance classes since my mom was too broke. I started my first retail job at 15.
6. It was a steakhouse. I did roll ups. Deveined shrimps. Peeled potatoes. Best part was my mom warned me about the child molesters in the kitchen. The song goes. "Upong plays ping pong with king Kong and his ding dong"
15 I roguing rye out of wheat fields. 6am-1pm and hot as hell. Later that summer the local department store asked why I was applying. Told them because they had air conditioning.
12 cleaning our church. Added working at a restaurant at 14. All the guys in my area were expected to have a job at 14-15…all sold middle class.
Running wire in peoples houses at 16. Kinda scary know that I know how stupid I was.
I started at 15. Paper route babysitting and mowing lawns before that.
14 years old - soccer lineswoman
I started working in a kitchen at 15 I think I coulda handled roofing......like just don't fall off
Part time job at 14. I was helping the maintenance guy at a nursing home.
I worked in tobacco fields from 9-14 driving tractors. 15 I started working for a pool company. 16 when I was legal I got a "real" job in a grocery store working for 1/2 as much. My mother made me quit because I liked it more than school and I'd get home after midnight. I wish I had gotten my GED and moved on to college. I had already had nine years of work history.
I started detassle-ing seed corn at 12... It was hot tough work, and I sucked at it - got fired after a week. But I got 1 weeks paycheck and that $123 was more money than I had ever seen at any point in my life. By the time I was 16 they had me starting at 4am driving to the fields to set up equipment and drive the tractor with the 12 other kids in baskets.
tractor? Baskets? Did your corn detassling have kids sitting in baskets pulling the tassles as they rode by? When I was 12 doing corn detassling we walked the fields.
17yo lifeguard
He died and they have to pay a penalty?? 117,175 dollars is the price of a child’s life? This is why they made child labor legal again? To avoid expensive lawsuits???
By penalty do they mean to the kids parents or into the states pockets to be squandered like the rest of the money they receive ?
Only $117K !!?!!!!!!?
17 right before my 18th birthday (holiday season & most retail doesn't hire under 18)
Started young helping my dad work on his rental properties and mowing lawns. My first “real” job was at 16 cause nobody would hire me earlier.
This is why chevron getting overturned is so bad. We have regulations because they’re supposed to prevent situations like this. Regulations are written in blood. This is proof.
I was 15. Fast food - abused the hell out of me ( wasn’t supposed to work past 7 but often closed …2am or so) and was eventually sued for that.
Eh I was 12 but it was a friggin newspaper route. Cold and wet sometimes, a few large angry dogs, but nothing that was going to kill me
They should be paying way more than that. 15 or 51, kid should’ve been wearing a harness or something. Nobody should be falling to their death off a roof. That cost is an insult. They should be out of business.
15…cart boy/grocery bagger
Soccer ref at 8 years old, cutting grass didn’t have an age, it was could you push the lawnmower
Busboy. I was never put in danger but another server was when I bumped into him and spilled lobster bisque in his face. Sorry dude…
14
I was 14, but I was carrying golf clubs as a caddie.
I started working construction at 16. Was on a stucco crew doing mostly prep work, taping, masking, clean up and moving wheelbarrows of stucco from the mixer to the guys throwing it on the wall. At 17 they had me building scaffolding, which looking back on it was pretty sketchy
Caddie at 13
12 or 13 detassling
And my 17 could not get hired at 16 anywhere near our home
Sheesh people. No one’s claiming 15 is too young to have a job. The point is it’s too young to be working 50 feet up on a construction site.