Tough to say. This was 30 years ago so I don't recall what I was paid.
- I didn't need a "living wage" because I wasn't a breadwinner for a family of 4; I was a teen trying to earn spending money.
- The moment I got my license I went and got a job selling computers at Best Buy because the pay was better and foodservice sucks. But I'm sure the work experience that I had at Subway and with my previous jobs was probably a feather in my cap for Best Buy to hire a 16 year old.
Working at Subway wasn't a factory town scenario; "work for what we offer or you starve". I worked there because it was the best option I had at the time and moved on when it wasn't.
I made
$5.00/hr working landscaping for two summers going into my Junior and Senior years of High School. Overtime, which usually amounted to bailing hay through the same employer, was paid at $5.00/hr. Not time-and-a-half. I also made
$5.15/hr at Burger King, working evening shifts during my Senior year. This was just over
twenty years ago.
At that younger age those first "high school jobs" expose you more to the outcomes of life than anything your parents, teachers, pastors, and coaches can warn you about. For example, when I was hired onto Burger King through the recommendation of a classmate, I noticed right away our flabby armed manager - she was built like a bowling pin, her hair was steel wool, her breath smelled like smoke, and most notably she was
51 years old. Do the math (like I did): 51 was exactly
three times my age at the time -
17.
Working/answering to someone
three times my age at Burger King provided far more motivation for me to take my future seriously than my parent's insistent advice, lectures, and rules, one of which was their rule against working during the school year. A rule I fought against once I'd given up on sports. "But it'll hurt your grades!" Instead, Burger King motivated me to maximize my grades. (I think that's called irony.)
As for my manager, she ended up firing the classmate who convinced her to hire me by having him arrested on shift for stealing cash from the register. He'd been stealing for a while, but she was waiting to get rid of him in order to time his firing with making room on the grill for her shaggy-haired common-law boyfriend who, at 46, was out free after finishing a two-year stint for trafficking methamphetamine. He ended up liking me because I carried around a lighter that I let him borrow whenever he went out for a smoke break.
