My first paying job was working at a drive-in theater snack bar. I was fourteen and living at home.
Later in high school and through college, I worked at a university-related but family-run bookstore. I made $1 an hour. About five years ago, I got a job working part time at a small, family-run bookstore downtown here in the Waterpark Capital of the World. I won't say what I was paid, but when I did an inflation-calculator check on it, I was being paid -- as an adult with advanced degrees and years of work experience -- the equivalent of that $1 an hour I had made back in 1970. And the bookstore wage was competitive for jobs in this area for many adults raising families. Wages are low, there are no benefits because you do not get to work full time. So many people have to work two-part time jobs at below minimum wage, often meaning they put in 60 hours a week. Too often both parents have to do this to make ends meet ...
I don't know how they do it.
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