My very first W-2 paying job was as a construction laborer for a small family construction company one very hot Virginia summer. The job, given my relative lack of skills, was doing whatever I was told to do – usually it meant picking up scraps and trash, moving dirt and cement in wheelbarrows, carrying shingles up to roofs and digging footings. All for the princely sum of $3.35 an hour – minimum wage at the time and I was probably overpaid at that. After taxes I think my checks were something like $118.00 for 40 hours of sweating in the sun.

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