Low-Paying, High-Value Jobs

I've held one job or another since 1977 when I was 10 years old.  My first job was as a Canton Repository newspaper delivery boy.

That job paid 70 cents a day during weekdays--about 35 cents an hour!

That wasn't my lowest-paying job, though.

That distinction goes to my job working with the custodial crew at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Massillon, Ohio.

I worked after school when I was a sophomore in high school and on days off from school.  I worked one summer there too.

I swept floors and worked in nearly every inch of the church and school.  I helped shellac the gym floor and got to try my hand at the marble buffing machines.  I had to call their bluff, though, when the crew joked they wanted me to crawl inside and clean out the boiler.

My personal take home pay for a year on the job?  $0

The job paid $2 per hour in tuition credits that went to reduce my family's burden for Catholic school tuition at the high school.  I could be proud that I paid for one year of my schooling, but cash money was a no go.

It was worth it.

To this day, I can credit a great deal of my work ethic to that stint.  I encouraged my oldest to take a job at age 15 not for the pay but for the value of it.