Things I’ve Done for $14 an Hour

Photo by Florian Doppler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photography-number-14-3530752/

I became a stay at home mom when my oldest was born, so it’s been about six years since I’ve worked full-time at a regular job. At both of my workplaces I maxed out at $14 an hour. At one of those I was an assistant pre-K teacher. The other was at an amusement park and I was a foreman. So here are some things I did for $14 an hour:

• Monitor how fast the roller coaster is going and lube the track as necessary so no one gets stuck.
• Clean up a lot of bodily fluids.
• Help evacuate a classroom of children when a nearby building explodes.
• Make sure all the ride operators get their breaks at a reasonable time.
• Organize a weekly open mic, particularly so the quiet kids have a chance to be the center of attention.
• Fight for a special needs student to get the help they need and coming up with creative solutions in the meantime.
• Inspect a third of the rides daily and talk with maintenance about any issues.
• Clean a lot of glitter and paint.
• Told a lot of ride operators “no” to whatever unsafe or dumb thing they were doing.
• Helped find a kid who got separated from his mom.
• Fumbled my way through fixing audio equipment.
• Talked about how yummy vegetables are.

Nowadays I’d be making at least $18 an hour for any of these tasks.