Does anyone remember work permits?

[Robert]

I was remembering somethings and heard Jean Shepard that I posted and he talked about work permits. It was for kids between 14 to 16 to allow them to work. Can you imagine that today, we cannot even get people to work but in that day the kids wanted to work and needed to work.

I think I remember having one for a bit but I did not ever really work for any factory or work that needed it. A bit of history that is gone and even reflected the difference in times.

[Oss]

I needed one to work for the school district after classes in  HS

Ya wanna crummy job  guess what the custodians dont wanna do?   

cant remember if needed for the paper route  but you dont need one to mow lawns   I towed the mower behind my 10 speed schwinn varsity

[0leman]

Never had one of those permits.   Mowed lawns till I was old enough to lifeguard at local pool.   The mowing jobs were cash money type.   I started lifeguarding at 15, no one said anything about work permit,  This was in Tulsa back in '61.  Was paid by check and had $$ taken out for SS and taxes.

[f6john]

I moved to DC in 1970 to work for the FBI as a file clerk in the fingerprint division at the age of 17. Shortly after starting I was enrolled in a fingerprint technician school where you were taught how to “read” and classify fingerprints. Once I completed the training I was moved to the basement and worked the night shift. Moving from days and still not quite 18 years old I was required to have a work permit.


Oh my gosh, that’s been 50 years ago! I bet the process has changed dramatically now with computers. For the curious, the process 50 years ago was as follows. A law enforcement agency would send a set of fingerprints to the FBI for a search of their files for a criminal record. I would take that set of prints and using a magnifying glass would give each finger a classification and then that would allow for a search parameter to go check fingerprints with the same parameters. The building I worked in covered an entire city block and most of the floors consisted of nothing but filing cabinets . Once you got to the filing cabinets that held prints with the same search parameters you then pulled out each record on file and using your magnifying glass you had to compare each individual fingerprint to determine if you had an exact match.

[The emperor has no clothes]

Never had one of those permits.   Mowed lawns till I was old enough to lifeguard at local pool.   The mowing jobs were cash money type.   I started lifeguarding at 15, no one said anything about work permit,  This was in Tulsa back in '61.  Was paid by check and had $$ taken out for SS and taxes.

No permits in AK either. Been paying Social Security and taxes since I was 14. Didn’t have to with my paper route at 13.

[John Schmidt]

Yup...dad had a work permit requirement that went into effect once you were old enough to at least mow lawns. You work...which permitted you to have something to eat.   It was never the amount of money earned or the type or work done, it was simply the fact that you worked...at something.

[Bret SD]

I started working for my dad at age 9 pumping gas, and I had a paper route. Also worked summer jobs at the local park district as well as a Libby's plant where my grandfather worked as head of building maintenance.

Nobody ever mentioned a work permit.

[old2soon]

       Paper route at 13 turning wrenches-well changing oil in vehicles on an outside 2 post lift at 16 and do Not recall needing a work permit. Oh and pump gas now and then. This was Well Before self serve. And Mom and Dad INSISTED I open a savings account. RIDE SAFE. P S-just cuz I had a Job did NOT relieve me of the household chores.

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

I had to get one, but I think it was at 13. We lived across the street from a garden center / nursery and I got myself a job there loading trucks and working in the yard to keep trees upright, etc. Prior to that, I washed dishes at a bar that was within bicycle riding distance from my house. Paid in cash, since I was too young for a permit then. Saw some things there that an 11 year old kid probably shouldn't have 

[Avanti]

I was raised on a farm in Illinois. My father permitted me to work all I wanted and I enjoyed it. I learned to supervise myself at a very young age operating large equipment long before a driver’s license.

[G-Man]

When I was a kid in NYC we called them Working Papers.  Had to go to the board of health when I was 12 to get them/it.  I needed them/it to deliver the afternoon edition of the NY Post.

Remember when newspapers had multiple editions.  I also used to insert the Sunday Daily News and Sunday NY Times for the corner "candy store".  Anyway, the Daily news had a morning edition, an evening edition, and sports edition.  For the Sunday NY Times there was a Saturday night edition a Sunday edition, and a Sunday Sports edition.  The NY Post had an early afternoon edition and an evening/sports edition. 

[Jess from VA]

Never had nor heard of a work permit (for youth, I've heard of them for illegals).

Your work permit was a demonstrated willingness to work hard.  Without that, you had no job. 

I can just see my dad's face if I had raised the issue of child labor laws when raking the five foot piles of leaves in our yard. 

It would have been a laughing face..... followed by a discussion of how nice my room, clothes and dinners were, at no charge.

On the other hand, I have not seen any manual labor by any children in my neighborhood, forever.  Not many even ride bicycles (also manual labor).

I'm so stupid I though manual labor was a Mexican.     

[cookiedough]

not sure ever needed a work permit for young kids under age 15/16 working?

Gee,  has anyone on this board NOT started off delivering newspapers?  I did it with my bicycle (and moms help walking a few blocks to nearby houses) but the pay was not great I think was around 30 bucks per week and that also had to try collecting the money and sending the money in as well to the local newspaper company weekly.  Was way too much work trying to collect payments weekly when NO ONE was home after school from say 3:30 to 5 p.m. while delivering the newspaper besides retired folks.

[da prez]

Is that the same as work release

                              da prez

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

I did deliver newspapers long before needing a work permit. I needed to get it before the nursery I spoke earlier of would hire me. I was no stranger to working around the house and yard either. My Dad was a machinist and a former auto mechanic. Also collected scrap metal. I was his "assistant" from the time I was about 3.

[pais]

In Kent, Ohio yes, work permit was required. I believe the school district required the permit. My first tax  paying job at the age of 14 as a pin chaser at the local bowling alley, a work permit was required.

Just last weekend, the family and I were at a family picnic with the Wifey's side. Our son asked his cousin what she (15yo) would be doing for the summer. Her response was that she would mostly be doing nothing. He asked her about work. She responded, "no way". Our son's response was, "Mom and Dad made me start working the summer I was 14". Yes we did! 20 hours a week at the local grocery store bagging groceries and chasing shopping carts.

 

Yup...dad had a work permit requirement that went into effect once you were old enough to at least mow lawns. You work...which permitted you to have something to eat.   It was never the amount of money earned or the type or work done, it was simply the fact that you worked...at something.

This was the law of the land growing up in my Father's house and has been the same in our house. Our daughter is the oldest and as soon as I felt confident she could handle the lawn mower 12 or 13 I believe, she began mowing the lawn. She was 15 when she found her first tax paying job at Subway. The lawn mowing job then fell to our son @ 13yo and continues to this day as he is about to be 21yo. It absolutely amazes me when I see or hear from family and friends that they mowed their lawn and they have a child living at home. It will be a cold day in h^*l when I'm out mowing, doing trash removal, dishes and the like whilst a kid is playing on their phone, video games or such!

[Dave Ritsema]

Yep,

Living in Indiana I had to get one in 1975 from the school system so I could work at the local Ponderosa when I was 15. That was my big graduation from lawn mowing into corporate America. 

[Patrick]

I never had a permit either, started working at 7. Now its against the law in NYS for kids to start lawn mowing until they are, I believe, 14.

[RP#62]

Evidently they are required in the Bahamas.  I went to Nassau once to retrieve a broke Convair 440.  I had the left engine opened up and various parts removed for troubleshooting and this little pickup drove up with flashing lights and a guy in uniform asked to see my work permit.  I didn't have one (or know what they were).  He gave me two hours to produce one or face arrest, so I put the airplane back together and we flew somewhere else.
-RP

[0leman]

Funny how talk of job and working as a young one brings back memories.   I started during the grass growing season mowing lawns at 10,  I was always a bit big for my age.  Mowed lawns till I was 15 and could get a lifeguard job.   I don't remember my sister, 2 yrs older, ever having a job outside of an occasional baby sitting job.

Yeah, both of us, my sister and me, had chores around the house to do.   AND got an allowance for doing them.   Help my dad do stuff around the house on weekends.  Did a lot of concrete work.

My DW and I have 3 girls.  They growing up in Southern WY didn't have a lot of chances for jobs till they were 16.   They got jobs waiting tables.  WE got them a car to drive but they had to put gas in it, so needed a job.  They even worked while in college to help pay their way. 

My grandsons here in town also have gotten jobs during the summers and after school.  Their folks taught them well.  Oldest is leaving to start his sophomore year the first of July.  Leaving early so he can get a job before school starts and beat the rest of the school attendees.  It will be his first year at college as he had to do his freshman year at home on the internet.