I babysat when I was 12 until I was 18. Made $0.75 an hour. My dad was not employed for much of my adolescence so I paid for my own entertainment and made my own clothes with the babysitting money. Oh, and I paid for flute lessons, too.
When I was 16 I got a job in a fabric store cutting fabric for customers. It was OK work, and I got a discount on fabric, so more clothes. By then I had learned to be frugal, so I saved much of what I made $$, and what with scolarships and grants and loans put myself through college. I went to an expensive private college:tuition room and board cost approximately $7000 per year! I did take a year off to work at a local chemical company. Thought I was in heaven making $6.00/hr. Graduated in 1980.
Now I'm a research biologist, and I love my work so much, I would do it even if they didn't pay me. But, of course, they do.