The Disappearing Teenage Worker

Teenage workers are disappearing from the U.S. workforce. Something appears to have happened to drive them out of the workforce in large numbers. Phil Miller and Doc Palmer say that the recent mandated hikes in the minimum wage very likely has something to do with the teenagers getting disappeared, but no one in the media is willing to finger them as a promising culprit behind the workplace disappearances.

To find out, we went straight to the source: the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What we did was to take the BLS' report on the Characteristics of Minimum Wage Earners, 2007 and compare it to their report on the Characteristics of Minimum Wage Earners, 2005. Why these two years? Mainly, 2005 was the last full year in which the BLS' compiled the report under the old minimum wage rate of $5.15 per hour, while 2007 saw the mandated minimum wage rate increased by 13.6% to $5.85 per hour on 24 July 2007.

Here's what we found when we compared Table 7 of both reports, which breaks down the number of hourly wage earners by age group. Our first table shows the number of hourly wage earners in each wage group, broken down by those making more than the federal minimum wage for 2005 and 2007 and those earning the federal minimum wage or less for both years:

When I was a teenager in the 1960’s, a common job was lifeguard at the community pool or beach. It paid minimum wage, but the non-wage benefits were considerable ... This summer, the local community pools had to restrict hours of operation because so few qualified people applied for lifeguard jobs. Same thing with summer vacation spots up and down the East Coast. A lot of teens travel now in the summer, with friends or family, or go to academic summer camps in the rat race to polish an upcoming college application.

Work 'em, pay 'em, praise them when they do well, mentor them.

It's pretty tough to mentor a kid who politely approaches you for work, then won't listen when you try to correct him on mistakes he makes. This most recent kid, instead of listening, decided it would be a better idea to flip me off and tell me to go f*ck myself, all because I pointed out some spots he missed with the weed eater. I fault the parents more than I fault the kid in this incidence. Clearly, this kid has had little or no home training.

You are right, though, it's a different era. If I'd have hired on with a neighbor when I was a kid, then quit two days later, my father would have dealt with me in his own way. He would have sought out the person who hired me to find out what happened. My father didn't tolerate quitters, cheats or liars. My father also would never have let me back talking an adult slide, much less tolerate a kid actually having the audacity to spew vulgarities at an adult. If this kid had been me at 13 I wouldn't have been sitting down for a while.

I predict that this kid's parents will be bailing him out of jail in the not too distant future......

He would have sought out the person who hired me to find out what happened. My father didn't tolerate quitters, cheats or liars. My father also would never have let me back talking an adult slide, much less tolerate a kid actually having the audacity to spew vulgarities at an adult. If this kid had been me at 13 I wouldn't have been sitting down for a while.

Obviously, you also grew up in an era when or household where respecting one's elders was normal, self-respect was prized, and self-esteem came after that, in moderation.

My father also would have pursued the facts, and then acted accordingly.

Had I quit for cause, he would have stood behind me.

Otherwise, there was always something which needed to be done around the house, and the list of onerous chores was unending (until I found another job which would invariably pay much better).

That was understood, and Dad and I had few problems, ever.

Spewing vulgarities at adults was definitely out, and spewing vulgarities in general not tolerated.

It is interesting to note I had heard none of the late Mr. Carlin's notorious 'seven words you could not say on television' on television until well after I graduated from college. Now, most are commonplace.

I have overheard language which would have had one up on obscenity charges in the day--(not that we did not ever cuss, but that there was a time and place for everything).

Unfortunately, parents have been stripped of many of the tools which instilled respect, or at least sufficient dread of punishment to cause children to maintain a modicum of civility.

But the machinations of Socialists in Government and academia designed to eliminate the family as the fundamental unit of government have been steadily eroding parental authority for decades, and our culture is only just beginning to reap the 'benefits' of that effort.

One kid out of about 15 I've hired actually stayed with me all summer (and he made a pile of cash in the process). The rest lasted two to four days before they either quit because "it's hot" or I had to let them go because they just wouldn't work. After the first two days of work, I reviewed the efforts of the most recent kid I hired this year and he blew up at me, screamed a bunch of vulgarities, flipped me off and told me to go do something that is physically impossible. This was a 13 year old, no less.

Bit of advice. Post your "help wanted" ad to local homeschool groups. You'll be amazed at the quality of kid you get--and they may even be excited about working for you.

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