What are you saying is a reasonable wage?
When I was a teenager I could easily find a job at minimum wage and I have no doubt that any teenager could walk into any McDonald's and get a job 2 or 3 dollars above minimum.
Yes, I agree that a teen can get a job at McDonalds, etc., much of the times. But look at this way. How many City McDonalds do you walk into tehse days and find somebody who is not speaking to you in some sort of English jumbled with Spanish. It is my understanding that many of tehse restaurants are far more likely to hire somebody who speaks limited English but fluent Spanish than they are to hire somebody who just speaks English.
Secondly, for a teenager it is extremely difficult these days to find a manual labor job for one or two dollars above minimum, atleast in some parts of this country.