My first “official” job was when I was 14. I earned less than a dollar a day and worked 7 days a week.
At 15 I worked as a helper in the construction business during the summer from 7 AM until 6 PM for 5 dollars a day.
At 16 I pumped gas for fift cents an hour.
Then I moved up to the big time. I sacked groceries for minimum wage which was $1.30 an hour.
Notice it was only at the last job was I getting minimum wage. At 18 I joined the Navy and took a cut in pay.
Every kid in the little town of 6 thousand had a job, if they wanted one. But it was because they didn’t get minimum wages. Small businesses couldn’t afford it.
I always hired teens to come into my child care center after school so that teachers could leave. They loved sitting down and playing, talking and watching the 2 1/2 through 5 year olds. The school age kid usually took to them too.
My first paid “job” was on the family farm. I had to laugh at the description from the article about the Lakota teen being rolled out of the Buffalo hide in the morning.
In the morning during the Summer “bean walking” season, my Dad would wake me up at the crack of dawn with “you’re missing the best part of the day!” NOT SO MUCH...LOL! Because we started at 6:00 AM...me and a group of my “town” friends...we got to knock off around Noon when it started to get too hot. That was my only paid job on the farm, as I helped to assemble crew...I think he thought it would be bad form to pay my friends, and not me.
I desperately wanted to be the “cool girl” with the Lifeguard job, and even got certified...but between the farm and sports, that was not to be.
My husband worked at two or three fast food jobs before he was 16; in a food distribution warehouse from 16-18; and then worked as a “helper” to a carpet installer, where he learned a valuable trade that came in handy in his early 20’s.
He went on to sales, and finally started his own business. I went to College (where I worked three different jobs...each better than the last); then went into sales; and now work in our business.
There is LOT to be gained when kids have the opportunity to learn job skills.