Where does everyone live?

If you live in DC, kids as young as 14 are guaranteed jobs through the Mayor Summer Youth Employment program. Pay is lower at 14, then steps up at 16 and then steps up again (I think) at 18.

However, you had to register in February, so mark it on your calendar for next year.

My 18 year old started looking for a job at 16. He got rejection after rejection. Even as a HS senior who had an abbreviated school schedule and was willing to work M-F from noon on and any time Sat and Sun. He tried retail and gyms. In fairness, he didn’t try restaurants. He can’t swim well so lifeguarding was out. He did get offered a position as a camp counselor at a sleepaway camp but the pay was awful considering the hours and level of responsibility. And that was only for 8 weeks and he wanted to work during the school year. So he decided to think outside the box and now is working as a soccer coach. He started as a volunteer and took the courses to get licensed. It’s ended up being a perfect solution for him and he will be able to continue doing it in college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is a retail thread, but have you all looked into babysitting, dog walking, or mowing lawns? Mowing lawns is the perfect summer job for a teen. I pay babysitters $20-25 an hour and that's pretty standard. It's hard to get a retail job that pays anywhere near that. Also, it's like $75 a night for dog watchers and $25 a walk. My dog is very chill and is a joy to take care of.

Retail has been gutted by the requirements to pay health care and benefits once you hit 40 hours a week. The companies just can't afford it so they keep hours very low.

My high schooler mows lawns and it is very hard to fill up his entire summer. Many people have lawn services for year round contracts that cover everying from areation, tree trimming and cheimcal application. he can't compete with that. He does have about 6 reliable customers, but it is far from full time. And if you have a boy, very very hard to get babysitting jobs.

Is he putting ads in people's mailboxes/doors? We had a local teen on our street do that and every single house hired him. It was just so refreshing to see a teen looking for work. A local girl babysitter did the same and she was always busy.

Yes. Times have changed for the worse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd works at a chain coffee place and she has 1 shift a week right now. She can occasionally pick up one or two more. They have so many employees.

I find this hard to believe (generally). If all these places have so many employees wanting extra shifts why are they also so often short staffed because someone called in sick? Seems like there would be lots of people willing to work that extra shift? How can there be so many but not enough at the same time?

Because they all use dynamic scheduling software and don’t let you know your shifts until last minute. People have to cobble together a bunch of jobs and so if someone just doesn’t show it’s hard to find someone available at the last minute. That’s 100x more common than a worker actually giving any kind of notice by calling in sick.

I worked 3 jobs in college - research (to get into grad school, but also a passion, alumni calling and Mary Kay). None of those even remotely paid my HYPSM bills, but it taught me skills that landed me future jobs when I needed it.

Work for the university. My kids work every day.

Anonymous wrote:My dd works at a chain coffee place and she has 1 shift a week right now. She can occasionally pick up one or two more. They have so many employees.

I find this hard to believe (generally). If all these places have so many employees wanting extra shifts why are they also so often short staffed because someone called in sick? Seems like there would be lots of people willing to work that extra shift? How can there be so many but not enough at the same time?