I am a student and a teen worker. My co-workers’ ages range from 15-50 and we all do the same job, but do we all make the same pay? When I go to work, I do what I am supposed to. I work hard and get the job done, and I watch full grown adults goof off and play on their phones. Is it fair that I make less than they do, when I work harder, but I am just a teenager?
Adulting
If you look at the statistics you will see that 3% of teen workers make minimum wage or less compared to the 1% of their adult counterparts (Korhonen). While this may not seem like a lot, look at the number of people we are talking about! Just because I am 18 I am seen as lazy and unmotivated. Why?? Because I am not considered an adult. Yet the adults that are working with me look like they are lazy and unmotivated. These adults do not sit in school all day and then work 30+ hours a week. They work their jobs and then live their lives, whatever that consists of, but they bring home more money.
I Work Because I Have To
Look at the reasons that teens work. Some feel like it is because they just want money to buy stuff, but I know adults who are like that. There are teens out there who have to help their parents pay bills, or put food on the table. They may be parents themselves, or paying rent on their own. It is very easy to judge someone because of their age, but until you walk in their shoes, you don’t know what is going on. I know the same can be said about adults who work, but people do not look at them and think they are lazy and just doing a job to get money to buy stuff. People look at them and possibly think, look they are working and getting their lives together. Where is the fairness in that call? Someone who is 25 versus an 18 year old should be at a point where they are working to get their lives together. They have the experience to do it.
Low Wages
Don’t get me started on the minimum wage issues either! Most jobs want you to come in with experience in order to make more money, but no one wants to be the first employee to give you the experience that will help you make more money. So what do they do? They pay you less. In some states, “Teens who make $4.25 an hour are only allowed to make youth minimum wage for the first 90 days of employment then the employer can change it back” (Fact Sheet #32, under what is youth minimum wage section). That blows my mind, because you are being paid based on your age, not what you can do.
We Wanna Work!
Don’t you want to go to work and earn a fair wage? Wouldn’t it be nice if you the work you did, just like Mr. Smith over there, was rewarded with equal pay? The thought is like a bright, sunny day, welcome and needed. Let’s make the negative connotations about teen workers disappear. Pay me what you are paying the other <insert title here>, because we are doing the same thing. Sometimes I go above and beyond, do more than what you expect, then that becomes the expectation. However, the rate of pay is still the same, LOW!
Conclusion
The math in this equation is simple. Equal pay plus equal work equals a happy worker, no matter what age they are. Don’t look at me and my friends and think that because we are teens we are lazy, or won’t do a good job, or don’t deserve a chance. We do and we will prove it to you, but be fair. I go to school and work an almost full time job. Summers are not spending playing outside anymore, but working full-time. Shouldn’t I be paid the same as Mr. Smith? Shouldn’t we?
