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Working teens live the high life
My 13-year-old brother is dying to get a job, and I can’t blame him. For over a year, he’s been counting down the days until he can get his first summer job. He’s even been playing a game online where he runs a fast food business, I guess for practice. His first real work may not come until next year, but if it was completely up to him, he’d be working now and finishing school work in his spare time.
But while many people may try to scare him away from time clocks and fast food uniforms with the “You have the whole rest of your life to work,” argument, I’m completely on his side.
For the kids who work for their own benefit, the few years before they hit 16 are, hands down, the best years to be employed. It goes steadily downhill from that point, so my brother should enjoy it while he can.
Assuming you live in America and will make more than a dime a day, voluntarily working in your early teens is cool, mainly because most kids don’t do it. The only thing smaller than the number of kids working by choice at that age is the ratio of their income that’s tied up in expenses. Sure, my brother may make minimum wage at his first job, but it’s $7.25 an hour of pure profit which he can spend any way he chooses.
Just by working a few shifts during the week, a working 14-year-old is suddenly the kid at school who has a wallet full of cash and everything he or she wants at home. There’s no waiting until birthdays for a PSP or begging Mom for a new pair of shoes. If they want it, they just buy it.
At that age, kids may as well get paid in Toys “R” Us Geoffrey Dollars, because they really have nothing to buy except for toys. They have no car payments to make, no rent due every month. Even the portion paid to Uncle Sam ends up coming back to them. With no obligations, working kids essentially get a check for Monopoly money every other week.
All of their needs are taken care of, so every dime spent is discretionary. Having so much extra dough, what would be poverty-level wages for an adult translate into a six-figure salary in the kid exchange rate. They don’t have much, but it’s more than they know what to do with.
When I was around my brother’s age, my best friend started working just for the extra money. I thought he was crazy, that is, until I saw the lavish lifestyle he lived. He was throwing around cash like he was on the set of Goodfellas, making incredibly dumb purchases with no parental permission or consequences, and I thought it was awesome.
One summer afternoon, we were hungry for lunch but didn’t want to make anything. Without any prior deliberation, he picked up the phone and had a feast delivered to us from Papa John’s. He even gave the delivery guy a nice tip – a goody bag of bills and candy.
That’s the type of lifestyle my brother wants to live while he still can, and he’s willing to work anywhere to do so. If he starts right away, he can live the next few years like he’s set for life and on the verge of retirement.
Too bad he can’t retire so soon, though, because once he gets a car and the expenses that accompany it, work becomes a necessity, and while he’ll start to work more, he’ll have considerably less to show for it.
If he could have legally worked at age 10, I would have told him to do it. Let him be wealthy for a few years before adulthood robs him blind. Plus it would be nice if he had some money to loan his broke older brother.
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