Teenagers and Part-Time Jobs: Benefits, Drawbacks and Tips
Adolescence is that difficult period of time when carefree children transition to responsible adults… we hope. That is the goal, after all, for teens to develop into mature, productive, responsible members of the community. One method for assisting this transition is obtaining part-time employment. A job can help teenagers better develop their identities, obtain increased autonomy, achieve new accomplishments, develop work experience, and become more independent from their parents.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 50 percent of American teenagers hold informal jobs, such as babysitting or yard work, by age 12. Boys tend to begin their jobs at younger ages and work more hours than girls. By age 15, nearly two-thirds of American teens have had some kind of employment. By the time teens graduate from high school, 80% will have held a part-time job at some time during the school year. The average high school student works 20 hours per week, and about 10% work full time (35 hours or more).
There are many obstacles to teens obtaining employment. Finding reliable transportation is critical, and that can be difficult if the job is not close by and the teen’s parent(s) work. Fighting stereotypes that employers have about adolescents, such as poor attitudes or lack of skills, can be challenging. In this particular economy, there aren’t very many job opportunities for teens.
Teens want to work for a variety of reasons, but more than half report their involvement in work is motivated by the desire to buy things. Typically, teens spend their money on car expenses, recreational expenses, clothing, educational expenses, saving for college, and helping their families with living expenses (e.g., rent, groceries).
Researchers have studied and debated the benefits and drawbacks of teens and part-time jobs for more than 2 decades. Many researchers, including those on government panels like the National Commission on Youth, praise part-time work and say it contributes to the transition from youth to adulthood. Other studies have found significant negative consequences to students working over 20 hours a week. We will take a close look at both.
Benefits of Teens Holding a Part-Time Job
There are many benefits to adolescents obtaining employment, including:
- Obtain valuable work experiences, which are excellent for a resume.
- Learn how to effectively manage finances. Even if the teen is simply using their earnings to pay for their own expenses, they will learn to budget between clothes, movies, and car expenses.
- May provide networking possibilities and set a child on a rewarding lifetime career path.
- Provide constructive use of free time. An after-school job can also provide adult supervision, especially if you work longer hours than those in a typical school day. Employment gives teens less time to engage in risky behaviors.
- Learn time management skills.
- Form good work habits.
- Gain useful, marketable skills such as improving their communication, learning how to handle people, developing interview skills and filling out job applications.
- Instill new confidence, sense of responsibility and independence.
Drawbacks of Teens Holding a Part-Time Job
There are also negative consequences of teen employment that may outweigh the positive benefits, such as:
- Less time for homework. Working students may not have or make the time to complete their work.
- Higher rates of absenteeism and less school involvement. Employment may place constraints on the student’s study and sleep time. Fatigue or lack of preparation for the day’s academic activities may discourage the working teen from going to school and a job may take the place of extracurricular activities.
- Lower grades in school. Students who work more than 20 hours a week have grade point averages that are lower than other students who work 10 or less hours a week.
- More likely to use drugs and alcohol. Research suggests that substance abuse is higher for students who work 20 or more hours per week.
- Development of negative views of work itself. Early entry into a negative or harsh work environment may encourage negative views of work. This would depend greatly on the maturity level of the teenager and the type of job obtained.
- Increased stress. Balancing work and school can prove to be too much for any student.
Research seems to suggest that students that work 10 hours or less a week gain the benefits of employment, while students that work over 20 hours a week suffer the negative consequences of work mentioned above. Other factors that affect how students handle employment and school life include the intensity and difficulty of the work done.
Summer Employment
Summer employment is an excellent alternative, as it does not interfere with schooling and provides teens with a constructive use of their free time. It allows adolescents to garner all the benefits of employment without overtaxing their busy school schedules. Teens should begin looking for summer employment during Spring Break. Possible jobs for teens are: landscaping, delivering newspapers, babysitting, retail stores (such as grocery stores or clothing stores), movie theaters, working at a theme park, being a camp counselor, lifeguarding at a pool, and dog walking.
Work Requirements
The U.S. Department of Labor sets the minimum age for employment at 14. It also limits the number of hours worked by minors under the age of 16. However, minimum age requirements do not apply to minors employed by their parents or guardian. Youths of any age may also deliver newspapers; perform in radio, television, movie, or theatrical productions; and babysit or perform other minor duties around a private home. Laws regulating employment of minors vary among states and U.S. territories, for example, many states require youth to obtain an employment and/or age certificate prior to being hired. Many times these certificated are issued by the school, but you should contact your state’s Department of Labor for more information.
How Parents Can Help Working Teens
Before your teen applies for employment, be sure to discuss the pros and cons with him or her, as well as the responsibilities associated with a job. You may also want to agree to a job on a trial basis, such as “you can work x number of hours a week this grading period and then we will decide if you can keep working, based on your grades.” There are several things that you as a parent can do for your teen to help ease the stress associated with juggling school, work, and family life:
- Come to a consensus about how you expect your teen to use his or her income. Will they be helping out with family finances? Would you like them to begin saving for college? Reaching a consensus will help to avoid later conflicts about money. Prepare a budget with your child, setting limits on spending and enforcing a percentage-of- paycheck-into-savings policy with which you’re both comfortable.
- Create a daily or weekly schedule with your teen that highlights the time that they spend working and the time they spend on homework and other school-related activities.
- Set up family time periodically. This could be once a week or month and is a time where you and your teen can reconnect through conversations, game playing, or family outings.
- Teach your teen practical ways to manage adverse situations on their jobs as well as in school.
- Teach your teen effective ways to manage the many demands that are made on their time. As they move closer to adulthood it will be necessary to manage many demanding roles as their responsibilities increase. This is a good time to learn how to use their time and resources wisely.
- Most importantly, be supportive.
Part-time jobs can be a wonderful experience, with the right supervision and parental guidance.
Teenagers juggling part-time jobs face a unique challenge, striving to balance responsibility with studies. As they dip their toes into the working world, they gain more than just a paycheck. The experience molds their identities, fostering autonomy and maturity. However, caution must be exercised. Long hours might rob them of study time, affecting academic performance. Moderation is key; 10 hours or less per week strikes a balance between reaping job benefits and safeguarding grades. So, let’s encourage our young ones to embrace work, but also guide them towards prudent time management.
Good to have both sides of JOb related queries . Thank you .
Great post but I think you have not mentioned few other jobs which can be very useful for students. We have published one article on our website with collaboration of a job portal for students in UK. I am sure it will be a good read 🙂 Have a look!
The Best Part Time Jobs For Students – Top Five
Thank you so much for giving your opinions about jobs for teens! This article has given me a lot of info about the benefits, drawbacks and tips which enables me to write so much for my debate speech. Your article really helped me and I hope that you can continue to do what you love. Thank You! ^-^
I think you have noted some very interesting points , appreciate it for the post.
Great article- it really does help me create a pros and cons list for my own situation!
All teenagers must have a job. Teaches them responsibility. The current generation of youths are going to turn out to be lazy because all they do is play video games. All teenagers need a job, even if it is a job working a few hours a day.Please check out my blog, for ideas for youths.
As a student myself I already work hard during school and even on weekends because of school. I barely get time for myself because of school even if I am on top of my work, that’s how much they pressure use to do better and give us loads of work. And even during summer I don’t have much time for myself either, I take extra curricular classes and summer classes and I have little time for just myself. don’t call us lazy and especially me when you are probably not in school anymore, things change and I personally don’t think you can just call all youth lazy. I personally put everything into my education and making myself a good person and I didn’t need a job to give me these life lessons.
There is definately a lot to learn about this issue. I like all of the points you have made.
Then how about students who need money immediately?
Those who are too poor to live up. And even if not so, why can’t they have freedom of choice?
I think It is one kind of social activity that should be encouraged.
I read the article and i was wondering what the date was when this was researched.
This article was researched in Spring of 2010.
I’m a senior this year and I work 20 hours a week and I’m taking all my core classes so I am loaded on homework this year. It is extremely stressful and I would not recommend it to anyone unless you have a lot of motivation and are willing to giv up most of your social life. If you are currently in school I would not recommend working more than 10 hours a week. 15 at tops unless you want to be stressed and not get proper sleep
I am still at school and worj for 30 hours a week i agree it is very stressful. I tend to leave my howework undone and not to stud enough for tests and although I get good grades they could get much better if I didn’t work and my grades wouldn’t look so much like a yoyo sometimes ver high and others very low :/ I also lack social life since only sundays are off. To sum up I strongly discourage working for more than 20 hours.
I work 42 hours a week and have a 4.0 its all about your work ethic people are to quick to just say its to stressful and give up thats why I always push myself to work more hours to prove how lazy and how quickly others quit and thats why i want my kids to work someday because it installs the never quit attitude.
Im in college full time, taking 5 classes at nights and on the weekends, and I work 45 hours a week at my job. The truth is, some people can’t go to school and support themselves on 15 or 20 hours a week. High school teens having jobs is good, because it prepares them for the work-study balance that they may have to live with in college.
I’m so glad I came across this post. My daughter wants to get her dilpoma online so she can work more, she claims it will make her feel more productive. I want to support her because I’ve heard good things about high school diploma programs, but I don’t want it to be too much for her. I’ll be sure to show this to her, thanks for sharing.
This article helped me a lots thanks 🙂 xx
Tenacity is also key for applying for part time jobs as a teenager. Employers like to hire teens who “want” the job.
I found this article helpful. I’m writing a paper on the benefit of teens working for one of my college courses. I never really thought of the draw backs of working and this opened me to a new way to look at things.
I think sergio was arrogant not the article. The article is very informative and explained the pros and cons of of adolescent employment.
Well another option for teens is to work online. There are lots of work from home employment opportunities out there for them. Among the advantages that they can get is better pay and they don’t have to leave the house. Transportation alone takes a lot of time. Working from home will allow them to allocate more time to their homework.
I think this article is very arrogant. Every teen should have a job, there are no drawbacks. It provides teens with responsibility and spending money, which I think everyone can agree is a need for teens. You and other push over parents just encourage teens to be lazy and not get a job. Don’t get me wrong, homework is important, but don’t you feel that life skills are just as important if not more?..
Thank you for reading this article and giving your opinion. The article was trying to explain both the pros and cons to teen employment so that parents can make an informed decision as to what is best for their child based on the child’s age and personal circumstances. The major drawbacks we listed were actually derived from recent studies and research which has shown that teenagers working more than 20 hours a week were more likely to engage in substance abuse and have lower grade point averages. The benefits for teenagers working 10 hours or less a week are significant and do encourage life skills which are critical to helping youth develop into responsible adults. Every family will have to consider these pros and cons and decide what works best for them.
Skills are no more important than homework.. Without the homework, your child won’t get a good paying job or into college. As an adult who had a job from the age of 14, it is a hard task. And people aren’t pushovers if they “encourage” someone to not have a job as a teen. They are thinking in their child’s benefit. Do you want your child going through their life, wondering what it is like to not have a job? To wonder, how would it be if I could actually be a teenager and hang out with my friends when I am not in school? I would never want that for my child. If they want a job, I will encourage them. If they don’t? Then let them be. Let them life their life. AS A TEENAGER.
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