teenagers feeling the crunch of rough economic times

[Elias824]

my parents pulled in over 100k most of my life, They only ever gave me money for doing chores and it was maybe $2-3 for mowing the lawn or something. they pay for my car insurance and tuition now at college but nothing else. Ive been working since I was 16 and any job I can find.

 

[child of wonder]

Christ.... I think I got $10 per week when I was a teen (mid-late 90s).

 

[Slew Foot]

I got $20 a week when I was in college, that was in the late 90s

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: aldamon
Holy crap. $100 a week?

I got 10 bucks a week.
If I wanted any more I had to go get a job. So thats what I did.

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

Originally posted by: tk149
Do some of you even think before you post?

Possibly, many of the teens from low-income families have to babysit siblings or incapacitated grandparents, which means they don't have time to work outside of school.

It's also possible that they are from low-income areas, which have fewer unskilled job opportunites, or at least have more competition for the same number of jobs (i.e. you, your aunt, and your dad want the same job)

Plus their parents are less likely to have "connections" to get them jobs.

Coming from a very low-income environment I really don't feel like this is the case. Most of my friends had lazy parents that they looked up to. They were taught it was 'ok' and went for the easy way out.


This isn't the 60's anymore folks - most of the low income kids have better chances getting into schools and having it paid for. There really isn't any excuse for being 25-30 and working minimum wage other than simply being lazy and making poor decisions (for the most part).

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: Xavier434

14 percent of teenagers from families earning less than $20,000 a year work

Keep in mind that there are many cases where the money earned by those teens goes towards supporting their own family. I have seen this first hand.

That might be but it doesnt explain why such a smaller % of them are working.

A lot of the lower class kids make money doing side work, under the table, etc... I know I did and so did many. We did not have the privalge to work at the golf course since daddy knew someone and got their baby a 1 day a week job so they could put it on their college app.

I like to see the jobs the kids do vs what % show up on payroll.

Another possibility (but doubtful) is that parents who somehow can't make more than $20k look at their kids and say, "You want to work part time? Screw that! You spend every spare moment you have getting an education so you can escape this hell-hole!"

 

[Specop 007]

$100 per week? Thats roughly what my allowance was in high school. Granted, I had to stand in front of a CNC machine for 6-8 hours every Saturday to get it.......

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: shortylickens

Originally posted by: aldamon
Holy crap. $100 a week?

I got 10 bucks a week.
If I wanted any more I had to go get a job. So thats what I did.

Her allowance also paid for lunches, so it was not entirely unreasonable.

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
A lot of us had to work as teenagers to pay for our cars and insurance. It seemed the ones without cars didn't work.

yup, that is what my dad told me. at 14 i mowed laws, the day i turned 16 i got my first job at McDonalds and it only took a month for me to finish saving up for my first car. a 1980 Pinto.