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Jobs for teens

The only reason the minimum wage is lower is to give you a chance to compete with your older peers. If they had to pay you the same amount with likely less experience and maturity, you'd never be able to find a job.

This is the whole problem with the minimum wage.
 
I know he is 16 etc but maybe you can sugar coat it in another way i.e. get a summer job at a company that is within the industry he would like to work in. This hits two birds with one stone i.e. he may get some payment as a result but ultimately it gives him experience for his future. Which to be honest is a far greater benefit than earning 20 quid for a saturday.
 
Another trick that apparently works is the 'matching' principle.

If you say to him you'll take away what you pay for currently and he has to earn it, he'll resent working, as now he has to put effort in for what he got for free.

So you offer to match his earnings. If his mobile contract is £30 per month, he has to earn £30 (which he keeps) before you pay it - same goes for any other luxuries. Whilst most of us grew up with the hard line, it doesn't work for everyone - especially as most of us probably have more expendable income than our parents did.

A very interesting approach...never did it with my son and daughter has the work gene, but I have to say, it's a productive way of dealing with what is a generational shift for sure.
 
A very interesting approach...never did it with my son and daughter has the work gene, but I have to say, it's a productive way of dealing with what is a generational shift for sure.

You have a son and daughter? Dude I thought you were like 30 - and not old enough to have kids who are old enough to work. fudge.
 
This 'get what you're given' mentality is gonads! Why should I just happily accept low pay when I can strive to do better?

Sounds like you'd be better off going to work for yourself rather than for a company that really doesn't give a flying f*** about you at the end of the day. Nothing wrong with that. Pretty sure you could get a lawn mowing job for more than 5 quid an hour. You've just got to go find the business yourself, that's all.

I like your spirit, COYS. Someone who is willing to think for himself, rather than just accept the norm. That's why i moved to the US. Say what you want about the politics/celebrity culture etc I've found the opportunities to live the life you want to live are much greater.
 
COYS I have to ask, where do you get the money to do things?

I hope you don't think I'm picking on you, I'm in my mid 20s and didn't get a job til I was 17, but that was mainly because I lived in the arse end of nowhere and if i had money I wouldn't have been able to spend it anyway. It was only when I got a motorbike at 17 that I had was able to do things other than sit at home on a computer all evening.

To get back to the OPs point, my parents put a lot of pressure on me to get a job when I was 15 and 16 but since they didn't really pay for anything for me they didn't really have the option of withholding money for social activities. Damn my teen years were boring as hell.
 
The thing is with most people on here is that you guys are only looking at this from when you were growing up, which is very different. Things have changed as I've said lots of times in the past on this board. We don't leave school at 16 any more and work our way up the ladder. It's too difficult these days.

I am very lucky to live in Bushey when I'm at my mum's and Finchley when I'm at my dad's. These are two very nice areas, and give me lots of opportunities. For example if I find a job in Watford this summer then that's a very short bus ride from my mum's house, and if I find a job in somewhere like Brent Cross then that's a very short bus from my dad's.

This summer I'll have just finished 14 exams, and for the first time in nearly two years I will have no more exams to worry about. Therefore I intend to enjoy it, but to enjoy it I realise I need money and right now I am already lucky enough to get a fairly large amount of money from my parents every week, on top of my phone bills and clothes etc. I realise I can't keep leeching and if I wanna enjoy this summer it's up to me to ensure I can fund that myself, because despite what I already get, that just won't be enough. When I want to enjoy this summer, earning £4 an hour for a job like that doesn't really seem worth my time. Lots of my friends have jobs paying £5+ ph (in some case even £8) so I know these jobs exist.

I'm also going to Israel for 3 and a half weeks, as nearly all Jewish teenagers do after finishing year 11, and whilst I'll be getting money from my parents when I'm out there, I'll still want more money when I'm in a foreign country with all my friends, meaning I'll need to make that money myself before I go away, so I'm not sure McDonald's wages will suffice.

I was thinking of asking my MP if I could do some work experience for him because of my big interest in politics, however I don't think I'll have the time to do that as I'll want a paying job, which is a shame as I can't see when else I'll have the time to do that kind of thing.
 
COYS I have to ask, where do you get the money to do things?

I hope you don't think I'm picking on you, I'm in my mid 20s and didn't get a job til I was 17, but that was mainly because I lived in the arse end of nowhere and if i had money I wouldn't have been able to spend it anyway. It was only when I got a motorbike at 17 that I had was able to do things other than sit at home on a computer all evening.

To get back to the OPs point, my parents put a lot of pressure on me to get a job when I was 15 and 16 but since they didn't really pay for anything for me they didn't really have the option of withholding money for social activities. Damn my teen years were boring as hell.

I am very lucky and over the last year and a bit my weekly allowance has crept up from £10 a week to £25 a week where it is now. This is on top of all my phone bills and necessities, so that's another reason I want a job as I feel like I should start earning this myself.
 
I am very lucky and over the last year and a bit my weekly allowance has crept up from £10 a week to £25 a week where it is now. This is on top of all my phone bills and necessities, so that's another reason I want a job as I feel like I should start earning this myself.

If you're getting £25/week of your parents (presumably not having to do a lot for it) I imagine working for £4/hr seems pretty ridiculous. Plus probably around £30/month for your phone and clothes on top? Take it while you can tbh.

My parents were quite well off but I never got anything like that. I can't imagine I'd be so generous to my kids tbh, regardless of how well off I am but I'm a tight bastard.
 
I was thinking of asking my MP if I could do some work experience for him because of my big interest in politics, however I don't think I'll have the time to do that as I'll want a paying job, which is a shame as I can't see when else I'll have the time to do that kind of thing.

Mate, it's not like you'll be getting a full time job. Work a couple nights or weekends and volunteer for your MP too. Hardly an unmanageable workload.
 
Mate, it's not like you'll be getting a full time job. Work a couple nights or weekends and volunteer for your MP too. Hardly an unmanageable workload.

Well I'll have to see how much I'll be working, which will be largely based on how much I'm paid
 
Yes, that's the point. I work hard. My exam results don't come out of nowhere. My point is I deserve more than £4 an hour.

Why do you deserve more than £4 an hour?
Also if McDonalds offered £7 an hour would it be an acceptable job then?
 
Why do you deserve more than £4 an hour?
Also if McDonalds offered £7 an hour would it be an acceptable job then?

Because if I'm doing a better job than an 18 year old, but he's getting paid more than me because that's legally allowed then I don't think that's fair.
 
Because if I'm doing a better job than an 18 year old, but he's getting paid more than me because that's legally allowed then I don't think that's fair.


Well, surely the issue here is that you are not currently doing a better job than an 18 year old, because you are unemployed (I think).


If you get the job, and then you show yourself to be good enough to be paid more than you would have a point, however you haven't proven yourself in that type of role.
 
Go on ebay, buy a brick load of stuff that is not snide.. sell at fixed rate at a boot sale. Try something he might like.. mobile accessories. Tell him that's how Alan Sugar started.

I used to stack fruit & veg in my local Asda. When I hit 16 I went into London town and went on the boats that go up and down the Thames, got a job collecting glasses, was wicked as it was basically parties all the time 8 til midnight with travel home paid for (quite often got a lift), then when 17 I worked behind the bar. All whilst still at school.

As your out in Crawley then instead of a supermarket how about something like a local farm.. I'd imagine it quite interesting tbh. Or you could try something like this place.. they must need young'uns.

http://www.tulleysfarm.com/

I take it LEGOLAND is too far away.
 
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I am very lucky and over the last year and a bit my weekly allowance has crept up from £10 a week to £25 a week where it is now. This is on top of all my phone bills and necessities, so that's another reason I want a job as I feel like I should start earning this myself.

Because if I'm doing a better job than an 18 year old, but he's getting paid more than me because that's legally allowed then I don't think that's fair.

What qualifications do you have that makes you think you would do a better job in MacDonalds and should get the job over the 18 year old or get paid more than other 16-year olds? The school qualifications will make you better qualified for other jobs but unless your taking GCSEs in cookery or burger flipping you don't have an advantage other than that they can pay you less than an 18 year old.

Given you don't really need the money, certainly not enough to make the job worth taking as it stands, why not leave it for someone who needs it and do something useful. If you can seriously get a volunteer job with an MP that will be much more valuable for university admissions and future job applications.
 
Really don't understand why the big fuss about COYS not wanting to work at McD's for 4 quid an hour. He's set his goals higher than that. Best of luck to him.
 
Really don't understand why the big fuss about COYS not wanting to work at McD's for 4 quid an hour. He's set his goals higher than that. Best of luck to him.

Because that is the level he is at.

It is like me opting out of work and saying I'm not going back to it because I can do a better job than my boss' boss and it's not fair until I get that job.

Rightly, people would laugh at me, and other people my age would think I was a big headed tosser. I am not saying he should work in McDonald's, but I have almost no idea why he thinks he can do a better job than anyone seeing as he has no working experience. At his age even turning up for a shift, and completing it, is a big step from doing 9 til 4 (or whatever it is) at school.
 
Its funny actually, I was talking to my 12 year old niece about this very subject a few weeks back. She has it all planned. lol. At the minute she is at a lanquague school, in other words prior to her choosing her GCSE subjects they do three languages, of which she wants to take very seriously. Taking Italian, French and Latin. She wants to basically get a job at the new theme park being planned near Queen Elizabeth bridge.. going to be the third biggest in the world apparently, and she hopes that the languages will help her stand out above other applicants. Shes wants to work there for a year after her a-levels also, then decide whether to go the route of Uni or progress in the work market. (it got brought up because they found a rare jumping spider on the designated land maybe forcing a delay and she was miffed).

She loves rollercoasters. :lol:
 
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