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Two young baristas using a digital tablet.
This summer, my teenage daughter went to work.
Hey, when your dad is a struggling freelance writer, SOMEbody has to bring home a steady paycheck.
Anyway, she did work pretty hard this summer — and that was just finding the job. Even with businesses desperately seeking employees, getting a job as a teenager can be a challenge, especially due to required paperwork (or the online equivalent; would that be computer-screen work?) if the kid is younger than 16, as my daughter is.
Everything worked out, and she landed a summer job at a downtown Roanoke store just in time for summer’s end. She will be able to work weekends and some weeknights, so she will keep the job even though summer is over, which came as quite the stunning revelation to her.
Old people like to complain that “nobody wants to work anymore,” usually as they sip their senior-discount coffee at Hardee’s with their buddies. The truth is, young people want to work and they do work. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, labor-force participation among people 16 to 24 is 60.4%, which is pretty much in line with the overall rate of 62%.
If you include people younger than 16 who work, such as my child, even more teens have jobs than the BLS counts.
The youth unemployment rate, which includes young people who have made efforts to find jobs but haven’t landed one, was 8.5% this summer. That’s lower than pre-pandemic numbers from 2019. Bottom line: young people want to work and businesses want to hire them.
Even though most school divisions are back in session and many youths left their summer jobs, those departures just mean more openings for young job-seekers. Places still need employees and will happily hire teenagers for jobs this fall and winter, especially during the holidays.
Back in June, my daughter picked up an application from a small, independently owned café in Roanoke that relies heavily on young workers. Even though the business was fully staffed and wasn’t hiring at the time, one worker said that her employer would need extra help when students went back to school. Like, now.
In Virginia, children under 16 need an employment certificate, commonly called a work permit. The certificates can be obtained online at the Department of Labor and Industry website at www.doli.virginia.gov. On the site, click on the Labor Law tab and scroll to Youth Employment, which is where you can find the employment certificate form. The form can be directly accessed at vaeecs.doli.virginia.gov/vaeecs.
Having just gone through this process with my daughter, I can report that work-permit registration is not especially difficult, but it can take more time than you might expect. So, if your 14-or-15-year-old child really wants to find a job, you need to consider that the work-permit process might take several days or even a couple of weeks.
That’s because the child must have a job offer before they can apply for the employment certificate. After an offer is made, the process unfolds systematically. First, the youth fills out a registration form online. Then, the employer registers, followed by the parents or guardians.
Even after everybody is all signed up and the certificate has been awarded, an employer might not have an open work shift for a while. So, expect a lag time between your child’s job offer and her first day at work.
And then, the real work begins — that is, the real work! Even part-time jobs instill responsibility, discipline and work ethic in young workers. Bosses love hiring youths. Many employers have told me that young workers are like sponges that can soak up a lot of new information quickly, unlike an old guy like me whose brain has hardened and is overstuffed with meaningless one-hit-wonder melodies, baseball trivia and off-color stories from a misspent youth, thereby leaving no room for new info.
And, yes, bosses like to hire young people because they work cheaper than adults who have grocery bills and mortgages. The minimum wage in Virginia is $11, though, which is pretty good for kids whose big expenses are Slurpees, and the rate is scheduled to rise to $12 next year.
That first paycheck arrives with even more new information: No, honey, you don’t get to keep it all. Consider it a civics lesson for teenagers who aren’t thinking about Social Security or the need for healthcare when they’re ready to retire 50 years from now.
In just the first few weeks on the job, my daughter has learned new technologies, such as point-of-purchase and credit card systems, she has become familiar with the store’s inventory and she is being forced to interact with the public, which means she has to talk to old people like me.
So far, the working world is working out just fine.
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Two young baristas using a digital tablet.
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