Best job for 16 yr old in SLC now? (how much, home)

[parentologist]

Any advice re: job for 16 yr old in SLC? Kid lives near 7th E and S. Temple, could walk, bike, take public transportation. I'm shocked to see that minimum wage for teens for the first three months is $4.25/hr, but do places pay better than that? Even minimum wage of $7.25 seems low. What about going rate for babysitting?

[SWFL_Native]

He/she could work at liberty park hoggle zoo clark planetarium or get out game. There also a few coffee shops in the aves that would be convenient.

[TaxPhd]

Originally Posted by parentologist

Any advice re: job for 16 yr old in SLC? Kid lives near 7th E and S. Temple, could walk, bike, take public transportation. I'm shocked to see that minimum wage for teens for the first three months is $4.25/hr, but do places pay better than that? Even minimum wage of $7.25 seems low. What about going rate for babysitting?

Minimum wage seems low? How much value do you believe your 16 year old would be adding to an employers bottom line?

[English Ivy]

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

Minimum wage seems low? How much value do you believe your 16 year old would be adding to an employers bottom line?

Wow, is that judgemental. I'm sure some 16 year olds don't add much value to an employer's bottom line - and the same could be said about any other age. Kids need a chance at a real job to learn. And some of them actually rely on that money to help support their family, believe it or not.

My first "legal" job was working as a server at IHOP at age fifteen. I was one of their top employees. For years afterwards, whenever I'd be visiting home from college and eating there with my family, the owner would try to convince me to come back.

I also worked at a vet's office from age 16-17. Chick-fil-a hires beginning at age 14 (they used to, haven't checked lately).

Parentologist, what does the sixteen year old like to do? That night be a good starting point.

[parentologist]

Oh, Ivy, you make me laugh! As if liking has anything to do with it!

But seriously, he's a great kid, straight A honors student, also an extraordinarily talented and high achieving musician. He's been teaching instrumental music since he was about 13 yrs old. He would have been at music camp this summer, but it's been cancelled. He'd be a wonderful employee at whatever he finds, but honestly, I was shocked at the low minimum wage in Utah for teens, and couldn't believe that even entry level fast food or supermarket baggers could be paid that little. That's why I posted - I wanted to hear from some parents of current teen workers what the actual going rate was. Meanwhile, I found that in SLC even a 14 year old mother's helper type babysitter charges $10/hr, and the going rate for older teen/college age sitters is $15/hr.

[parentologist]

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

Minimum wage seems low? How much value do you believe your 16 year old would be adding to an employers bottom line?

Well, let's see. If he's working as a counter cashier at a busy fast food restaurant (a position often filled by teens, and one without which the restaurant cannot operate), say he's taking an order, ringing up, and handing back an order every 2 minutes on average, and say each order is $15. So he's an essential part of processing about $450/hr, x 8 hrs, roughly $4000/shift. Of course, there's the cost of the food, the building, the workers preparing the food, the equipment, the supervisor. But that job is crucial. The restaurant cannot run without it. And I would say that it likely is worth more than enough money to buy two meals a day, which is what 8 hours at $4.75/hr, after the most minimal mandatory taxes are taken out, would pay. It's truly a starvation wage, which is why I cannot imagine that any parent would allow their child to do it for $4.75/hr. Heck, I wouldn't allow my child to do it for the ADULT minimum wage of $7.25/hr. And I find it hard to believe that ANYONE in the tight labor market in SLC is able to attract any worker, teen or not, to do any work for less than $12/hr, which is why I didn't ask, "How much value does my 16 yr old bring to an employer's bottom line?" I asked, "What's the prevailing wage market for teenaged workers in SLC?" When it comes down to it, workers are worth exactly what the prevailing market will pay - no more, no less.

[kaytidid]

Originally Posted by parentologist

Oh, Ivy, you make me laugh! As if liking has anything to do with it!

But seriously, he's a great kid, straight A honors student, also an extraordinarily talented and high achieving musician. He's been teaching instrumental music since he was about 13 yrs old. He would have been at music camp this summer, but it's been cancelled. He'd be a wonderful employee at whatever he finds, but honestly, I was shocked at the low minimum wage in Utah for teens, and couldn't believe that even entry level fast food or supermarket baggers could be paid that little. That's why I posted - I wanted to hear from some parents of current teen workers what the actual going rate was. Meanwhile, I found that in SLC even a 14 year old mother's helper type babysitter charges $10/hr, and the going rate for older teen/college age sitters is $15/hr.

Even though minimum wage is only $4.25, when my daughter was sixteen (three years ago) she got her first job and was making $10.50 an hour at Zaxbys. I really haven’t seen too many jobs that actually pay that little.

[English Ivy]

Yes, the law states that employers "may" pay $4.25/hr during the first 90 days of employment. Not "must".

There is nothing restricting employers from paying more than that :-)

[K12144]

Originally Posted by English Ivy

Wow, is that judgemental. I'm sure some 16 year olds don't add much value to an employer's bottom line - and the same could be said about any other age. Kids need a chance at a real job to learn. And some of them actually rely on that money to help support their family, believe it or not.

That's fine, but you realize that even grown adults with work experience have jobs making minimum wage, right? And yes, many of them support families. Unfortunately, people are not paid according to how much they need the money or why.

[markg91359]

Originally Posted by K12144

That's fine, but you realize that even grown adults with work experience have jobs making minimum wage, right? And yes, many of them support families. Unfortunately, people are not paid according to how much they need the money or why.

I sincerely doubt many grown adults are earning $7.25 an hour right now.

Virtually every fast food enterprise in the state of Utah is advertising a starting wage of a couple of dollars an hour above minimum wage to attract scarce applicants. Most of these applicants are teenagers. My kids never had any trouble finding a job that paid more than the minimum wage My twenty year old daughter who has no more than a high school diploma works out-of-state and earns about $18.50 an hour. with benefits. Her biggest problem? She wants to work thirty-five hours a week and they would like her to work forty.

Seriously, I understand the need of businesses to economize. However, if they really can't justify paying someone more than $4.25 an hour for the work they are doing they probably ought to be going in a different direction. Perhaps, automate the work? Or accept the fact that they have to pay more for it than the product is worth and make up the difference somewhere else in their operation? Its called "life". We all don't get everything we want and businesses are no exception.

And, no, I don't think massive unemployment is going to occur if we required businesses to pay a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.