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I was wondering how much of a workload it is reasonable to expect a 13-year old to undertake in their first job?
A local business in town wants to hire her to insert data into a database and pay her $12 per hour for 10 hours a week of work (no idea if that is with or without tax), but even though we are thrilled with the starting salary for her, we are concerned that she could possibly fall behind on her schoolwork.
I never started work until I was 16 as a child so I am unsure if she is wanting to start too young, but also don't want to crush her work ethic?
I was wondering what the forum thinks is a reasonable hours per week for a child to start at and how quickly can she take on additional hours?
Ten hours is the maximum I would allow her to work. Depending upon what else she has in her schedule (sports, classes, etc.) I might not even permit that many hours at her age. I would also factor in when and how those 10 hours occur. If it was one night a week and a weekend day/night I would allow the 10 hours. If it was a short time 3 or 4 times a week, I wouldn't permit the 10 hours.
I wouldn't let her work much over 10 hours until she was at least a sophomore in high school, and again, that would be dependent upon when the hours occurred. Even then I wouldn't want her to work over 15 or so hours a week-never more than 20 unless it was during a vacation period.
Ten hours is the maximum I would allow her to work. Depending upon what else she has in her schedule (sports, classes, etc.) I might not even permit that many hours at her age. I would also factor in when and how those 10 hours occur. If it was one night a week and a weekend day/night I would allow the 10 hours. If it was a short time 3 or 4 times a week, I wouldn't permit the 10 hours.
I wouldn't let her work much over 10 hours until she was at least a sophomore in high school, and again, that would be dependent upon when the hours occurred. Even then I wouldn't want her to work over 15 or so hours a week-never more than 20 unless it was during a vacation period.
I was wondering how much of a workload it is reasonable to expect a 13-year old to undertake in their first job?
A local business in town wants to hire her to insert data into a database and pay her $12 per hour for 10 hours a week of work (no idea if that is with or without tax), but even though we are thrilled with the starting salary for her, we are concerned that she could possibly fall behind on her schoolwork.
(snip)
Wow! What a lucky Duck! Just to give you some perspective on her good fortune, my daughter is a recent college graduate, with a decade of work experience, internships, etc., etc. and was just offered a job paying $7.25 an hour (of course, taxes/SS/etc. will be withheld from that amount). And, she feels that she will be forced to accept it, just so she has a job (in her new city) until she can find a better job.
One concern is that your daughter may become so attracted to the extra cash that she wants to work more and more hours and starts to neglect her studies, family and friends. I have seen that happen again and again with teenagers. I suggest that you and your daughter decide now if all of the money will be spent on her "having fun", eating out and buying clothes or if she will save part of her salary for college or a big expense such as a future car or major vacation.
Pitt Chick's link answers your question. According to the Department of Labor she's too young to legally work that job. When does she turn 14?
Our son got his first real paying job at 14. He worked just a few hours on the weekend in the kids ski school. Helped him get some experience, develop a work ethic but wasn't distracting from school. The biggest issue was getting to work......
She is too young to legally work that job. Maybe she should try babysitting, cutting lawns, etc before actually working for a company.
I did babysitting and such til freshman year of high school. I wanted to go to Europe the next summer so I worked all that summer to save up as much spending money as I could. My parents would pay for the trip because it was an educational experience, but if I wanted to spend a dime when I was there it had to be my own money. I worked at a pool collecting pool passes.
I didn't start balancing school and an actual job til I was a junior in high school. (Again, parents bought me a car because they moved 45 mins away from my school but gas, lunch money, etc was all something I had to pay for). I don't think a middle school age child should be working and balancing school at the same time. Summer job, fine. But not during the school year.
Ten hours is the maximum I would allow her to work. Depending upon what else she has in her schedule (sports, classes, etc.) I might not even permit that many hours at her age. I would also factor in when and how those 10 hours occur. If it was one night a week and a weekend day/night I would allow the 10 hours. If it was a short time 3 or 4 times a week, I wouldn't permit the 10 hours.
I wouldn't let her work much over 10 hours until she was at least a sophomore in high school, and again, that would be dependent upon when the hours occurred. Even then I wouldn't want her to work over 15 or so hours a week-never more than 20 unless it was during a vacation period.
Do you think they are capable of putting that many hours in in one day?
I was thinking the inverse might be better. Then she would only be working 1-2 hours per day more than usual.
Is more than 20 hours a week restricted until after they finish school?
She is too young to legally work that job. Maybe she should try babysitting, cutting lawns, etc before actually working for a company.
I did babysitting and such til freshman year of high school. I wanted to go to Europe the next summer so I worked all that summer to save up as much spending money as I could. My parents would pay for the trip because it was an educational experience, but if I wanted to spend a dime when I was there it had to be my own money. I worked at a pool collecting pool passes.
I didn't start balancing school and an actual job til I was a junior in high school. (Again, parents bought me a car because they moved 45 mins away from my school but gas, lunch money, etc was all something I had to pay for). I don't think a middle school age child should be working and balancing school at the same time. Summer job, fine. But not during the school year.
What's the difference between an "actual job" and "collecting pool passes and cutting lawns."
I'm confused. They are both responsibilities and they both take up time.
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