Please Let Your Children Them Work!

It has only been summer for a few weeks and they are already bored! I, like many parents, am frantically trying to figure out how to work and keep my children in a positive, productive environment while they are out of school. Now, I recognize that I am one of the lucky ones-able to juggle my schedule to make sure the kids get back from camp-but instead of being shuffled around, imagine if they could work and contribute to the family economy (and to the frequent stops of the ice cream truck)! Can they do it? Despite society's overwhelmingly negative view toward children working, I'm willing to find out.

I understand how the pendulum may have swung this way over history in regard to children working. In the early 1900's people took advantage of child labor, putting our precious little ones to work in the factories, on the streets, and in the fields. Kids were kept home from school to work and to financially support the family or to care for younger siblings. There was a different view of child labor then; today, however, most people I know hardly want to risk their children in the mines.

When I was a child, I had many opportunities to work at a young age, and so did many of the kids I knew. I got my start stuffing envelopes for political campaigns and doing office work; my husband worked in an orchard and sorted dirt clods out of filbert processing equipment-by the time he was in middle school he worked in a machine shop and painted houses. Our friends picked beans and berries which left us waiting for them to come home each day so that we could play. Their red-stained hands were proof of a long morning in the field.

So, why can't young people get jobs today? It seems that there are cultural beliefs that kids can't legally work, that they don't have the attention span, or, perhaps even the desire to earn. We've got our kids so tightly scheduled or supervised they have busier schedules than we have! When would they find the time to earn?

I have a general belief that people want to work-to be a contributor to their own success and society. There is a pride in earning and we care for things we earn. Kids who work build character, find purpose, and learn to spend only what they have. They may even come to a hands-on knowledge of the benefits of staying in school-some jobs can make the classroom look pretty good come fall.

As for the legalities, I looked up the Oregon minor laws on the Bureau of Labor & Industries website (http://www.oregon.gov/BOLI) and found that young people can work as early as 14 years of age. Fourteen and 15 year-olds can work 3 hours per day during school (8 hours on non-school days), 18 hours per week maximum and up to 40 hours when school is not in session. By the time kids are 16 or 17, they can work up to 44 hours per week.

Now, there are restrictions on the types of jobs kids can have and there are special rules for agricultural work, so make sure to check with the Bureau. Jobs like newspaper carriers/vendors and minors performing domestic work or work in private homes generally do not apply. The standard laws of minimum wage, overtime, working conditions, etcetera will still apply.

The only question that remains is can your teen actually get hired? In reality, kids are now competing for jobs with many more experienced workers. Without getting too political, who would hire an inexperienced young worker a full minimum wage? However, I see huge benefits to learning how the work-force operates at an early age, and while I know my kids are still too young to work for a regular paycheck, I'd like to see them give earning a try-at least then they could satisfy their own ice cream indulgences.