Dad Tells Teen Daughter Not To Proceed With Job Interview After Realizing The “Employer’s” Scheme
It can be easy to deceive young people looking for a job. They might not be aware of their rights, what salary they should be getting, or what labor laws protect them. So, it’s no surprise that some employers might take advantage and profit from this by offering a very small salary or no pay at all. Luckily, some teenagers have parents who look out for them.
Like the father in this story, who cautioned his 15-year-old daughter about the job she applied for. While it looked fancy and enticing on paper, the application process and the working conditions turned out to be ridiculous and exploitative. Furious that employers have the gall to do this, he decided to share this story with others on the Internet.
Parents should teach kids to know their worth so that they never get exploited by an employer
Image credits: RDNE Stock project / pexels (not the actual photo)
This father sensed something was fishy with his 15 Y.O.’s potential job and took action
Image credits: Ron Lach / pexels (not the actual photo)
Image source: DetroitsGoingToWin
The father later gave more context and clarified his calculations
More and more teenagers are starting to work in recent years, but with that has come child labor violations
Image credits: Annie Spratt / unsplash (not the actual photo)
Teenagers working is neither an outrageous nor a novel idea. According to the Department of Labor statistics, 250,000 more teenagers (16-19-year-olds) were working in 2023 compared to before the pandemic. This is the highest annual rate since 2009, experts say.
However, this surge also comes with a boost in child labor violations, and most of them come from the fast-food sector. The Washington Post’s analysis of federal data showed that McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, and Sonic are the biggest offenders.
The Labor Department found around 13,000 violations in total in the food industry. A spokesperson also said that this data doesn’t accurately reflect “a comprehensive picture,” and the number of violations could be significantly higher.
Almost 75% of the violations were 14- and 15-year-olds working long hours. Others include making teens do hazardous work or tasks that are not in their job descriptions. Some restaurants failed to keep track of child records, including date of birth and parental permission.
Experts say that, endangering teens aside, ignoring the labor laws teaches young people that exploiting workers is okay. “These laws are not simply arbitrary,” David Weil, a professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, told The Post.
“They’re built around the fact that, as a society, we want children first and foremost to get educated so that they can live a life where they have the skills and training to have good jobs.”
Teenagers have become an important part of the workforce
Image credits: Fox / pexels (not the actual photo)
Millennials were the generation where the number of teenagers in the workforce plummeted. In previous generations, around 35% to 50% of the teenage population used to work. The curve has moved significantly downward since the early 2000s and is now starting to rise again.
Why are more and more teenagers working today? Elizabeth Ananat, an economics professor at Barnard College, told The Washington Post that the reason is simple. “When the labor market is tight, more teens work. When teens hear there are jobs available, they take the jobs.”
In recent years, inflation has been an important factor. Teens feel the need to support their families by helping out with paying rent and utilities. Those who come from more well-off families cite financial independence as the primary reason for working. They say they want to pay for gas and car insurance, as well as outings with friends.
Many of the places where teens work today are the typical retail stores, restaurants, and movie theaters. And Abha Bhattarai, an economics correspondent at The Washington Post, told Marketplace that teenagers helped keep the service sector going these last couple of years.
“Restaurant owner after restaurant owner told me that if it wasn’t for the high schoolers that are working after school or during the summers, they just would have had to shut down by now,” she recalled. “And so they’ve really kept the economy going in a big way. And they’ve allowed service employers to keep hiring.”
Outrage towards the company and its owner poured out in the comments
Others shared their stories about how teens got exploited by scammers
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Restaurants do this a lot too. Hire you, let you work, then refuse to pay you on some flimsy excuse or other. One place I worked at, the boss watched me all day, then said I had come in on the wrong day, so no pay. My son got scammed by another place that had him working as a dishwasher for a week, then said he wasn't fast enough, so no pay.
At what point in time was it common to teach people labor laws?
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There is a LOT illegal here. 1. Not paying alone is illegal 2. Not paying a minor (anyone under 17-18) is double illegal 3. This does depend on the state but paying less than minimum wage. 4. 12hrs a week shift. (Lets say she makes them work 7 days a week thats roughly 1-2 hrs shifts a day) Lady makes 1k on parties but can afford to pay her staff
When I was in art school, there was a print shop owner that would advertise on our schools job board. If you worked there at least a year, you would find out that he was not taking taxes out and get stuck with a tax bill. His OWN accountant told me to have him audited. I'm glad we did. We got the tax owed down to half and ge probably went out of business. I have other stories of how scummy this guy was.
Please dont call that self entitled filth a lady. Words still have meaning and nothing about that is lady like, it deserves no respect.
Hmm, sounds like indentured slavery. Totally illegal and explotive, this b***h needs to be in prison . The wealthy entitled parents who use this predator are just as culpable, the repeated use of this cretins business is what keeps her going. She needs to be reported and pay all the young people she's cheated and exploited over the years!!!
I worked for a high end tableware company in Seattle. The (F) owner went on NW Afternoon and announced that the company would be donating 15% of gross sales in the month of October to the Susan G. Komen Center for Cancer Research. I worked there for 5 years and never ONCE wrote a check to SGK.
See, that mentality is the reason why this problem will never end. Instead of blaming it on the kids who, by default, are deliberately not TAUGHT about these situations so that they know what to look for and how to proceed in stopping it (i.e. calling the labor board), because that would be bad for employers who commit these shameless acts to stay in business. The crummy ADULTS who are 1) in contempt of the exploitation, 2) excusing the exploitation("the workers should've known!") 3) COMMITING the exploitation, should be blamed.
Load More Replies... Restaurants do this a lot too. Hire you, let you work, then refuse to pay you on some flimsy excuse or other. One place I worked at, the boss watched me all day, then said I had come in on the wrong day, so no pay. My son got scammed by another place that had him working as a dishwasher for a week, then said he wasn't fast enough, so no pay.
At what point in time was it common to teach people labor laws?
Load More Replies... There is a LOT illegal here. 1. Not paying alone is illegal 2. Not paying a minor (anyone under 17-18) is double illegal 3. This does depend on the state but paying less than minimum wage. 4. 12hrs a week shift. (Lets say she makes them work 7 days a week thats roughly 1-2 hrs shifts a day) Lady makes 1k on parties but can afford to pay her staff
When I was in art school, there was a print shop owner that would advertise on our schools job board. If you worked there at least a year, you would find out that he was not taking taxes out and get stuck with a tax bill. His OWN accountant told me to have him audited. I'm glad we did. We got the tax owed down to half and ge probably went out of business. I have other stories of how scummy this guy was.
Please dont call that self entitled filth a lady. Words still have meaning and nothing about that is lady like, it deserves no respect.
Hmm, sounds like indentured slavery. Totally illegal and explotive, this b***h needs to be in prison . The wealthy entitled parents who use this predator are just as culpable, the repeated use of this cretins business is what keeps her going. She needs to be reported and pay all the young people she's cheated and exploited over the years!!!
I worked for a high end tableware company in Seattle. The (F) owner went on NW Afternoon and announced that the company would be donating 15% of gross sales in the month of October to the Susan G. Komen Center for Cancer Research. I worked there for 5 years and never ONCE wrote a check to SGK.
See, that mentality is the reason why this problem will never end. Instead of blaming it on the kids who, by default, are deliberately not TAUGHT about these situations so that they know what to look for and how to proceed in stopping it (i.e. calling the labor board), because that would be bad for employers who commit these shameless acts to stay in business. The crummy ADULTS who are 1) in contempt of the exploitation, 2) excusing the exploitation("the workers should've known!") 3) COMMITING the exploitation, should be blamed.
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