Summer Employment for Teenagers: Overview.

Introduction

A common trend in modern American labor history has been the summer job. Teenagers who are out of school for summer vacation have typically sought employment in a wide range of venues, such as offices, restaurants, summer camps, and retail outlets. Summer work has traditionally been viewed as valuable for teaching young people basic administrative, business, and professional skills as well as developing a strong work ethic. While state regulations vary, federal law sets the minimum age for employment and obtaining a work permit at fourteen; at the same time, youths even younger have found summer work in areas such as babysitting or delivering newspapers.

In the early 2000s, however, the number of young people who were employed for the summer months began to fluctuate. Inconsistent and reduced state and federal funding for summer job programs, as well as the sluggish post-recession economy, played a role in the number of positions available to this demographic. During the 2010s and beyond, fluctuations continued as new obstacles arose such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which made many of the traditional options for teens seeking summer jobs unavailable. However, summer employment began to rise among teenagers in the wake of the pandemic, as more entry-level jobs became available and inflation rates rose.

Regardless of the direct cause, a debate arose over the value of the traditional summer job. For some, the idea of a job at the local store, restaurant, or hotel is still integral for developing a wide range of personal and professional abilities. Others, however, argue that different opportunities and experiences—such as volunteerism and internships—can supplant and even improve upon the traditional summer job model. It is likely that as the job market and global economy continue to evolve, this debate among parents, educators, and employers will continue.

Understanding the Discussion

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): A comprehensive federal labor law passed in 1938 that includes guidelines regarding minors and employment.

Internship: A part-time or short-term job that is either unpaid or offers a small stipend or school credit as compensation.

Stipend: A fixed payment, similar to an allowance, offered to an intern or part-time employee.

Time management: Controlling the amount of time spent on different activities in order to maximize efficiency and productivity.

History

Child labor in the United States dates as far back as the colonial era. As the European colonists arrived in the New World, their children played a role in building homes, working on farms, and supporting their families within the home. During the Industrial Revolution, children were commonplace in the countless factories and manufacturing facilities that operated day and night. With the exception of rules that established minimum ages for child labor, few official regulations were established until the early twentieth century. Children, like adults, were simply perceived as valuable contributors to the growing American economy.

The federal government's passage of the Keating-Owen Act in 1916 began to alter the course on this front, casting a higher priority on the issue of child labor but still not giving it major focus. States had sporadically passed laws on the subject, but those laws were hardly uniform and only occasionally enforced. The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 only further deflected priorities, as children were needed to work in the fields and elsewhere to support their families. At the same time, the Depression's effects generated renewed interest in creating federal laws protecting laboring children. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 (although challenged in the Supreme Court and therefore not implemented until 1941) represented the first major federal imposition of rules governing child labor in factories, agriculture, and other sectors.

By the early twenty-first century, a wide range of federal and state laws and regulations existed in the United States pertaining to the appropriate ages at which minors may perform certain jobs, as well as how long they may work per day. For example, according to the FLSA, only people at least fourteen years old may work in non-agricultural jobs. Meanwhile, youths of any age may, according to the FLSA, work on their parents' farms, performing nonhazardous jobs as long as that work does not interfere with the required minimum of school time.

There is an underlying perception in the United States that teenagers who gain employment when they are not in school discover and develop a number of personal and professional attributes that will aid them later in life. Among these qualities are time management, communication, financial, and organizational skills. Although school curricula often help students understand the theory of such significant skills, it is believed that a job during the summer months can give teenagers an opportunity for real-world application. Whether that job is at a local restaurant, hotel, retailer, camp, or business enterprise, for decades teenagers have looked to make the most of their summer breaks by seeking employment.

By the end of the twentieth century, the range of such seasonal job prospects had grown significantly, aided by modern technology and a growing sense of global community. Multinational corporations increasingly offer unpaid and stipend-based positions so that teenagers can learn the inner workings of a major business organization. Such opportunities can inspire these interns to pursue a career in business, marketing, or finance (and later possibly return to the same company after graduating from college). Teenagers have also found chances for atypical summer experiences through volunteerism. In the early twenty-first century, a growing number of young people spent their summers working at local nonprofit organizations or even national and international aid organizations. As a result, vacationing teenagers could spend at least part of their summers building new homes or assisting impoverished people both in the United States and in developing nations.

The population of teenagers available for summer work has fluctuated for decades. Since the baby boom generation began after World War II, the number of sixteen- to twenty-four-year-olds increased during the 1970s, decreased in the 1980s, and then increased again during the 1990s. The upward trend continued during the first two decades of the 2000s; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were about seventeen million teenagers aged sixteen to nineteen years in the United States in 2011. However, the percentage of teenagers employed during the summer months declined precipitously, from about 50 percent in 2000 to about 33 percent in 2009, according to the BLS. In early 2015, the financial institution JPMorgan Chase released a report highlighting the continued deficit of summer jobs for teenagers, especially compared to statistics from previous generations. While 2011 saw one of the worst drops in teen summer employment rates, the report revealed that this number only managed to climb back to around 32 percent two years later. Experts believed that this decline could be attributed to such factors as the struggling economy, increased emphasis on academia, and rising competition from adults who could not afford to retire.

Summer Employment for Teenagers Today

After more than four decades of declining rates of teens partaking in summer employment, that number began to rise again for the first time in 2022. (Figures revealed increased participation in the labor market during the school year among teenagers as well.) In 2023, the percentage of young people working summer jobs was at 55 percent, according to the BLS. Several factors contributed to the rise in teens seeking summer jobs, including an increase in entry-level positions in retail and hospitality markets following the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation rates, necessitating many teens to earn income to help their families pay for expenses. Better pay rates also attracted teens to the labor market. In 2023, people aged sixteen to twenty-four saw the largest increase in wages among all workers in the US.

At the same time, many states attempted to pass legislation making it easier for young people to obtain employment, via a wave of conservative efforts to weaken labor laws. Between 2021 and 2023, for instance, ten states introduced or passed laws that reduced or eliminated child labor protections, including allowing young teens to serve alcohol in bars and lifting age restrictions on certain types of hazardous work. Some states also introduced laws to lengthen the workday that teens are permitted to work or otherwise expand their hours. Advocates of such measures tended to invoke parental rights, the benefits of early employment, and nationwide labor shortages. Critics countered that weakened protections made it harder to detect and stop abusive child labor practices, and were especially harmful to vulnerable groups like unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.

Labor experts, business executives, political leaders, educators, and teachers alike have traditionally agreed that teenagers should remain busy during their summer breaks. Any sort of occupation, it has been argued, can lead to long-term personal and professional success. Summer work is not only seen as essential to a young person's immediate future: it is seen as a vehicle by which an individual becomes more marketable for the increasingly competitive workforce. In the early 2020s, many local governments used pandemic-related funding to strengthen summer youth employment programs, hoping to simultaneously address rapidly growing issues like mental health concerns and crime rates. Such funding opened up opportunities that went far beyond the traditional concept of work at a local restaurant, store, or small business.

As the job market diversifies, there is some concern that not every young person will have access to these opportunities. Experts argue that some young people, including African American and Latino teenagers, may not be able to pursue these jobs as readily as their White peers. Therefore, overall teenage employment figures may be misleading in terms of exactly where the jobs are and who can obtain them.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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