$15 Wage Will Kill Off the Summer Job
NY pols making it harder for city teens
WE are 17 years old and looking for summer jobs in New York City. Unfortunately, a rite of passage that teens in past years often took for granted might not be available to us.
Despite numerous applications, we haven’t been able to find part-time work. Employers tell us that they are looking for applicants with more experience. But how can we get experience if we can’t get a job?
We’re not alone in this frustration. While the city’s overall economy seems to be booming, the job opportunities haven’t trickled down to us and our friends. According to the Citizens Committee for Children, the youth jobless rate in New York City is roughly 37 percent. That means more than one in every three teens looking for a job can’t find one.
And it’s only going to get worse: Begin- ning on the last day of 2017, larger businesses in New York City will be required to pay a minimum wage of $13, and it will jump to $15 just a year after that.
Our political leaders have worsened the job-market conditions — the hesitation or inability of employers to pay teens a high minimum wage — that are already keeping young New Yorkers out of work.
This is about more than movie tickets and McDonalds. Both our mothers work long hours to put food on the table and pay rent. We’d like to do our share. And we want jobs for more than just a paycheck. We want to learn basic skills now so we can get better jobs later.
The consequences of being out of work go beyond just the loss of some summer spending cash. When teens cannot direct that energy into work, it can get misdirected into crime. We’ve seen local gangs prey on those with lots of ambition but nothing to do.
Watching our families struggle to make ends meet has shown us the value of a strong work ethic. But it’s also taught us the difficulties of living paycheck-to-paycheck. We don’t want that future for ourselves, and in order to have fulfilling careers, we want to get started working now.
So where are the job opportunities that once existed? Some of them have disappeared. We now order food, reserve movie tickets and buy clothes on our phones. For the jobs that remain, the bar has been raised: A grocery store near one of our homes used to hire teens starting at age 16; today, they want young adults with more experience.
The $15 minimum wage will continue this trend.
Someday, we’ll have the skills to earn $15 an hour — and hopefully much more. But right now, it’s pricing us and our friends out of the job market.
The city does its best to help fill the gaps. There’s the Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides a limited number of 14- to 24-year-olds with paid summer work. Unfortunately, there are simply too many applicants for the jobs available.
If New York City wants to set the minimum wage for adults at $15 an hour, that’s fine with us. But teens need the work experience more than we need $15 an hour. Why not exempt young people from the incoming $15 minimum hourly wage — or perhaps set a lower requirement for the summer months?
Being a teen in New York City is difficult. More summer job opportunities would make it easier.