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Why minimum wage? That's what people who have never seen a job in their life make. Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade lea

Why minimum wage? That's what people who have never seen a job in their life make. Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade leading up to reaching the typical high school age is quite economically valuable by that point. And yes, with the time value of money, the sooner you can make it the better.

bluefirebrand 4y ago
> Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade Not sure if this is a culture difference here or something but most people where I'm from (Canada) don't work alongside their parents doing anything valuable as a pre-teen, and it's illegal to employ people younger than 16. Even if they do, it's very unlikely anyone would seriously consider it valuable work experience and pay substantially more than minimum wage. For most people being a teenager is absolutely the first job they will have and it will be minimum wage or near it. Working as a teen was absolutely not my most valuable earning years. That money went towards my university degree to offset my student loans, not into savings accounts to maximize the time-based value of my money. N=1 but I would wager my experience is more common here than what you describe.
- randomdata 4y ago
  I too am from Canada. While there are some exceptions carved into law that do allow children to work at any age, I agree it's not common. I am saying that we would be better off if it were. Historically it was the norm. This aversion to it now is quite recent, rather strange, and seemingly of negative benefit as it divides families and removes access to education.
  - bluefirebrand 4y ago
    Child labour is illegal for a reason dude. "Working with your parents" doesn't make child labour any less child labour.
    - randomdata 4y ago
      And that reason is? It is not like it is actually illegal as the law carves out sufficient exceptions to ensure that children are enabled to work.
      - bluefirebrand 4y ago
        Because children lack the sufficient agency and maturity to advocate for themselves in the workplace, and therefore are historically (and in some parts of the world still are) an extremely exploited workforce. In short, it's illegal in order to protect children from abuse. And it's not just "think of the children" either. Children in the workflow are not on an equal footing with adults and are an easy target. As for the specific legal carve outs that you mention, those are generally crafted to ensure that children are very protected in the workplace, putting serious limitations on what their employers are allowed to ask them to do, the amount of hours and such. It also makes sure the parents are involved as an advocate for the child because again the child is not really mature enough to be their own advocate. Anyways, I think what you'll find is that many people who did work quite young don't actually think it was all that valuable. My girlfriend worked at a public library after school starting at 13. She enjoyed it but doesn't think it was that useful for her career. I started working in a call center at 14, and other than spending money it was kinda worthless to me. The kinds of work that kids can do is severely limited. Even a decade of experience doing it is not going to put them further ahead than high school and university.

bluefirebrand 4y ago

> Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade Not sure if this is a culture difference here or something but most people where I'm from (Canada) don't work alongside their parents doing anything valuable as a pre-teen, and it's illegal to employ people younger than 16. Even if they do, it's very unlikely anyone would seriously consider it valuable work experience and pay substantially more than minimum wage. For most people being a teenager is absolutely the first job they will have and it will be minimum wage or near it. Working as a teen was absolutely not my most valuable earning years. That money went towards my university degree to offset my student loans, not into savings accounts to maximize the time-based value of my money. N=1 but I would wager my experience is more common here than what you describe.

randomdata 4y ago
I too am from Canada. While there are some exceptions carved into law that do allow children to work at any age, I agree it's not common. I am saying that we would be better off if it were. Historically it was the norm. This aversion to it now is quite recent, rather strange, and seemingly of negative benefit as it divides families and removes access to education.
- bluefirebrand 4y ago
  Child labour is illegal for a reason dude. "Working with your parents" doesn't make child labour any less child labour.
  - randomdata 4y ago
    And that reason is? It is not like it is actually illegal as the law carves out sufficient exceptions to ensure that children are enabled to work.
    - bluefirebrand 4y ago
      Because children lack the sufficient agency and maturity to advocate for themselves in the workplace, and therefore are historically (and in some parts of the world still are) an extremely exploited workforce. In short, it's illegal in order to protect children from abuse. And it's not just "think of the children" either. Children in the workflow are not on an equal footing with adults and are an easy target. As for the specific legal carve outs that you mention, those are generally crafted to ensure that children are very protected in the workplace, putting serious limitations on what their employers are allowed to ask them to do, the amount of hours and such. It also makes sure the parents are involved as an advocate for the child because again the child is not really mature enough to be their own advocate. Anyways, I think what you'll find is that many people who did work quite young don't actually think it was all that valuable. My girlfriend worked at a public library after school starting at 13. She enjoyed it but doesn't think it was that useful for her career. I started working in a call center at 14, and other than spending money it was kinda worthless to me. The kinds of work that kids can do is severely limited. Even a decade of experience doing it is not going to put them further ahead than high school and university.