Question about 15 year old stepson

[Son of Clyde]

My stepson received his EAD last Friday which should finally allow him to receive a SSN.

Does anyone know how many hours in a week a 15 year old can work? Is the law different in every state?

There is a Giant food store which hires children at age 15 to be baggers and to retrieve the shopping carts on the parking lot.

My wife wants him to work, hoping it will teach him about responsibility.

Thank you.

[PeeWee]

My stepson received his EAD last Friday which should finally allow him to receive a SSN.

Does anyone know how many hours in a week a 15 year old can work? Is the law different in every state?

There is a Giant food store which hires children at age 15 to be baggers and to retrieve the shopping carts on the parking lot.

My wife wants him to work, hoping it will teach him about responsibility.

Thank you.

Clyde, my son took his first job when he was 15 working at the local Fred Meyer (Kroger?). In Washingon State there were not maximum hours but he did have to attend school. I did not mind  him working as long as it did not affect his grades. It did affect his grades anyway. He was an honor student as it turned out but I wonder if he could have been a better honor student if he and not taken the job. I only wondered. I was happy that he wanted to have a job while he attended school.

Are you not in agreement with your wife?

Peewee

[Daknack]

Clyde,  In our state, during the summer kids can work pretty much any hours at any time.  They arent permitted to handle money or machinery in any way.  During the school year they can work a maximum of 20 hours per week and no more than 4 hours per day during the school week.  So a kid during the school year could work 4 hours every day after school, and weekends off (that will never happen in those jobs he would get)  or 16 hours over the weekend (often broken down as 8/8 hours or 10/6) and then 4 hours on a weekday (usually friday).

[Wild Orchid*]

My son could work only during school holidays. I'm sure your step son wont be the only one boy willing to work. In our supermarket manager trys to spread hours evenly among all kids. Some still work only on weekends, usually that would be kids who are worried about their grades, others don't care and grab as many hours as they can.

[calcowboy1]

Hi Clyde,

I have no clue about the US laws, however, I just wanted to give you my support, that it's great to hear that he will be working.

I remember my Mom marched me down to McDonalds at 14 and told the manager "This boy needs a job".  I spent 8 years there, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.  I worked my butt off, but I had a car at 16 (before I had my drivers license), a motorcycle at 17, a cool fishing boat, and paid for my University education.  Most importantly it taught me self reliance, discipline, and hard work. 

I now work for myself and have my own company at an early age, and sometimes wonder what I would be doing if my mom didn't march me down to McDonalds so I could learn some valuable lessons.

Cheers!!

[Son of Clyde]

I remember at 16 my friends had a job at a car wash and I went with them to see if I could work. There was no work for me but I ended up operating the washing machine to clean the dirty towels. I had no idea you had to load the machine a certain way so I remember I kept jamming and overflowing the machine because I failed to load the towels evenly.

I also delivered flyers for a local laundramat on a very windy day. We were told to attach them inside the storm doors. One door blew open with a gust of wind and the glass shattered. The woman opened the door and was very angry so I told her the wind did it. Then I ran away.

I am glad I waited until 18 to get my first real job, my first two jobs were disasters.

[jb]

That's funny, Clyde.

I cleaned up scrap on construction sites when I was 10 y..o. for 50 cents an hour, I mowed lawns when I was 12, I sacked groceries at the old A&P Food Mart when I was 14, and I had my own swimming pool cleaning business in Dallas when I was 16.  My father often bragged that he hadn't bought me a single piece of school clothes since I was 14.  I was educated to understand the value of work, I've never had a dime's worth of unemployment, and I paid 100% of all tutition costs to earn two degrees after I was 25.

I think it's a great idea to start your step-son out on the path of self-reliance early.  Teach him to manage his earnings and he will have won the biggest battle of life.  Many times it isn't how much he earns, but how much he saves.

[BC]

At 17 started working at a big hotel working in the kitchen early/breakfast shift.. emptying garbage cans and mopping floors.  Later got promoted to dishwasher.. LOL  This was southeast US and I was the only caucasian working in the 'pit' except for the head chef.  Just coming in from overseas it was quite an experience.  I guess in today's terms I was harassed, even sexually (all verbal) but it was all in good fun and these *big* exotic women always had eggs, grits, bacon and sausage ready when I arrived at work.

Yeah nothing wrong at all working as soon/young as possible.  I told my older son how much I made back then (IIRC about 75 bucks a week before taxes) and he just laughed    Still in to school he was making almost 10 times as much selling Nike tennis shoes he regularly imported from China.

[catzenmouse]

At 15 (being the idiot adventurist I was) I left home and hitch hiked up to New York where I worked as a dishwasher in Woodstock and then got a job painting houses. At 17 I clued in (just a tiny little bit) and went to live with my mom to go back to school. Worked evenings mopping floors to have play money. jb is right on the money (pun intended) about learning the value of managing your money. Learned some hard lessons before I got that one down.

Ken

[KenC]

I shoveled snow and mowed lawns until I was old enough (12) to have a paper route. My paper had a promotion for subscriptions and I sold it to every single home on my route, tripling the size of my route. I promptly sold my route for a tidy profit and switched to the competing paper. Was on a board, drafting by 15 (1967) for an auto related factory. Worked up to 60 hours a week during the summer and grossed almost a hundred bucks! During my sophomore year I switched "careers" and went to work for another much larger auto related company in their accounting department. I kept computerizing all the stupid manual work that they had me doing until they had to give me something important to do. I took great pride in out producing the full time employees in 1/2 the hours worked.

The independence obtained by working to support yourself is a powerful drug. My parents never bought me a stitch of clothes or paid for any of my entertainment after the age of 12. This work ethic enabled me to buy my first business at 27 and I haven't worked for anyone other than myself since.
KenC

[Son of Clyde]

I forgot my third failed career move.
I got a job at 16 helping an old man with his paper route.
He would drive and I would place the papers in the mailboxes in the rural neighborhoods.
The old guy was a horrible driver and I got carsick the first night.
He never asked me back and a few months later I found out his wife was helping him. Apparently she was used to his poor driving.