Working sucks sometimes, I won’t lie. Working means waking up earlier than I’d like to and missing out on some of the things I’d rather do. It's especially rough when I’m several days away from getting my paycheck, and it feels like nothing good could possibly come from spending hours on the clock. (I’m very reward-oriented and I like immediate gratification. Typical millennial, right?)
With that being said, the pros of working as a teenager definitely outweigh the cons, and I firmly believe that every teenager should have a job, at least in the summer. Here’s why:
1. Your money feels like it’s worth more when you’ve earned it yourself. When you put the hours in, everything you spend your paycheck on feels so much more important. You’ll think twice about what you spend your money on, too. You'll be able to take pride in having the money to treat yourself every so often.
2. Working teaches you financial responsibility. When you earn the money, you get to decide what to do with it (in most cases, at least). Should you spend it or should you save it? Decisions like that are up to you, and you’ll learn firsthand what the benefits and consequences of your choice are. I took the spend route instead of the save route, and now, as a broke college student, I realize that saving would’ve definitely been the smarter choice. But hey, you live and you learn.
3. You stay out of trouble. This one’s a no-brainer—if you’re spending your extra hours at work, you’ve got less time to find yourself suddenly stuck in an unfavorable situation.
4. You don’t have to beg your parents for money. And hey, maybe if you’re not asking for money every other day, they won’t make you do extra chores.
5. You learn to prioritize. In high school, I worked a part-time job, played sports, and attended classes (obviously). It was tough to balance sometimes, but I figured out pretty quickly what was most important to me and spent my little bit of spare time doing that.
6. Your co-workers might end up being really cool people. And you can always use more cool (by “cool”, I mean awesome/compatible with your own personality) people in your life.
7. You gain valuable experience that will help you later in life. Regardless of what you want to do when you grow up, working now (even at a minimum wage fast food job) can teach you the important skills that your future employers will be seeking. The jobs I’ve worked in the past few years have improved my time management and interpersonal skills, two skills that will be REALLY important as I start my career and join the workforce.
8. You’ll make more money in the future. According to The Boston Globe, teenagers who work in high school and college end up earning 16 percent more money in their future careers than teenagers who don’t.
Having a job isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. The hours you put in are worth so much more than $8 an hour—they’re worth friendships, responsibility, and important life skills.
