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Concerns Heighten as U.S. Teens Work Increasing Numbers of Hours
By JO THOMAS
CHICAGO -- Shane Jones sometimes catches a nap in class at Morgan Park High School, where he is an honor roll student. The reason is not boredom, he explains, but his job -- "the best job I ever had."
Every day after school, 17-year-old Shane heads for the DiCola fish market in southwest Chicago, where he works until closing time selling fresh fish. He gets home at 10 p.m., has a snack and does his homework.
"I don't go to bed until 1," he said, "and I get up at 6."
Shane is one of four million students around the country who work one or more jobs while going to high school, a practice that appears to be particularly American. The Third International Math and Science Study observed earlier this year that no other country had so many high school seniors working so many hours a day. Among American seniors surveyed, 61 percent reported working, for an average of 3.1 hours daily, as against only 28 percent of seniors abroad, who worked a daily average of just 1.2 hours.
Youth employment, all but unheard of in the 1950s, when only some 5 percent of students worked after school, is booming in the 1990s: roughly one in four American high school students has a job at any given time, and the Department of Labor estimates that 80 percent of them will have held at least one job before graduation.
The trend is driven by a plentiful supply of jobs in a service economy dependent on low-skill work perfectly suited for many young people, and by demand for employment from media-savvy teen-agers hungry for designer clothes and cellular phones, or saving for the rising costs of college.
But it has raised concern among educators, safety experts and legislators, who cite not only health and safety risks but also the potential toll on the working student's education. A panel convened by the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Research Council and the National Institute of Medicine is expected to issue a report and recommendations this summer. And some states, including New York, Washington, North Carolina and Maine, have already tightened laws governing youth employment, while others, like Massachusetts, are considering doing so.
"A heavy commitment to a part-time job during the school year -- say, working 20 hours per week or more -- significantly interferes with youngsters' school achievement and scholastic commitment," said one member of the youth panel, Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University.
For 10 years starting in 1985, Steinberg surveyed 20,000 high school students in California and Wisconsin, and found that nearly a third of those who had jobs were frequently too tired as a result to do their homework. And those who worked more than 20 hours a week received lower grades and cut classes more often than their schoolmates.
The prevailing thinking had long been that jobs teach teen-agers valuable occupational, social and development lessons that schools do not provide. Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, stands by the benefits of working.
"The debate has raged on a bit," said Hurst, who sat on the state attorney general's child labor task force in 1996. "It's no doubt that a teen's No. 1 job is education, but there are many benefits to jobs: interpersonal communication working in a retail store, food safety skills, mathematical skills."
But in one new report, educators working with the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center recommend that adults re-examine such notions.
Jobs most often filled by teen-agers -- cashiers, sales clerks, food service workers -- "lack challenge while imposing significant time pressure and stress," the study concludes.
At this stage in life, researchers says, more important lessons might be learned by reading or taking part in school activities.
Candice Landi, 18, a senior at John Muir High School in Pasadena, Calif., works 35 hours a week fitting shoes on customers and manning the cash register at the Athlete's Foot in the Pasadena Plaza Mall.
"My life is school and work," she said. "There's barely any homework. I have it, but I just get it done at school. If not, I do it really quick at night. I don't like school anyway." She would have liked to play high school basketball, she said, but she could not because of her schedule.
Like most teen-agers with after-school jobs, Candice says she works for spending money rather than helping support her family. Her salary has paid for a cellular telephone, a tongue piercing and clothes. She saves about $100 from her monthly paycheck of $700 but intends to spend that on her prom.
"I spend it all," she said. "I'm not good with money."
Glenda Kelly, 17, a C student at Newfield High School in Selden, N.Y., maintains that her job at Sports Plus, a family entertainment center, does not interfere with her schoolwork. She earns minimum wage, $5.15 an hour, and works 20 hours a week, until 7 or 8. She says the long day does not make her tired.
"No, I don't sleep that much anyway," she said. "I wanted a job. Otherwise I'd just be at home watching TV doing nothing." She also needs to match money her parents are giving her for a car.
Federal law limits 14- and 15-year-olds to working no more than 18 hours a week while school is in session, and not after 7 on school nights; 16- and 17-year-olds can work as many as 48 hours and until 10 p.m., until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays if they work in restaurants.
While business groups argue that work hours are a family's prerogative, a few states have legislation that is more restrictive. New York limits 16- and 17-year-olds to 28 hours a week during the school year, Washington State to 20.
Massachusetts, which allows 16 and 17 year olds to work 48 hours, has been working to update its legislation. "There are some who want 20 hours," said Hurst of the state's retail trade group. "We want low 30s, which doesn't mean that's right for everyone. Families need to have a good discussion. It's an issue between student and parents. Some have to support their families."
The new law in Washington State also ban teen-agers from most job sites where adults wear protective gear. An adult must be present if minors are working in a store after 8 p.m.
"These are risky situations for robberies," said Mary Miller, chairwoman of the Occupational Health and Safety Section of the American Public Health Association. "I've had a 16-year-old say they were held up at knifepoint at Baskin Robbins at 7 p.m., and the manager thought he should finish his shift. And no one told his parents it had happened."
For the most part, teen-agers work in places that seem safe: restaurants and grocery stores, nursing homes and retail shops. Nonetheless, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health estimates that 70 teen-agers are killed and more than 210,000 are injured on the job each year. Although teen-agers are banned by federal law from some potentially hazardous tasks, they are injured at the same rate as adults. Many who have been hurt, researchers say, had had no safety instruction or were working without adult supervision.
In two studies, one in Massachusetts and the other in North Carolina, of teens who worked, 1 in 3 said they had been cut on the job, and 1 in 4 had been burned. In the Massachusetts study, 10 percent of those injured said the injury had been serious enough to see a doctor.
It is not horseplay or recklessness that get many teen-agers into trouble at work, experts say. Instead, it is their desire to seem adult, their reluctance to ask questions or complain, and their eagerness to please the boss.
The value of work is so deeply ingrained that too often no one asks the right questions, said Letitia Davis, director of the Occupational Health Surveillance Program of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. "Parents want kids to work," she said. "Kids want to work. Employers want work. No one asks: 'What kind of work is good?' "
"I'm not opposed to work," she said, "but the challenge is how to provide meaningful, safe work."
Dave Bell, 18, a senior at Ward Melville High School in Setauket, N.Y., has just such a job. He works afternoons for ShareTechnologies, a software company, earning $8 an hour testing software with three "grown-ups."
"I'm going to use the money for college," said Dave, who scored a perfect 800 on the math part of his SAT. He thinks a letter of recommendation from his employer helped him get admitted to Cornell, where he hopes to study applied math.
"It gets a little tiring," he said of his job. "I go to school at 8 o'clock, and then don't get home till 6:30, 7 at night. But I definitely know a lot more than I knew when I started."
Rachel Frazier, 17, is also saving for college. She was almost at the end of her shift at the Village Video in Chicago, where she works 20 to 22 hours a week. It was nearly 10 p.m., and she was checking out videos and running the cash register. She doesn't worry about being robbed, although she has been trained to use security devices.
"My father doesn't like it," she said, "but he knows I need to save for the things I want."
At home, she has chores -- "mainly, wash the dishes."
"It's the only thing my mom requires on the weekdays. Most of the time, when I go home, I want to sleep."
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
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