Too many young folks were/are not even made to do chores at home and were/are raised in an instant gratification society. Most school age kids now absolutely do not know how to wait or be bored AT ALL. I am sure that as a young child I would likely started whining after awhile and asking when we were going to be done or when we were going to leave when I got bored, but now electronics, iPhones and iPads are the things stuck in kids' hands to keep them quiet and chilled out when they need to be quiet and still.
Of the high school kids I have heard about, the 14- and 15-year olds want to work the most. Once they are actually mobile with drivers' licenses and parent provided vehicles, they have too many other things they want to do. I am sure there is, also, some sense of being defeated when that age group cannot find a job. Even those who do get one at 16, 17, 18 and are still in school are limited in the hours they can work, not by parents, but by the govt, which I think is wrong. Each person is different. There are those who can keep their grades up and still work way more than three or four hours a day.
We need to get back to the idea of what I call "starter" jobs that are the ones where it doesn't take a tremendous amount of skill to learn, but that, honestly, I hate to say, may need to start back in school in making sure the kids that actually learn basic math and are taught how to spell in elementary don't lose those skills by the time they get to high school (which I swear seems to happen). There needs to be an acceptance that someone with no prior skill set should not be making what those who do have skill sets do.
A cashier should not make the same wage an electrician does. Those who stock shelves should not be making what a paramedic makes (this is really a burr under my saddle as I dang sure think someone who has been trained to save a life should be making more than someone in a position who is starting to be phased out and replaced by a dang machine).
For those clamoring for higher minimum wage, congratulations - you are only making it harder for yourselves in the long run. Not all jobs are for those who have families to support! These starter jobs that I speak of are for those who are still young, living at home with parents and are just learning how to budget, set goals, save money toward that goal, hopefully start having to pay for something, even if it is as simple as the cost of a cell phone line on the family plan.
When you start becoming unsatisfied with what you are earning at your current job, then evaluate your situation. Is there some additional training you could get to put yourself in a better position with a pay increase? There are plenty of people willing to train and help someone move up the career ladder, but there has to be some initiative on the employee's part.
I don't say all this to knock those who have been blessed to not have to work and go right on to college, graduate and continue on to get a job with a decent income. I suspect that those who have been able to do that still had a good work ethic instilled in them in the beginning. But, there has been a large push for a number of years talking about how you are only going to make good money if you get a college degree and it is simply not always the case. There have been what I consider lots of misinformed kids follow this guidance and then are very disillusioned with the result. There are tons of college degrees out there that are simply just not going to provide a lucrative income.
Because of the college degree push there has been some misconception that those who just the blue collar work life don't earn as much. WRONG! Case in point, we have three kids. We have one who received a Bachelor in Science in Radiological Sciences from UAB. We have one who went through the welding program at LBWCC-MacArthur. We have one who received an Associate's Degree from LBWCC and is a licensed paramedic. Of those three, our radiology girl is currently at one of the imaging centers in Montgomery and primarily does "dexa scans" (bone density and fat composition) and generally works three days a week and helps raise three young boys with her husband, Our welder went to work for a pipeline company for about nine years and now works for Southeast Gas in Enterprise and helps raise a daughter and son with his wife. Our paramedic currently works for CSL Plasma at one of the Montgomery locations. Fresh out of their respective programs, our welder absolutely was making more money and I suspect still does, although I do not know how much any of them are currently earning.
Our daughter had a solid plan when she before she graduated high school and literally started summer college courses within a week of graduation and proceeded to graduate with honors from UAB. Both the boys were informed of the options available - they could just go to work, they could enlist in the military, they could get some training to be better positioned for a better job than what one can get without a specific skill set., but that they were not just going to sit at home and play video games all day. That paramedic we have started out working at a call center and he did that for over a year before deciding that it was not what he wanted to do for life.
I think there is a lot of money spent every year for college and other training that is just wasted because kids are pushed into it by well meaning parents even though they are not ready. I am totally in favor of them needing to do something besides keep your couch warm, but sometimes just going to work in the starter job sector is the best motivation to want something more and be willing to put in the effort to better themselves.
The other problem I see lots of employers facing currently, aside from stimulus packages, is finding people who can pass a drug test. If they were to legalize pot, the number of folks who could pass one would increase dramatically it seems. I am not saying that would be a good or bad idea - just a fact it seems. The other problem is people not being able to stay off their personal phones.
