In high school, it’s common for students to have jobs. There are nearly 30% of high school students who are employed in the United States. Most high school students get jobs in the fast-food industry or other minimum wage jobs. PHS juniors Kalista Ayala, Julieth Reyes, and Esmeralda Palafox all have jobs outside of school and took a moment to discuss how they manage their time, why they work, and what they do with their paychecks.
Esmeralda works at J’s Drive-In as a cashier and works 25 hours a week. Julieth works at Mcdonald’s as the food handler and works 10 hours a week. Kalista works at Spoons Frozen Yogurt and works 10 hours normally. The legal average hours a student can work is 4 hours on any school day. On a nonschool day, they can work 8 hours but no more than 8. That’s 48 hours a week.
“I finish all my work then go to school.” Julieth shared, while Esmeralda said she focuses on her school work on her days off, and Kalista made an agreement with her employer to only work on the weekends.” There are many pros and cons to having a job while in high school. A couple of the pros are getting experience and earning money. One of the cons, and a pretty big one, is having to go to manage your time, this can add stress and cause some people to fall behind in their classwork. All three of the girls we interviewed said that having a job outside of school does add some tension and stress when it comes to getting their school work done. But that’s not always a bad thing, as Esmeralda shared, “Working pressures me to get my school stuff done on time.”
Esmeralda says she’s only planning on keeping her job for a month because she is applying to the new Panda Express, while Kalista and Julieth are planning on staying at their jobs until at least next year. These girls said they are working because they don’t want everything handed to them, and want to work for their own things.
Lots of places around town are hiring right now so if you are looking for a job and need a permit, you can go to the Administration Office and ask for a work permit, and they will give you the proper paperwork to complete.