“Adult workers said, ‘I no longer want this crazy low-wage service job that has a ludicrous schedule, few benefits and rude customers,” Ms. Modestino said. So “employers suddenly turned to youth.”
McCauley Masley, an eighth-grader who attended the fair, said she was seeking a job that would let her augment her allowance for trips to Target and CVS and meals with friends.Plus, “I wanted to look into getting a job for experience as early as possible to put on résumés,” she said. Itai Ben Eli, a Houston restaurateur, said being someone’s first employer comes with extra responsibilities but has been worth the investment. A, which he said he lured with wage increases, made it possible for him to open a European-style bakery, Badolina, last June when he couldn’t find the adult workers he needed.
“We could shape and teach them what is important to us,” Mr. Ben Eli said. He has since promoted two of the teens he hired at Badolina to shift leader.
Teens, taking min wage jobs from middle aged folks in poverty since 1970.