If you are someone like me, odds are that you have a part-time job you go to either throughout the week, or only on the weekends. Working in the fast food industry, working on weekends helps me pay for the things I want and need and it’s a nice sum of money to help me get week to week.

According to a study conducted by Walden University showed that nearly 30% of all high school students hold jobs during the school year. This number is up from 17.6% in 2020.

The rate of inflation and corporate greed has made living in America a lot more expensive for the modern American family. Because of this struggle, there are many kids fighting for jobs. But is teenage labor a good thing?

While jobs for teenagers is not a new phenomenon, there are many benefits to having a job as a teenager.

According to that same Walden University study, it can show many benefits such as, understand the importance of school to earn a good living, time-management skills, budgeting, and can build someone’s confidence.

Now that information seems pretty great on the surface, but it’s not all 100% set in stone. From personal experience working at Auntie Anne’s, time-management can prove to be really tricky with a vast workload from a variety of classes.

I also believe that school isn’t necessarily “essential” for success in the future. In an effort to brewing more people into universities, universities used predatory lending and propaganda that comes with it in order to enrich themselves.

As defined by investopedia.com: “Predatory lending typically means imposing unfair, deceptive, or abusive loan terms on borrowers. In many cases, these loans carry high fees and interest rates, strip the borrower of equity, or place a creditworthy borrower in a lower credit-rated (and more expensive) loan, all to the lender’s benefit.”

Seeing this definition, there are many different conclusions over can come to.

My understanding is that universities see profits to be made as nearly every student that comes into school is looking to stay to earn their education. Because college is seen as important and essential, universities enrich themselves by charging the highest rates possible.

This messaging influenced the public’s opinions on predatory lending and student loans. This has led to over $1.6 trillion in student debt to American workers according to Forbes.com.

Getting back to the topic at hand, I believe that working throughout high school has definitely helped my confidence as I am much better at communicating with people on a day-to-day basis. And that high school students should make their own decisions on whether to work or not. Working in high school is not for everyone, but it’s something I truly enjoy.

I am behind the register for a lot of my shifts and have to talk to people for however long my shift is, and the constant communication helps me know where to be and when I need to be there on the clock.

I truly love my job and the people I get to work with on a week-to-week basis. I get to work with my brother and some of my favorite people on Earth. Things are done with a ‘twist’ at Auntie Anne’s. We are a family and it is a family I am so proud to be a part of. Yes the Saturday 4:00 to 6:00 pm windows where people are in and out non-stop aren’t fun in the slightest, but it is through those challenges which make us stronger as one.