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I don't think many kids/teens work at all compared to a few decades ago. Either parents deem it unsafe or they're busy with extracurricular activities or sports (or busy online) but, yeah, working parents pretty much give them what they want...
"In my day," once I was old enough to work it was up to me to buy extras beyond basic wardrobe, food, and shelter, and I was proud and happy to earn that money.
Times have changed!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the teenage workforce participation rate has been rising steadily, and is now at 37.4%. I am pretty sure that number does not account for off-the-books/gig work like babysitting, dog-walking, mowing laws, snow removal, etc.
Anecdotally, my teenagers have jobs and I would say probably 1/3 - 1/2 of their friends do, too. The one's who don't work, it's usually for one of the following reasons:
1. Caring for younger siblings while parents work
2. Lack of transportation
3. Academic and/or extracurricular obligations
4. [Rarely] Parent's simply don't want them to work while in school
I don't feel old (no aches & pains or even gray hair....it's still naturally brunette) but when I hear that babysitters are getting this much then I can appreciate just how old I am. Back in the day when I was in my teens it was 75 cents an hour. Yes even for the time which was the late 1960s and early 1970s it was still pretty cheap but that was the going rate. Hey, if I got lucky I would get maybe a dollar!
I grew up with baby siblings in the home and helped my mom with their care, and by age 10, was babysitting for an aunt with two little ones, and by age 11-12, was babysitting regularly around the neighbourhood for babies and toddlers.
That was back in the 70's, and in the beginning I made .25¢ an hour. By the time I got into high-school (late 70's), I was up to .50¢ an hour.
I earned every penny of my pay. I made homemade baby formula, homemade baby food, changed old-fashioned cloth diapers with rubber pants (yes, with diaper pins), and doing dishes, laundry, and other miscellaneous household chores came with the territory.
I guess back in the day when people had more kids there was someone often around to mind the kids? I also had a good amount of cousins who were paid to watch me. I'm sure these days cousins charge market price. There are no deals to be had anymore it seems, family or not.
It's been about 3 years since we last used a babysitter for our 2 kids (now 15 and 12) but I'm not surprised by that $21 an hour rate. We routinely paid $20-$25 an hour for both our kids, and always guaranteed a 3 hour minimum. On weekends/vacations, or for housesitting, we compensated very generously. That's what gets them to say Yes
A) The average babysitting pool isn't so teen-oriented anymore. Lots of 20-somethings in that line of work, and most parents these days are more inclined to want to higher an older babysitter.
But more importantly,
B) Teens tend to like to work places they can do some socializing with their peers.
Maybe because they have to? There are plenty of low income teens left in the world who have to work jobs like this. There's also jobs at places like Dunkin Donuts that seem to have a good amount of young people working there.
For all the folks on here saying that babysitting "should" cost minimum wage, or half minimum wage, or what not...I have a question. How much pay would it take for YOU to accept a babysitting gig, hmm? Would you do it for $7/hr??
Oh, you wouldn't, because you have other things to do/are too qualified/not interested. And that is part of the issue here. Not enough people want to do it.
Bottom line, there is no "should" in how much pay someone is asking in exchange for their time/attention. It will be as high as folks out there are willing to pay, and this is Econ 101.
Well, there must be some reason, as plenty of teens are flipping burgers! With noted exceptions, teenagers are generally not known for earning high salaries.
As for the premise of babysitters being more expensive than in the past, lots of folks feel, that for whatever reason, that things should cost the same at any given point in time, regardless of the market value of the US Dollar, which is constantly fluctuating in the global market against the other currencies of the world. To me, the issue there would be a failure to get with the times, or, rather, acknowledging the actual worth of the currency and not insisting that ABC should cost XYZ.
For all the folks on here saying that babysitting "should" cost minimum wage, or half minimum wage, or what not...I have a question. How much pay would it take for YOU to accept a babysitting gig, hmm? Would you do it for $7/hr??
Oh, you wouldn't, because you have other things to do/are too qualified/not interested. And that is part of the issue here. Not enough people want to do it.
Bottom line, there is no "should" in how much pay someone is asking in exchange for their time/attention. It will be as high as folks out there are willing to pay, and this is Econ 101.
This, 100%. I've made this comment a few times around this forum, that the people who like to trot out all the supply/demand/free market pricing Econ 101 theories suddenly don't subscribe to it when it comes to caregiving. In their minds, caregiving should be cheap or free.
I'm in a lower COL area, I was paying $10/hour for my one child a few years ago, but recently bumped it to $12/hour and round up to nearest $5 (depending on my cash supply, I never have $1's, lol), which is about the going rate here. It is hard to find a sitter though, I often have to reach out to 2-3 teens before I can line one up. They are all busy with school activities and sometimes other jobs too.
Just for historical anecdote, the going rate was $2/hour when I was babysitter age. I remember one NYE when the neighbor called me that evening to come stay with her kids who were already in bed. She gave me $20 for what was just a few hours, I was floored. Overall, I didn't really enjoy babysitting either, I wasn't really into entertaining or playing with kids. I thought my job was just to make sure everyone stayed safe.
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