What jobs can a 15 year old do?

Zoetoes

My son will be 15 next month and would like a little job to earn some cash.

He's just started a paper round but we were wondering if there are any other jobs he could do?

Or is the minimum age 16?

Thanks

Ms_Chocaholic

The employment of 15 year old and 16 year old children who have not reached school leaving age is restricted by the Children and Young Persons Act (1933).

Essentially, the restrictions on hours and types of work are the same as those applying to 14 year olds: not in prohibited industries, only light work, not before of the close school hours on any day he or she is required to attend school, before 7.00am or after 7.00 pm; for more than 2 hours on any school day or 12 hours in any school week or for more than 2 hours on a school day. However, at 15 and 16, a child may work for up to 8 hours on a weekday when he or she is not at school or on a Saturday and for up to 35 hours in a non-school week.

The National Minimum Wage does not apply to workers under 16, though since it applies to 16 and 17 year olds at £3.40 an hour (updated October 2007).

Statutory Sick Pay regulations also specify that only persons over the age of 16 years are entitled to sick pay, so a child under school leaving age is not entitled to SSP and, in reality, is most unlikely to receive contractual sick pay, even if prevented from working by illness.

Ms_Chocaholic

Could he contact local cafes re what work they have, when my son was about 15 he got a washing up job. Prior to that he worked in a local kennels.

orangemoose88

These are the guidelines (copied from adviceguide.org)

Children under school leaving age must not:

• during school hours on any school day
• for more than two hours on any school day or for more than 12 hours in any week in which you are required to go to school
• for more than two hours on a Sunday
• for more than eight hours (five hours if you are under 15) on any day which is not a school day or a Sunday
• before 7am or after 7pm
• for more than 35 hours (25 if you are under the age of 15) in any week in which you are not required to go to school
• for more than four hours in any day without a break of one hour
• at any time, if during the 12 months beginning 1 January, working means that you have not had two uninterrupted weeks of holiday from school.

It's probably worth him applying for jobs in supermarkets and maybe even some other shops. I know plenty of supermarkets will employ kids under school leaving age. They don't have to pay them minimum wage, which helps, I guess. Bear in mind he's not gonna get paid very much - when I was 17 (3 years ago) they offered me £3.00 an hour... disgraceful. But it'll be experience and teach him the value of money, blahblahblah, so it's probably worth it!

Sorry, slow at posting... Ms. Chocaholic got there first!

Oldernotwiser

At 15, if he's doing a daily paper round then I'd think that's enough. His school work is more important at his age.

Zoetoes

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

At 15, if he's doing a daily paper round then I'd think that's enough. His school work is more important at his age.

He wouldn't be doing both.

Ms_Chocaholic

Just another thought ... I know he has a paper round, is this a morning round, if so, could he get a job delivering the free papers (they are usually afternoon/evening rounds)

Let us know how he gets on

Please make sure he doesn't give up his paper round before Christmas though, the tips are great - I'm thinking of getting a paper round job myself in the run up to Christmas

Zoetoes

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

Just another thought ... I know he has a paper round, is this a morning round, if so, could he get a job delivering the free papers (they are usually afternoon/evening rounds)

Let us know how he gets on

Please make sure he doesn't give up his paper round before Christmas though, the tips are great - I'm thinking of getting a paper round job myself in the run up to Christmas

Yes it's a morning round, he only started it this week so he'll be doing it for a while longer yet. I just want to make sure it doesn't interfere with school, he needs to be organised, do homework etc before he gets too tired with getting up early, he's not the world's most organised person!

I hope he does get tips but with him being new will people still bother as much?

The pay is £17 a week which I though was quite good.

Ms_Chocaholic

I think he will still get the tips, not all people see who delivers their paper so wouldn't know that he has just started (I'm terrible at getting up in the morning so I certainly wouldn't - I don't get a paper delivered though).

I know some paperboys/girls do give Christmas cards to the people they deliver to but I think this is awful and almost like begging for the tips so my advice would be for your son not to do this.

When my son was doing his paper round some 8 years ago he got around £100 tips.

Zoetoes

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

I think he will still get the tips, not all people see who delivers their paper so wouldn't know that he has just started (I'm terrible at getting up in the morning so I certainly wouldn't - I don't get a paper delivered though).

I know some paperboys/girls do give Christmas cards to the people they deliver to but I think this is awful and almost like begging for the tips so my advice would be for your son not to do this.

When my son was doing his paper round some 8 years ago he got around £100 tips.

He'd be made up with that!

He just wants some extra cash for vinyls etc, we do give him £7.50 pocket money each week but £7.50 doesn't go very far, even a bus journey takes a big chunk out of it.

Ms_Chocaholic

DS's paper round only covered one Christmas and, in the run up to Christmas, he was unwell and wasn't going to do the round. Because of the well paid tips I got the car out and took him round.