Opinions please - my son's paper round - is this a fair wage?

ultimatedingbat

If i am correct (please check these details) there is no minimum wage for a 15 year old so technically, the company can pay him what they like. Minimum wage for 16-17 is about £3.50

inmypocketnottheirs

Aye, when I was a lad, we used to live int cardboard box int middle of motorway......

Savvy_Sue

Wine_of_the_World wrote: »

perhaps have a polite word with them about that. Dont rock the boat too much if your son really wants to keep the job.

It would be better if your son had the polite word, of course. I know it can be scary, maybe you and he could write a letter if he doesn't feel confident enough to do it by phone, or at least write down the points he would like to make in a phone call, and practice a bit with you!

I know DS1 felt quite aggrieved at one point and decided to write and ask for a payrise. We sent it to the paper who were technically his employer, and they said no, but the distributor said if DS1 had approached him he would have seen if he could do anything, maybe a change of round to a quicker one or something like that.

dobbie82

here its £10 a week for about 40 papers? mostly rows of houses though and most use a bike.

onlyforboards_2

bendix wrote: »

Why?

Because it's realistic or because it doesn't concur with your sense of your son's rights?

The OP reasonably asked what other paper rounds were paying, not for a list of sarcastic suggestions.

Perhaps you and all the people who thanked you could remind yourselves of the reason this board exists.

OP if the same number of people had papers delivers as they used to the payment would have risen over the years. Nowadays fewer people have paper deliveries but your son will still be covering the same amount of ground for proportionally less pay.

floss2

Can I assume that your son has a child employment licence from your local authority, has a copy of his employer's liability insurance certificate and has undertaken a full risk assessment with his employer as per regulations relating to the employment of children?

Any query over payment should be made with whoever pays his wages. As an indication, several years ago (2000 - 2004) I paid my employees £5 a round to deliver up to 50 local weekly papers - but I believe that the same company now pay £5 for a round of 25 papers, with no leaflets. Free papers with leaflets can vary in pay week to week as it is the advertisers who pay extra over the flat rate for their flyers to be delivered.

p00hsticks

floss2 wrote: »

Can I assume that your son has a child employment licence from your local authority.

Surely it's not the son that needs this, it's the employer ?

floss2

p00hsticks wrote: »

Surely it's not the son that needs this, it's the employer ?

Any child under 16 who works whilst in full-time education needs a licence / permit from the Local Authority, to comply with legal requirements.

Contact your childrens services department for further advice.

pimento

My son used to get £20 for a seven day week and a round that had about 30 drops on it. On Sundays he had to do it in two halves because the papers were so big. He would often also cover for lads who had called in sick or who were on holiday. This was until he started college last year, so fairly recently.

Money wasn't great but he did really well at Christmas. Earned over £200 in tips!

Character building stuff.

Lakeuk

In the early 90s I did a weekly round of 200 papers for around £5, took me upto 2hrs. I was paid a set amount for the paper and additional for leaflets depending on number / size

Those doing daily rounds of upto 30 houses would be paid a set amount per paper for dailys and another rate for heavier sundays. It didn't matter what was included in the paper. Most daily rounds were costed on the basis the kid would use a bike.