low wages for hairdressers! is it legal

chika

Findind a saturday job for someone under 16 is almost impossible especially round here. Unfortunatly low pay seems to be the norm.

One of my collegues daughters has just left school and decided to go into hairdressing. One of the local salons said that they would take her on and let her go to college one day a week. She would be working a 40+ hour week for less than £60!

She has now decided to do hairdressing full time at college and get EMA which is £30 a week. She has also found a job in a local Toni & Guy salon where she gets £30 a week for doing saturday and one late night student evening. Its a much better option.

Why not suggest this route to your daughter but encourage her to persevere with the current job until she leaves school?

Good luck!

loopy_lass

the woman whos taken her on is an acquantence of mine, she says she will put her thro her training at college one day a week, take her on full time at 16, and hopefully when she opens her other salons & training acadamy, my daughter will be high profile in them.

This woman has won many many many awards for hairdressing, and is regarded as the best in the area, so if she thinks my daughter has the potential (as i do) then i think she should give it her best shot...

my daughter n i spoke last night and its all she wants to do, and says there is always the theatrical side, or the cruise ships etc. so shes thinkin long term .... bless... aint they sensible sometimes...

loops

mountainofdebt

could you not 'donate' some of your free hair do to your daughter?

beautifulgorgeous_2

I am not sure that it is legal for a child under 16 to work at all unless it is a family business, other than that I think you are stuck with a paper round!

juno

beautifulgorgeous wrote:

I am not sure that it is legal for a child under 16 to work at all unless it is a family business, other than that I think you are stuck with a paper round!

Children under 16 can work, there are just very strict rules about where and when. Which makes it very strange that there are no rules on how much they can be paid.

angelatgraceland

Yes, its all legal unfortunately, and I realy do think that there should be some legislation regarding minimum wages for under 16s. Its amazing how many people disagree tho-I started a thread last year on this very topic. If your aquaintance is trustworthy, it could be a case that your daughter will get everything that is promised to her in the future and build a very good career. It could well be a testing ground to make sure that she is indeed devoted to the concept of becoming a hairdresser and proving her loyalty to this woman. I can understand this, but I still think its slave labour. The worst scene is, that she is stuck on this wage for one year-think long term gain rather than short term pain, I guess!

hamaradam

I think the best option is to get the training, qualifications, experience, secretly build up a list of client contacts then go mobile and undercut the salon. It is slave labour. A lot of them never get good training, some salons have a big turnover of trainees, they just get rid and go on to the next one. Go mobile, but keep your plan to yourself, as they will have you out soon as they know. Also don't tell your training place/college/academy either. Do it all behind the scenes. A cruise ship would be great too. Good luck.

loopy_lass

my daughters boss phoned me to say how impressed she is with her, and the training is going to be at a proper college etc with proper qualis so no worries there (i know the teacher).

she asked if my daughter was happy etx and i said well, she had been talkin to a friend of hers who is on £5 per hour waitressing... oh.. she says... er ... well i dont want to loose her .... and guess what.... wages have gone up from £1.58 to £1.92 an hour!!!!

progress me thinks

loops

Prudent

Well done on the progress. It is often the case that jobs which people do for love involve low initial wages. I used to ride/own horses as a teenager and so was friendly with other riders. I saw some of my friends start on very low wages (£20 per week plus accomodation on food) for hours of hard physical work wth early starts and late finishes. When I went to uni (in the days of student grants), I was much better off than them. I still keep up with some of them. Some have made good money in the business, others have continued on wages that aren't great. Most have moved jobs. None have ever said they regreted the choice of working with horses.

I guess many of us wish laterly we had spent more of our youth doing the things we want. Later family responsibilties may take that option away. Just food for thought.

mad_bad_spender

I worked as a trainee hairdresser and worked 40 hours a week for £45. I then moved to a better salon and started on £55 for 48 hours a week. Was on £75 by the time I gave it up. I was 18 at the time. I gave it up as the salon had the juniors doing colour and perms and blow drying and all the stylists were doing was cutting the clients hair and they were making a fortune. They never made a single junior into a stylist while I was there and that was nearly three years. they were just using them to make more money by cramming as many clients in as possible.