Warmer weather is fast approaching, and if you’re a parent of older kids (like me), the search is just beginning for them to land a summer job.

Now, back in my day (we’re talking the 1980’s here), a job that paid more than $5 or $6 an hour was pretty hard to find.  Sure, you could flip burgers, mow lawns, or find some other seasonal profession, but the pay wasn’t all that great (although to be fair, I can still remember being able to get a half-tank of gas, a movie ticket, and something to eat for $20 total, but that’s another story).

I was lucky enough to land a job at the in-patient pharmacy of my local hospital, which paid a nice wage of $10/hour (good money for a summer job at the time).  I was inside, out of the elements, and the work did require a bit of responsibility (I was, after all – only seventeen and filling prescriptions for patients in beds upstairs), so I learned a lot.  I was also working with mostly women, which was a blessing and a curse (also another story).  Anyway, I kept that pharmacy job all through my college years, and it served me well.  I could come home and work two shifts there on a weekend and have enough spending cash to cover about two weeks of college frivolity, which suited me just fine.

These days, in the post-COVID era, it’s definitely an employee’s market.  Gone are the days when a high school or college kid has to settle for a $6/hour job doing God-knows-what.  Employers have been forced to raise their wages in an effort to attract and retain qualified workers (no matter what age), so it’s much easier to find a job in the $13 – $15/hour range, even if it is only for a short three-month season.  Heck, the local grocery chains are starting new hires at $15/hour, which is damn good money for a high school or college student.

Some employers; however; are complaining loudly that they “can’t hire anybody” and that “no one wants to work anymore”.  I think that if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that they are still clinging to those early 2000’s wage ranges, where they feel that a $6 – $7 hourly wage is “more than enough”.  Most of these organizations also run and manage their employees like they are in charge of the oarsmen on a Roman galley ship, abusing their workers and offering little in the way of compensation, benefits, or scheduling considerations.  I’ve got some bad news for those employers – it’s not that people don’t want to work – it’s just that they don’t want to work for you.

I recently ran into one of my youngest daughter’s classmates, slaving away at one of those big box home improvement stores (the blue one) – and they had him right on the firing line, working in customer service up front.  As expected, he was getting torn a new one by some entitled Karen who was unhappy about – who knows – her blue paint wasn’t blue enough (or some other crazy horse-sh*t).  Sheeesh.  Now if you have read my blogs, you’ll know that I also used to work for this same organization, and it was a miserable eighteen months of my life that – other than the people I worked with – I’d like to forget.  I saw the worst in consumers, from their entitled attitudes to their general treatment of retail employees, as well as management teams and corporate decisions that were less than stellar.  I called him over and said “what the hell are you doing here?”  He smiled and nervously laughed.  I knew for a fact that he could walk 200 yards down the shopping center and get a job at the grocery store making more money with 100% less hassle and soul-crushing encounters with the public at large – and encouraged him to do so.

So what’s my takeaway?  Tell you’re working-age son or daughter to shop around.  There’s plenty of good-paying, short-term gigs out there for the summer months.  They don’t have to “settle” for bad hours, poor pay, and even worse treatment (from the public or a potential boss).

I’ll be looking for them at the local grocery store in the coming weeks.