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INTRODUCTION: Young people face a
particularly unjust situation in many work environments and workplace
situations. Young people can earn income on their own without being
allowed to open a bank account on their own; young people must pay taxes without
the possibility of voting until they're 18; young people are routinely exploited
by their employers, expected to work more erratic, less popular hours for less
pay than equally or less-then equally experienced/skilled adults.
POINT TO PONDER:
"The freedom and human capacities of individuals must be developed to their
maximum but individual powers must be linked to democracy in the sense that
social betterment must be the necessary consequence of individual flourishing."
- Henry Giroux
RESOURCES: The following organizations, websites, and
publications can help young people learn about youth discrimination in the
workplace, and find the tools to defeat ageism and alienation.
Websites and Organizations
International Labor Organization Youth
Employment Information
At the start of the new century, youth employment problems continue to pervade
both developed and developing countries, with a disproportionately large number
of young women and men exposed to long-term unemployment or else limited to
precarious or short-term work.
Youth, Work,
and Unions
Includes facts, statistics, and information about youth labor in Canada.
Includes a good rationale for youth unionizing.
Youth Unemployment Rates
Annual average
percent of non-institutional youth, age 16-19, unemployed for 1998, from the
"Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment", Bureau of Labor Statistics,
U.S. Department of Labor, last revised April 10, 2000.
The 2030 Center
Founded
in 1997, the 2030 Center is a public policy organization for young adults. The
2030 Center's mission is to advocate for the economic interest of young workers.
The name 2030 refers to people in their 20s and 30s. It also refers to the year
2030, not simply for its significance as a demographic benchmark for our
society. The 2030 Center is addressing the economic future of today's younger
generations.
Information From the United
States
Department of Labor
State Labor Offices
State Minimum Wage Rates
Employment/Age Certificate Issuance
Practice Under State Child Labor Laws and
Programs
Minimum hourly cash wage
Selected State child labor standards affecting minors
under 18 in non-farm employment
State regulation of door-to-door sales by
minors
Employment related provisions
Other Government Sources
Better Business Bureau
Investigating consumer and employee complaints across the U.S.
California Labor Laws for Minors
An online pamphlet that clearly explains child labor laws in California.
Federal Minimum Wage Hotline
Information on Federal minimum wage laws
Immigration & Naturalization Service
(INS)
Federal right-to-work laws and forms
Publications
Improving Career Outcomes for Youth: Lessons
from the U.S. and OECD Experience
High youth unemployment and
weak systems of career preparation are continuing concerns for modern societies.
Over the last two decades, youth unemployment has become less of a priority
issue in the United States, as policymakers increasingly focus on the quality of
education and training. Other members of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) are continuing to emphasize the problem of
youth joblessness even among workers in their early 20s. This paper reviews the
lessons from the experience in the United States and other OECD countries about
the diagnosis of these problems and what policies have worked to help young
people obtain jobs and enter productive careers.
The Black Youth Employment
Crisis
By Richard
Freeman and Harry J. Holzer (eds.).
What Works: Corporate Success in Tackling
the Youth Jobs Crisis
By P. Calamai. How Canada sees a social
issue often shapes what gets done about it. Take the crisis in youth employment
for example. Some people see the youth jobs issue largely in terms of numbers.
These are really big numbers. There are the 600,000 young Canadians who are
jobless and over 300,000 more who are underemployed, involuntarily working
part-time.
Rural Youth Employment
Compiled by Liam R. Kennedy. A major issue in rural
America, for leaders, and the community, as a whole, is that of teen or youth
employment and the associated out migration. What job opportunities are
available to teens in rural environments and how does a community keep its youth
from leaving for better jobs?
High School Employment: Meaningful
Connections for At-Risk Youth
By Duncan Chaplin and Jane Hannaway. Part-time employment among
high school students has increased dramatically in recent years, raising the
question of whether this is a productive activity for young people who are still
enrolled in high school. In this paper we use data from the High School and
Beyond Survey to estimate the effects of high school employment on education and
employment outcomes as long as 12 years after graduating from high school.
The Economics of Despair
By Andy Sum. Since the late 1970s, social
science researchers, the media, private foundations, and policymakers have
directed considerable attention to the labor market problems of young adults and
their families. Most of this attention has focused on high school dropouts, the
poor, minorities, and inner-city youth. But an equally troubling—and
broader—problem has received comparatively less notice: the steep and sustained
decline since 1973 in the real (inflation-adjusted) earnings of young men and
women generally.
Education
and the work histories of young adults
In the Spirit of Youth and the City Streets,
urban reformer Jane Addams explores the alienation of modern youth caused by
commercialized recreation, no outlets for romance and adventure, and the
monotony of modern industry. (1909)
Child Labor Photographs
By Lewis W. Hine. This
collection of 480 of photographs features young children working in
mills, mines, factories, fields, and on city streets, photographed from 1908 to
1912 for the National Child Labor Committee.
The SNAYR is brought to you by
The Freechild Project in partnership with
National Youth Rights Association
NYRA has been working for more than
five
years to bring young people across the United States a society where
they experience
political, social, and economic, and cultural equality, and where the rights of youth
are equal to those of adults.
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