Paper round pay?

I did a paper round for 5 days a week about 35 years ago and got £5 for the week 😂

My son does a local monthly paper and gets 6p a magazine and 1p per leaflet, so for his round earns about £50 on average. It works out for his round about £10/hour. It's a good compromise as only monthly and he has a week to deliver them all in but covers a larger area.

Would it be worth you seeing what the shop charges for paper delivery OP ?

Let's say they charge the customers 20p a day. That would mean for £13 they'd only need to deliver 13 papers a day to make up the delivery charge. So either they're massively undercharging their customers on the paper delivery or they're skimming off a big chunk of the delivery costs for themselves and then choosing to pay a very low salary in the process.

Editing to add: 20p a day was what we were charged for our paper delivery when we had one - which I think was in about 2010.

That’s ridiculous. Way too low a wage.

My DS gets £35 for a 7 day paper round. He usually starts around 06.40 on a weekday or 07.40 on a weekend. Round takes about half an hour.

He also covers extra rounds whenever possible and made over £150 in Christmas tips.

£13 a week?

I know he's too cool for his mum and dad's help but I do think that you have to take care to make sure he's not being exploited. And at that pay I really think he would be. I guess he could do it for a month or so and see if the time it takes is substantially lower, but I really feel like they're taking the mickey paying £2 something an hour.

£13 is a joke. I pay my DS £10 to clean my car (inside and out) takes just over an hour

I used to get more than that in about 2005. How many days per week is it? The newsagent I worked for had different staff to deliver on Sundays.

agreed,

but it's a good lesson on why it's important to work intelligently, not just "working hard" for the sake of it - which gives you nothing.

My daughter earns more than that selling bracelets she makes while watching tv!

On a side note, the way younger people are exploited with these ridiculous amounts is infuriating.

I used to get £13/week back in 1998 with a £10 weekly bonus if I went back in the evenings to deliver magazines.

I'd be interested to know the amount. £13 seems like exploitation.

Yes, I think he / she has probably misheard. My DS earns about £35 a week for delivering papers Mon-Sat. So £30 a week for only 5 days would sound about right for round here (South East). Let him / her try doing it for a couple of weeks and if it really is only £13 a week, strongly suggest they start looking for a better paying job. I remember doing waitressing etc at about age 14, then doing a Saturday job at a shop, all of which were quite fun!

The great things about my son's paper round is that it doesn't take up a whole day (like a Saturday job would), he doesn't have that many houses to deliver to and they're all quite nearby, he's always been quite an early riser so doesn't mind the early starts, and lord - the Christmas tips are amazing! He writes xmas cards to all his customers and sticks them through the letterboxes with their papers in early December. Nearly all of them give him a card back, usually with a lovely message and a generous tip. He made about £250 in tips this year and last xmas too - quite a good haul! He likes feeling a bit financially independent and I honestly think it's made him think about spending money in a different way.

@Paperound Did he mis-hear and it's actually £30 a week? Which to me sounds a more correct amount, but I can imagine £13 sounds absolute riches to be happy about if you're not earning anything.

I’m just here for when we get the answer!

£55 a week here, for 6 days and 7 hours (London). £13 / week sounds ridiculously low, but £13 a day sounds improbably high.

My paper round in the mid 80s, 7 days a week ( 8 rounds as needed to do 2 with Sunday papers) and I got £12. It was in London. But still £13 seems very low.

Could you encourage DC to pop into the shop and ask them to put the contract in writing? They really should
when employing someone of any age.

@Paperound do you get a free local advertising type magazine through the door? DS delivered these until he was old enough to get a job. He got paid £60 a round which was every six weeks. That week he used to do a couple of roads a night after school and then finish the rest on a Saturday. Id say it took him 7hrs overall.

Fair enough. I’m a former teacher so probably more sensitive to it.

Hope your DC gets a fair wage for their work 🙂

I think it’s very low also.

I also am puzzled by exclamation marks at the end of nearly every sentence. I don’t mean this in an unkind way, maybe you are not aware you are doing it.

I was like your DC back in the 80s, desperate for extra cash, and was paid 50p for about 3 hours work. I quit after 2 weeks and foisted the round onto a friend who was willing to take it over.

I started babysitting aged 15 - much easier.