Paper round, slave labour?

[dingit]

Ds just been offer a paper round 100 papers £3. This doesn't sound too bad, but it's also the steepest hill in the village, and long driveways.

I think we might say we will try it, if it takes more than 1 hour, they can stick it!
I just don't want to give ds the wrong message, he's a lazy so and so at the best of times.

Then let him do it. He probably won't do it for long but it will be a valuable experience. Everyone needs to do a crap job for a low wage at least once imo - teaches them the value of money, the circumstances of those who have so little, and if he's still at school and "lazy" should hopefully get him working harder for exams/in other ways so as to try to escape future low-paid work!

Agree it's not a remotely reasonable wage though.

Paper rounds are always shit, but make shit in some newsagents than others.

I did one which was a bike uphill to the newsagents, then downhill delivering the papers with short driveways and I could carry the bag. Liked that one but unfort I was only 8 week cover for some long term paper girl who had broken her arm!

Had another later on which was more money but a v uphill route and I couldn't carry that many papers so had to use one of the trolleys so that added loads of time taking the trolley back at the end. Also very long driveways. That was totally not worth it and I literally lasted 2 weeks before jacking it in for more gainful employment.

I'd let him do it. Either he'll take to it, or he'll think it's shit and put some effort into finding a better job.

Yes, ours got bumped up a bit if there were flyers.

But they had to sit and put them in the papers themselves before the round, or put them in at the door as they posted them. All meant yet more time taken and fingers covered in news paper print.

That does sound a bit low. Often rounds are designed to take no more than 25 mins and if daily work out at about £15-£20 pw.100 papers sound more like 3 rounds worth.

He should also have a license as well. I tend to find the newsagents who do not make sure this happens tend to not pay the going rate

That's seriously shit money. My DS delivers the local free paper - 800 copies once every three weeks and receives £64.00.

Yeah, they muttered something about 25p for leaflets. I think it may be worth letting him try...

And they can be extremely lucrative for long term kids when they work at Christmas.

My brother owns one (well we both do but I don't work in it) the paper kids get hundreds of pounds in tips over December

Chopchopbusybbusy

It said under 18's so I assumed that counted under 16's. I stand corrected. But if the going rate is £3.79 an hour for a 16-18 yo, then surely £3.00 an hour is fine for a 14 yo. As long as they are paying him for the time he actually does at that rate as not overall for one round as it were.

Offer to double his wages, this is what I do for mine, she does three hours washing up/clearing tables in a tearoom.
They pay her £10, I double it, minus £5 which is her contribution to the household. Her tips are separate and hers to keep so she gets around £20 for three hours work.
My reasoning is that she is paid and rewarded for work by her employer, paid by me as I think it's unfair of her to have to earn all her own money at just turned 14, and the £5 shows that all members of a family need to contribute.
If this doesn't work out (tearoom will get quiet in the winter months, they may not need her), I will be expecting her to get another job, probably a paper round as not much else available, the money arrangement will stand, plus I'll get her any extra warm clothing /shoes if she needs, and a bike if it helps.

Is it a local free paper, becuase those are horrible?

If so try and get him delivering Daylies instead from a newsagents, the money is better and there are rules about bundle weight and size.

Yes it's local free one.

You make a 14yo pay housekeeping? WOW

Hmmm.

Depends how you look at it. The pay does sound low but if he sticks it out till Christmas he might get a lot in tips - depends on your area probably. And if he does it for a reasonable amount of time it might help him get a Saturday job eventually.

DS did six days a week for £26.50. Many fewer papers but the route covered a large area. It was great until the middle of the winter when it wasn't safe to go out on his bike sometimes and once he had a residential weekend thing so no long lie for a fortnight. he was in a fabulously healthy routine provided he went to bed at a reasonable time - arrived home from the paper round ready for a nice big healthy breakfast and great for improving fitness.

Yeah they have a bad reputation for underpaying.

Before you accept ask at your local shop if they do home delivers and ask if they need a paper boy.

In the late 90s I did a daily paper round as a 13 year old for £13 a week, fairly long drives and spaced out houses, including time sorting the papers out beforehand and walking there and back home from the newsagents to the route I'd say it was maybe £1 or £1.50 an hour? Did it for a school year, the best bit was the Christmas tips I got £70 and someone taped a box of malteasers to their letterbox for me! I bought my own VCR and was very chuffed.

After that I did the weekly free paper for a couple of years - one route which partly covered an industrial estate which was a bit of a pain, then switched to a different more residential one. Think it was something like 120 papers, and only got about £3.50 or so as I recall but then you'd get more for each type of leaflet, when they had four or five leaflets it would add up to an alright sum. But they only gave you one newspaper delivery bag, and the stack of papers and leaflets was several feet high - my dad helped me adapt a sack trolley and plastic crate to lug them around. He used to come out on the route with me every now and then too, to make it go faster. Bless him.

I do think newspaper routes are a good way for younger teenagers to earn some pocket money, but it is generally a hard slog/time consuming for little reward. But gets you out in the fresh air for a bit and you certainly appreciate the money you've earnt.

I don't think he will get tips for the feebie, more like abuse!

Off-topic, but I still remember really appreciating houses that have little porches/whatever over their front doors, since you could get the paper out of your bag nice and dry when it was raining. And letterboxes vary wildly, which you may not think about until you've stuffed papers through a hundred in a row. If you've got a letterbox with finger-crushing giant springs that slam down on an unsuspecting newspaper girl's hands then I hope you get what's coming to you in the next world.

Also - to the person who had a tiny half-width letterbox, but who took the Sunday Times: why? Just why? Every week I had to dismember it into its component sections and feed each one through individually.

DS2 (13) delivers 173 local free papers once a week for £5. Leaflets are extra at about 79p per set. he has 3 sets of leaflets today.
The pay isn't great but he has to do it, and I think it's good for him to earn the money and have a bit of extra money and responsibility. He's getting very quick at it now too.

It's quite jammy though because it's our road and the next few so he can do it all on foot with the trolley.

Few years ago my parents had a new front door installed, and chose to have a letter box at the bottom., no idea why, other than for their postman to hate them.

Go and try and put something through your letterbox everyone. You will then see what it's like. The brushes are the worst, or those tin boxes the paper sticks out the top.

I did a paper round when I was about 12 so it will have been very early 80's. The round used to take an hour and fifteen minutes. On the roughest estate in a northern town. So pretty rough.

I got paid £5 a week for 7 days. It was bloody slave labour no doubt about it. And I wouldn't let my dd do it now. Set route, same time day in day out. In the dark over winter etc.

Is there anything else available he could do Instead? Markets will sometimes take teenagers on.

"Ds just been offer a paper round 100 papers £3. This doesn't sound too bad, but it's also the steepest hill in the village, and long driveways."

Well, my newsagent charges me 5p/paper to deliver. So 100 papers generates £5, of which your son is getting £3 and presumably the person who sorts out the papers at the shop gets £2. As far as I know, the 'profit' on selling a newspaper is very little - pennies. (Vague memory of how little profit there is, this seems to me to confirm it's not much.0

So IMO, £3 isn't much, but given how little the newsagent is getting, I'd say the deliverer is getting a fair share.

We're a bit rural for paper rounds but as a youngster DH did a week picking spuds for a neighbour and at the end of a 50hr week was handed £15. He still goes on about it 30 years later. The same nighbour has offered to find jobs for my DS (7) to do as he saves up for things, but I have to make excuses as I can picture his reaction to being given 20p for raking up leaves all afternoon .

He asked for a job to do today so I suggested tidying the playroom - after 5 minutes he's back asking for a pound and got 20p, which reflected the effort he put in. A lesson learnt I hope (he was not a happy bunny).

I also second the letterboc comment, having done a lot of leafletting in my time.
I have a tiny letterbox (ooh!) but in excuse it is very old, and anyway the postman just opens the porch door and drops stuff in.