what is the highest paid job for a 16 year old?

[ramsamsam]

I can't afford to give my 16 year old DD nice things at the moment so she, very sensibly, wants to get a part time job to be able to buy herself things. She applied to Starbucks but you have to be 17 to work there apparently. I really don't want her working for 4 pounds an hour if at all possible. What is the highest paid job a 16 year old can get? She is smart and sensible. We live in London.

Supermarkets are good - my son started at Waitrose just before he turned 17 and was on £9.80 ish per hour. It's now gone up to £10.20 I think. It's also handy as supermarkets have evening shifts which young people can do after college/uni - he does 10 hours a week, Mon & Tues eves. Other supemarkets pay similar I think.

Id rather my teen worked for £4 odd an hour and learned that to earn money, budget etc you need to start at the bottom!
What sort of wages are you wanting a 16yr old to earn?

2pinkginsplease She is already painfully aware of the value of money. That's not a lesson she needs to learn.

LieutenantRipley That sounds amazing!

My 16 year old years £10 an hour at McDonald's which is amazing. Wish I got that much at 16.

You read about adults like that, I won't do any job for less than xxx, the reality is you have no money, she has no money and no experience so beggars and choosers come to mind.

She should get a job, then she can look for a better paid job, by either job hopping or proving her worth.

Our eldest is a lifeguard and earns £11 an hour, which seems to be pretty good in comparison to some of his friends. He's an open water lifeguard in the summer, and has his pool lifeguarding cert as well, so can work all year here. As an aside though, he started off on £6 an hour as general dogsbody at the lake where he subsequently lifeguards during the summer - he didn't go straight onto £11.

My daughter started at McDonalds in January when she was 16, think it was £8.40 per hour. Shes now a shift leader at 17, on £12.74 an hour. They've been a good employer to work for.

What school year is she in? If she is still in Year 11 then there are strict laws as to what hours she can work which will restrict her. The young people I know who earn the most at that age have a specific skill such as dance school teaching assistant, lifeguard or football referee.

You have to be 18 to work in most of the London theatres as you have to serve alcohol.

I think it's outrageous that anyone is expected to work for 4 pounds an hour in todays world. I don't care what age they are.
I don't blame her for preferring to apply for jobs that pay more . Why wouldn't she..

Honestly waiting for the ' in my day' brigade to come along now and tell us how they starting working for 20p and we're delighted to get it 🙄

The reality is far from that. Yes in large companies they have to have a work permit but even then they can work 8 hours on a Saturday, 2 after school etc.

Lots of small businesses never apply for a permit.

Babysitting is usually well paid. I used to work hard in a shop on Saturdays, then did some babysitting in the evening. Babysitting paid twice a well for less than half the effort.

I worked at Clarks as a teenager and they were a great employer. Didn't pay staff member based on age, flexible hours, allowed me transfer between stores while at uni, and even gave me a small grant per year towards uni living expenses. Was 10 years ago but really hope they are still as good as they were!

I'm not doing an 'in my day' promise, but I did find one of my old pay slips the other day from Chicago Rock Cafe (from way back in the midst of time when I worked as a barmaid there at 18) and I earnt £1.01 an hour 😂for the amount of drunk eejits I had to deal it, it definetely wasn't enough!!

Most supermarkets won't take them on until they've finished their GCSEs. Waitressing seems to be popular around here amongst my DDs friends. It's all little country pub/restaurant type places and they definitely work more hours/later than they're legally allowed!

Supermarkets, or if she is a good swimmer, getting a lifeguard qualification and a job at a pool.

Oh taking orders in take aways is another popular one here

Is she 16 in y11 or 16 in y12? My 16 yo works in a chain menswear store for £9.60/hour but she is y 12. It’s really hard for y11 16 year olds because lots of big companies won’t employ them until they have finished school and lots of smaller companies don’t like to because of the restriction on their hours. £4.81 is a preposterously low wage imo. It costs £12 for my 16yo to get to our local town (where she goes to school and work) and back on public transport because she is an “adult” but she can legally be paid £4.81 because she is a child.
Anyway, OP, she was applying for months online and then when she went into places with her cv she got 5 offers in about 2 hours. These were all big chain shops, not little independents and I didn’t think it would work with them but it did.

But it isn't comparable. Firstly it is labour intensive to give someone with no experience a chance and teach them up. Starting low but getting pay rises as your skills develop is the only way a lot of businesses can take a risk on employing children.

Secondly how much of a NMW take home do you think a worker has to spend on themselves, certainly not £4 out of every hour worked.

I would just advise your daughter to be careful about exploitation. So easy to agree to certain shifts to then gradually be expected to jump in when anyone else cannot do their shift. Suddenly, the job takes over and school work suffers. This can happen in supermarket jobs. Young people are generally keen to please and happy to earn the money so do not like to say no. A certain pizza chain had my son working after hours doing a deep clean, which involved lying on his front scraping gunk off the floor under work surfaces, all for minimum wage.
However, it’s great that she wants to earn her own money. A good step towards financial management.

Supermarkets, life guard, Clarks, babysitting, mcdonalds.. These all sounds good, thank you. I know that my friend's Waitrose in Malvern has a minimum age of 18 but maybe it's different by branch,.

F1 driver pays pretty well, as dors professional football. They can be quite hard to get into though.

Supermarket work is maybe a good option.

Does she play any instruments?
Both my sons were Church organists at that age.
Payment worked at at about £25-30 an hour for 2 hours a week. Weddings and funerals paid substantially more than that (c.£100 for an hours work). They both got into it by being competent pianists and then learning to play the organ 'on the job'.
Busking can also be surprisingly lucrative for a youngster.

This is just for part-time work to fit in with her schooling. She is in year 11 currently.

Clarks, marks and Spencer’s, next and boots all employ 18yr olds at £8-10+ an hour, no problem to avoid those sticking to 16-17yr minimum wage. Student room forum and employer review sites are good for this info - they often put the interview questions on too.