Paper round pay?

[Paperound]

My DC has just got a paper round job.

It's £13

But we don't know if that's per day (about 45mins to 1 hour delivery round) or per week!! (DC seems to think it's per week from what was said at 'interview' last week, and I also think, sadly, it's per week!)

Anyone have recent experience and knowledge of what the going rate is?

Thanks!!

(AIBU to think, if it's £13 a week, that's a bit exploitative!!? My DC is very keen and thinks this is a lot of money! And if that's the rate, is very fine with it!! But as an adult I realise that for an hour a day, it's peanuts!!)

(DC will be getting up early every day before school in all weathers! Getting to the shop to collect the papers is quite time consuming, and then getting home after the round will take longer (as they end up further away at end of round!). There aren't many houses to deliver to, but they r quite spread out!! So it will take about 2 hours all-in probably, from leaving home to getting home again!)

It was that price 30 years ago. Is the newsagent about 80 years old?!

That’s about what I was paid…. In the 80s.

I only delivered in streets near where I lived and it wasn't that hilly. The worst was Sunday when I had twenty or more steps up to each house and I had to go up and down as didn't dare cut across. I used to go to sleep in my clothes as it was so cold and hard getting up in the dark.

Yup, definitely. GS said that some houses have pots or boxes for the weekend papers as impossible to get them through letterbox.

One house gets him to take their small rubbish bag to the bin each week. Gave him a miserable fiver Christmas box! Not happy!

He used to deliver to a care home and sometimes given sweets or chocolate from a couple of the residents. He doesn’t mind the early mornings and says he’s happy to deliver papers so customers can read with their breakfast. Bless him 😊

Well done for your child getting a job, it’s teach so much in terms of timings, resilience, dealing with public face to face, organisation and budgeting, sounds like a great start.

Oh yes! I remember the houses that had long garden paths that one had to tediously go up and down the paths- where one could cheekily climb over the low fences if one dared...I got told off once for doing this, so never dared.
Wintertime was horrible, the alarm ripping one from sleep when one had just closed one's eyes.

Mornings were much colder back then- and heating les efficient. Climate change.

I think the newsagent was exploiting his Papergirls and boys if he was paying you all so little.

👍👍👍

(I'm holding out hope that it's £13 a day! But i do think that it is just a week! Not a lot round here to choose from! It's this or nothing at the moment I think! But DC is brimming with optimism so we'll see how it goes! ;) )

He sounds lovely!
I really do think Mr P is correct.. Kids who do paper rounds tend to be ''Good eggs''.

Ahhhhh!! 😃

Maybe same place DC will be working for!!

£13 a day sounds quite generous, as way above minimum wage, but it's a really good start, and good that he/she has been so keen on earning own money.

Maybe the next Sir Alan Sugar?!

Aww. Thank you!

They'd love to be the next Alan sugar. But I think it's £13 a week, not day, so a way off yet!! 😉😉

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.

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.

Sorry (resisting the urge to put another exclamation mark just there ... seems the perfect spot)

It's just me. I've always written like this (sorry!) and it's how I speak too (I laugh a lot and each sentence is punctuated by a laugh which is partly because I'm quite a happy soul! but also it's a bit of a nervous tic type thing I think 😉 (nervous and happy coexist well in me) I'm sure it's incredibly annoying to some people!) so I just write as I speak. Take me or leave me! I'm unlikely to change and am not really motivated to as fortunately my friends and family aren't bothered by my weirdness ... :)

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

Hope your DC gets a fair wage for their work 🙂

@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.

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.

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.

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

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

@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.

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.

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