Five Worst Teen Jobs for 2002 By Dr. Bernice Wilson

The National Consumers League (NCL) issued a list of the five worst teen jobs for 2002 during the National LifeSmarts competition. Finding a job may not be an easy task this summer due to the economy. Nevertheless, parents and teens should be cognizant of this list and the possibility of a teen landing a job that poses safety risks.

NCL Vice President for Labor Policy Darlene Adkins would like to see the Department of Labor move forward and release the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) report on child labor. This report critiques the list of occupations there are prohibitive for minors and recommends changes that will better protect them. According to Adkins, some child labor laws have not been updated in more than 60 years, long before the prevalence of fast food restaurants and 24-hour convenient stores.

Teen wants to work and will be looking for work. According to a new NCL survey of teens between the ages of 14 and 18, 62% of these teens received most of their money from part-time and neighborhood jobs. NIOSH reports indicate that 231,000 U.S. workers under the age of 18 are injured on the job each year. In 2000, 73 employees under the age of 18 died of work-related injuries; 19 were under the age of 16. Too often teens work in unsafe conditions without proper training or supervision, resulting in injuries or death because they were working in jobs that federal or state labor laws prohibited.

Yearly, NCL issues a list of the worst teen jobs. This year NCL cites the following jobs as the five-worst teen jobs:

1. Driving and delivery, including operating or repairing motorized equipment
2. Working alone in cash-based business or late at night
3. Cooking with exposure to hot oil and grease, hot water and steam, or hot cooking surfaces
4. Construction and work at heights
5. Traveling youth crews
   

To further explain the seriousness of not working in a job comparable to one's age, teens participating in the LifeSmarts competition were privileged to hear Maggie Carey, mother of Adam Carey, a Massachusetts teen who died on the job because of a golf cart accident. She described what happened to her son, how she is fighting to change child labor laws in her state, and what parents should know before they allow their children to work.

Parents in particular need to understand that some available jobs are unsuitable for teenage workers in spite of the pay.