Many teens balance school, sometimes sports, home responsibilities, and a job. With all of those subjects interfering with each other, many ask the question, how many hours of work a week is really overworking teens? Parents tend to preach that school and grades are more important than work, but those students have a different mindset. They have a mind focused on money. The main issue with teens being overworked is seen in fast food environments. When teens apply for a job, they normally choose to work part-time because of school. Less than 40 hours a week is what is considered as part-time.
Child labor laws state that 14-15 year old’s cannot work over 8 hours a day, 3 hours on a school day, or more than 40 hours a week. 16-17 year old’s enrolled in school cannot work over 9 hours in any one day, cannot exceed 40 hours on a school week, more than 6 days a week, and no more than 48 hours on a non-school week. Many, many companies have teens working past that. Myself for example, on a school day, I work 4-10pm, 6 hours which is under the issued amount. This is considered as me not being over-worked.
“Research has consistently shown that working over the standard 20 hours a week limit negatively affects teens in a variety of ways, such as school performance, lack of sleep/impaired driving, and academic/behavioral problems.” This is a quote from website, “Your Teen”. Again, using myself as an example, I work around 30-34 hours a week, considering this detail, I am being over worked.
