The concept that entry-level food service is mostly staffed by high-schoolers who don't really "need" the money is the weirdest trope. Basically every restaurant is open during school hours. Who is handling the lunch rush?
Also, most places serve alcohol and teens can't serve.
Considering how profitable alcohol is, I wonder if that regulation isn't a major factor in hiring under 21s.
obviously highschoolers are not filling 100% of entry-level food service jobs, but they make up a pretty good chunk of these workers along with some college kids. it's a good option for someone who has literally no work experience.
On the other hand, I notice people who didn't have to work as kids and went straight into college and respectable white collar jobs usually have absolutely no idea how the rest of their fellow citizens actually work and live, so I'm thankful for the perspective.
The counter-examples I can think of involved drugs or health issues.
How do you feel about college students working part time during their studies?
Someone can recognize the status quo and yet believe that the needs it creates ought to be changed. There was a time younger children needed jobs to. The reason they did was largely because the fact that they could be employed drove down wages for adult workers. One who said children didn’t need jobs at that time would be wrong, probably from privilege – children in working class families needed jobs. But they also shouldn’t have had them, and them as a class not having them also eliminated the need.
With teenagers the situation may not be precisely the same, but the divergence between perceiving what is needed now and what should be is the same.