Many believe that paid labor is worthwhile for children, meanwhile, others argue that this can have a detrimental effect on them. This essay will discuss that experience gained and sense of responsibility developed are its advantages, but loss of focus in studies and work-place abuse are its primary disadvantages.
To begin with, the merits of working at a young age is that it helps children to learn about different jobs and how to be responsible. As youngsters are given the opportunity to explore the job market, they are provided with exposure to learn and develop abilities that will be useful for them when job hunting. For instance, Children who take up part time jobs at customer service sectors like MacDonalds, Sephora, and so on are exposed to all kinds of customers, which in turn helps them to foster great communication and customer service skills. In addition, children will be able to understand the value of money. As they earn on their own, adolescents will get a gist of how hard it is to earn money as well as learn how to save up and handle it. For example, In a study done by a group of students, it was proved that children who were given allowance for the chores they did have better money management skills than those who didn’t.
Despite this, some of the demerits is that children may be subjected to work abuse and lose focus in their academics. Firstly, as students don’t have much knowledge about work settings, they can easily be exploited by their supervisors. This can be, by not paying them the right amount of wage for the long hours and hard work that they have invested. Moreover, part time jobs can have an overall detrimental effect on students’ academics. Pupils, with school, already have enough on their plate. Trying to juggle school and work will take a toll on their overall body and mind. Which in result, will cause them to fail in classes and life. For instance, students who study abroad, often fail and find it difficult to keep up with their lessons due to their intense work schedule.
In conclusion, paid employment helps children to become experts in various fields and harness responsibilities like money management. However, at the same time, they may face work abuse and be subjected to failure in school.