Poor Kids Need Summer Jobs. Rich Kids Get Them

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/poor-kids-need-summer-jobs-rich-kids-get-them/

by Overtonwindow • 10 years ago

31 18 10 years ago

fivethirtyeight.com

kapitza• 10 years ago

No mention of the J1 visa, which employs hundreds of thousands of immigrant students in US summer jobs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/americas-sweatshop...

chrisbennet• 10 years ago

Wow. That was the first I'd ever heard of that.

dsfyu404ed2• 10 years ago

Yup, total f###ing scam.

The local employers in the tourist area I grew up in load up on Irish and eastern European college students every summer. They give them barely enough hours to make ends meet if they live two and three to a room, ride a bike ~10mi or more to work and pick up another part time job on the side. Standard practice was/is to hire too many people so that everybody would be fighting for hours and firing people at the drop of a hat wasn't inconvenient.

The main benefit is getting a bunch of employees who are totally clueless about their workplace rights in the US and is dependent on remaining employed by the company that sponsored their visa in order to keep their visa. The supermarkets and hotels were businesses who would usually sponsor J1s so they were the ones who treated them like crap. The actual tourism parts of the tourism industry only hires the foreign workers secondarily (since all the foreign workers had at least two jobs) and treated them like anyone else.

This kind of behavior is particularly scummy since it would cost very little, if any) additional money to pick up the phone and call a temp agency since managing a primarily foreign workforce is inefficient. It's not about money, it's about having employees you can treat like sh#t.

(Source: worked summer jobs with J1 students as coworkers)

biocomputation4• 10 years ago

From a white, middle class background. I am one of six children, and while my parents made a decent living, six children meant that money was always tight. Still, my Mom taught us the importance of good manners and being able to speak properly. She did this because she thought it was the right thing to do, and because she knew we didn't have the same financial advantages as other people.

I learned an important lesson about this in my very early twenties when I applied for a summer internship at a local firm. There were only two interviews: one with engineering and one with the owner. The owner gave me the internship on the spot not because of my qualifications, but because he liked the way I dressed and spoke. His words to me were something along the lines of "I feel comfortable putting you in front of our clients."

One of the reasons poverty is so disabling is because it changes the way a lot of people ( but not all people ) carry themselves. People from wealthier backgrounds often present better and get first crack at opportunities as a result. Note that when I say "present", I am talking about mostly superficial qualities, not level of education, skill, or other deeper qualities.

Anyone can learn to present themselves the right way, with respect to speaking, dressing, and credentials - although it's extra work and extra cost for those who have already fought very hard for their chance to climb the ladder.

EliRivers• 10 years ago

For better or for worse, you're so right.

Shift-work during university. Hiring was a cattle call; just a long line of people my age.

Sat down. Interviewer told me I was hired because I was the only person wearing a tie. Wrote down first shift, stood up, left. Sixty seconds.

dsfyu404ed2• 10 years ago

In dining services we'd half jokingly use phrases like "throwing bodies at the problem" because a pulse was our primary qualification for employment. It's mind boggling that they didn't make money hand over fist when ~50% of their employee costs were returned via work-study reimbursement from Uncle Sam.

biocomputation4• 10 years ago

Yup. That sounds about right.

It means that even knowing how to iron a shirt and pants ( so they look good with a tie ) can be an important distinction in terms of accessing opportunity.

Sad but true!

junipergreen4• 10 years ago

"And they may face discrimination based on race, class or other factors."

In urban areas, where access to transportation and availability of jobs is better, this is really the crux of the issue. Employers (often unfairly) view middle class kids as more reliable. So even if they think working class kids will work harder (another common view in my experience), they see the middle class teenagers as less of a risk.

dogma1138• 10 years ago

Isn't middle class also a working class? I was brought up as middle class, not especially wealthy would even classify it towards the lower end, but highly educated as both parents were academics.

I worked every summer since I was 13, and 16ish to 18 also during the school year now and then (17/18 was fairly lucky early it was really early 2000's and I mastered PHP rather well so made actually decent money building websites when web2.0, CMS and dynamic content were still meaningful buzzwords).

true_religion3• 10 years ago

Middle class kids are unreliable because they don't "need" the work. They want it to buy things for themselves or to feel a sense of independence, but anything 'more important' that comes up will cut infront of work. If they need to go to school, or camp, or have a family event...they'll do that instead of work because work isn't a necessity.

The poor on the otherhand will go to work over all else, and they'll never have their parents give them a choice between going to work next month or going on vacation in Hawaii.

biocomputation4• 10 years ago

You're absolutely right about the dichotomy with respect to perception.

In my original comment, I was going to post "perception is reality" because perception, default thinking, and other heuristics underpin so much of what constitutes discrimination.

This is, of course, absolutely unfair, but most of us at least have a chance to shape how others perceive us. In the end, it's surprising how much the "little, superficial" things matter in that respect.

Poor Kids Need Summer Jobs. Rich Kids Get Them

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