comment: >
  
  I worked as many hours as I could to get away from my abusive parents in high school. 
  They’d let me work but anything else was heavily controlled, no privacy, held against me, etc. It kept me sane and out of a bad environment. 
  Don’t base opinions based only on your very limited experience of the world. It’s not the universal experience.
context: /u/Cagedwar (OP) has awarded 7 delta(s) in this post.
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  So you’re solution to high schoolers working to much is for them to keeping working just do it under the table so on paper their working less than 5 hours a week? >
  
  um.. what happens to teenagers forced to support themselves, who are now legally unable to do so? sounds like a surefire way to get desperate teenagers to do unsafe and illegal things for money. >
  
  Maybe I’m super ignorant but how many teenagers are able to support themselves and be in high school? No one can live off minimum wage- especially if you can’t work full time. >
  
  
  No one can live off minimum wage
  
  Lol, what do you mean? Tons of people live on minimum wage. >
  
  Without government assistance? >
  
  Yes. >
  
  Oh gotcha. Where I live in America minimum wage would land you under 18K which would secure you government assistance. And that’s assuming a high schooler can find a job that schedule allows them to work around a school schedule >
  
  I live in the US too, I don't qualify for government assistance for not being American, I lived on federal minimum wage for years, and now work with many people in that same situation. >
  
  Oh gotcha, good point I didn’t think about!
  !Delta >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/ReligionOfPease (1∆).
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  We are only kids once and I hate the fact that so much of it is wasted working. Looking back, how many nights a week did you give up or weekends did you give up so that you could work? And make minimum wage.
  
  I gave up entire years of my life working. First raising my siblings and taking care of my mother and running her business, then as the siblings grew more independent working actual jobs to help pay bills and put food on the table. 
  
  I know a lot of people will say that poor families sometimes require the extra income, I don’t have a real rebuttal to that except how incredibly sad that is. But I may have a solution.
  
  This solution doesn't work. You only say to limit the hours I could have worked to five hours a week by law by official businesses. However, I rarely worked for an 'official business'. Most of what I outlined above was literal babysitting and doing things like mowing lawns and other forms of help that paid 'under the table'. Only when my younger siblings were old enough to mostly care for themselves did I get into any 'official business' and by then I was already seventeen/eighteen years old, so that 'limit me to five hours a week by law' wouldn't have helped at all. 
  All your solution does is say that instead of letting businesses exploit poor kids or kids in difficult situations and pay them only minimum wage, let's let private individuals and under-the-table businesses exploit them for often LESS than minimum wage with far less oversight and protection in the workplace than actual businesses can offer. 
  Your solution only makes it harder and more exploitative for kids and families in poverty. >
  
  I don’t know about you but businesses did a hell of a lot of exploiting when I was in school. They would work us pass curfew, not give breaks and treat us like shit. (Pizza Hut if you’re curious) But I was 16 and didn’t know any better. I am under the impression that everyone went through similar things. And when I did baby sitting and mowing lawns I controlled my own hours and got paid for more than minimum wage. Possible I just had bad/good experiences here.
  I am sorry you grew up in that situation. Where I grew up a lot of people were like that. And all our parents made us get jobs the second we turned 15/16 >
  
  High schoolers cost a lot of money. Not just in terms of food and shelter but in terms of activity and all that comes with that. Money for a vehicle, money to spend with friends, money to go here and there (not with their parents). A ton of kids if they aren’t able to work are going to be missing out on a ton of experiences that their more privileged classmates are able to partake in. 
  Also you’d be restricting the earning potential of one of the poorest decision-making demographics out there while simultaneously increasing the amount of time they have on their hands artificially. That combination could potentially lead to issues that could ultimately haunt a kid for the rest of his life.
  Edit: just to add if you were willing to work a reasonable amount of hours in HS plus summers and set that money aside and invested it, with compounding you’d be MILES ahead of most other people your age by the time they started saving at 25 or whenever. >
  
  !delta
  The gap it would create between poor and rich classmates is not something I thought about. I still think in an ideal world 5 hour cap would make sense, but we don’t live there. >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/NoLeftTailDale (1∆).
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  I know a lot of people will say that poor families sometimes require theextra income, I don’t have a real rebuttal to that except howincredibly sad that is. But I may have a solution.
  
  I was in this boat from when I first started working around when I was 12/13 with Stepup. Both my parents are disabled so I have been paying the entirety of rent since then. I agree that companies will exploit children because I also used to work as a janitor when I was 16 and they would keep me past midnight on school days until I told them it was illegal due to curfew.
  I now work as a Software Engineer and thankfully make a comfortable living to be able to support my parents better. I don't wish working at a young age upon anyone but sometimes people in my situation require consistency. It is better to work at McDonalds (I did when I was 14) and get a consistent schedule/pay so I can pay rent than it is to mow lawns and hope I make enough otherwise my parents go homeless. The entire situation sucked but it was just the reality of the cards I was dealt.
  A lot of these corporations are also easily accessible by public transportation which was how I got to work back then. This would be more difficult if I had to go to different houses to mow lawns, I would have to hope for a bus or lightrail service to that area. >
  
  !delta
  I’m curious, if you could ensure that teenagers money didn’t go to parents/family, would you agree high schoolers shouldn’t work? >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/SaturatedJuicestice (1∆).
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  Whats that after tax >
  
  In my state about 55 dollars. >
  
  If I had only been allowed to work 5 hours a week as a teenager I would most likely be dead by now. Please reconsider this view. >
  
  Why do you know better what these high schooler’s need than they do? >
  
  
  We are only kids once and I hate the fact that so much of it is wasted working. Looking back, how many nights a week did you give up or weekends did you give up so that you could work?
  
  In high school I worked a full day on Saturday plus one or two evenings per week for a total of 12-16 hours. It wasn't wasted, I enjoyed my job. I met and made friends at work. We had fun doing our job together. Most days I looked forward to going to work. I also enjoyed that it provided me income to fund other things I wanted to do.
  Without that job, I wouldn't have had a car. I have so many memories with friends and a boyfriend in that car and because of that car. Trips to the beach, to nearby cities, sneaking to my boyfriend's house in the middle of the night. 5 hours a week definitely wouldn't have paid for a car, gas, insurance.
  Without that job, I wouldn't have been able to save money to take a trip to New York City during spring break with a friend my senior year. That was an amazing trip. It also set a dream in motion that culminated in me moving to New York, which has had a hugely positive impact on my life.
  Without that job, I wouldn't have been able to sneak out to a gay youth support group in a town 30 miles away every week, which helped me come to terms with my homosexuality and saved me from a severe bout of depression.
  Without a job providing consistent income throughout the later years of high school, my high school experience would have been a lot shittier. The hours I spent working in high school weren't "wasted," nor do I feel I was giving anything up. I got a LOT out of the jobs and the income they provided.
  High schoolers are old enough to decide for themselves how many hours they want to work (my state capped it at 16 on school weeks anyway). 5 is very few hours and very little income.
  Also, the idea that time spent at work is "wasted" is a real shit perspective to instill in high schoolers because 1) they're likely looking at decades of work throughout their life, 2) it doesn't have to be and isn't for a lot of people, and 3) it's an unhealthy way to approach it. >
  
  !delta
  That’s awesome you had such a great experience! How would you feel about a 15 hour cap? (It sounds like your state had one) >
  
  I think my state struck a good balance. Those of legal working age but still in high school could work 16 hours/week during school weeks and 40 hours/week on non school weeks. 
  15 or 16 are both fine, but 16 fits better into the 8-hour-shift scheduling pattern that many businesses already have. >
  
  Hmm okay you’ve changed my mind. 15 is much more obtainable and realistic. I worked like 25 or someshit and looking back I think I wasted those years. But 16 hours is a couple nights a week and a weekend. >
  
  I had to drop out and start working at 14. If I was only allowed to work 4 hours a week we would've starved. We already had no cable, internet, hvac, and intermittent power & water. My meager earnings kept us afloat.
  Give us some socialized utilities, and higher wages. Then maybe I'll agree with you. >
  
  I mean I would make a post about socializing basic needs but I think that’s been done plenty of times.
  Either way you’re not a high schooler if you aren’t in high school. >
  
  Are kids not in HS no longer kids? You're moving the goal post a bit here. >
  
  I don’t mean to be tricky! I just mean if you drop out of school I wouldn’t consider you a high schooler which is my argument. 
  !delta that is a totally valid reason to need to work in high school/high school age >
  
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  they can baby sit, mow lawns and other forms of not being hired by an official business.
  
  So you're okay with them making less money so long as they aren't working for an actual company? How does that change anything? >
  
  Maybe my life experience is different, but both of those things paid more than fastfood when I was in school >
  
  They're close if kids are making exactly minimum wage, but a lot of places are paying more than that now to attract workers. You also generally get discounts, raises, and even vacation time for working at a store whereas mowing lawns and babysitting are the dearest of dead end jobs. Most important though, they get reliable hours year-round. >
  
  I'm a high schooler who works 36 hours a week.
  I like working because it gives me money. I bought my own car, a multi thousand dollar gaming setup, and I have a decent savings pool.
  No one's forcing me to work. >
  
  Congrats on the grind. How do you find time to play games and exercise and do homework and socialize? Either war nice job >
  
  I don't, my life's shit. >
  
  I think this is my point >
  
  
  We are only kids once and I hate the fact that so much of it is wasted working.
  
  You deem it wasted, the high schooler that chose to do it probably doesn't. They have a right to do what works for them. (If they're in a position to chose it that is, I agree there's situations where they don't have an option, but that is not every case.) >
  
  I mean obviously, I’m deeming it wasted, and my post is saying as a society we should deem it as wasted. Just because a child wants to do something doesn’t mean we let them. 
  And again, if a high schooler really wants to earn money, there are a variety of ways outside of working at a traditional job. >
  
  
  Just because a child wants to do something doesn’t mean we let them. 
  
  Child or teenager? A job can be very valuable for a teenager (like I said, providing it's their choice). 
  
  there are a variety of ways outside of working at a traditional job.
  
  Like what? Working a job but just not calling it that? If a teenager wants to work a job (obviously a limited number of hours so it doesnt interfere with school etc) then they should be able to. It should be an option. If they don't want to that should be an option  too. >
  
  A child is under 18 as far as I’m concerned. (And the law)
  Do you consider mowing lawns to be a traditional job?  Baby sitting? Gig works in general >
  
  I enjoyed working as a teenager and having a lot of my own money. I hated mowing lawns and babysitting, but I enjoyed working in the diner I worked at in high school. Why should the government be able to prevent me from earning money if it’s not interfering with my education? >
  
  Same reason the government does lots of things. Because they deem it better for the person. (Or money lol)
  this suggests that working more than 20 hours lowers grades. Would you support a law that limits a students working hours to 15(ish)? >
  
  My family wasn't poor enough to need the funds from my high school job.  But I had to support myself after I turned 18, so I needed to work in high school to build up funds to prepare for that.  I much preferred the consistency of working for a business than the spotty babysitting jobs I could get.  My job allowed me to work full time over my breaks as well which I gladly agreed to. >
  
  Sorry but I like money and 50 bucks a week wont even cover a full tank of gas and a meal to go out >
  
  Fully disagree.
  I worked 20 hours a week in HS starting when I was 15 and proceeded to invest 95% of my take home income into a broad based index fund.
  Which then surprise I got kicked out of my home less than a month after turning 18
  But I wasn't worried because I had
  A. a job and ended enough skills not to make minimum wage 
  B. Over $30,000