Rite of passage: The minimum wage job

Jeet Banerjee is now 24 years old. At the age of 21, he had already written two books and started “several different companies.”

The self-described digital marketing consultant and public speaker, who started making a 6-figure income two years ago, when he launched the Visionary Media Group, attributes some of his success to having a minimum wage job when he was a teenager.

In his September 2016 blog post, “5 Life Lessons I Learned From Working Minimum Wage Jobs In High School,” Banerjee credits his “15-hour-a-week earning $300 – $400 a month job” with teaching him the fundamentals of life and underscoring for him the value of lifelong learning.

Learning what it takes to make money and committing to ongoing education are just two of the benefits that teens can expect from working in a minimum wage role. According to financial education website Investopedia in an article on the top 5 benefits of a summer job, high school students who work, build greater confidence by learning to “survive and thrive” in unfamiliar situations. Learning a new skill and negotiating relationships with employers and co-workers, says Investopedia, are also confidence boosters, that will serve first time workers in the future.

Gaining experience of the fundamentals of work, “when rookie mistakes are still expected,” says Mia Partridge in her blog post, “The value in working a minimum wage summer job,” is not only invaluable but also “rite of passage.” Partridge who shared her experience of working in the pro shop of a golf course over the summer, says that not only does a summer job give you hands-on experience of the aspects of working you are good at and enjoy, but also encourages you to give your best at whatever you are doing. Like Banerjee, she says that minimum wage summer jobs teach multiple lessons that include time management, people skills and the value of money.