Teenagers charge up to $70 an hour for summer jobs due to labor shortage

He is 16 years old and earns $70 an hour. Last summer, Alex Bank worked nine-hour shifts as a busboy at upscale eatery Babette's in East Hampton. The $17-an-hour job was stressful at times, Bank said, but it was character-building. And it just paid the bills, reports New York Post.

To indulge his passion for lobster rolls at the East Hampton Grill and allow himself the occasional sushi meal, he worked overtime.

“You look at this menu and think, 'That's a couple of hours of work,'” says Bank, a rising boarding school student in Connecticut. The guy lives on the Upper East Side. He grew up playing amateur basketball for Athletic Union.

This summer, he's working smarter, not harder. He has a well paying job which he found in Teen Hampton, a teenage group founded by 16-year-old Gabe Jaffe. Even though Bank gives 25% of his income to Jaffa, he earns $52,50 an hour coaching kids in basketball. That's more than three times his hourly pay at work last summer. He also earns $18,75 an hour for babysitting (Jaffe charges $6,25 off a $25 hourly rate).

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Families, in the face of an ongoing shortage of counselors and lifeguards at the camp, are enthusiastically signing up for a service that provides access to trusted, qualified sports instructors as well as nannies.

“We have so many requests that there aren't enough people to fill them,” Yaffe said.

Sixteen years has never been so attractive. The teen unemployment rate is at its lowest level in nearly 70 years, according to the latest statistics from the US Bureau of Labor. High school students have never been in such high demand, which always results in higher wages. Now young people can start saving money for their future or help with household expenses.

Bank capitalizes on his passion for basketball by teaching kids three-pointers and free throws a couple of times a week. Each class lasts two hours, earning him $105. For several weeks he babysits the children for four hours a day. In a week working part-time, he can earn $585. Money is accumulating quickly.

“It's a lot easier,” Bank said of being able to interact with the kids rather than running around the dining room floor.

“Getting a good salary for what you love can't be bad,” he said.

Jaffe, the think tank for Teen Hampton, started his Gen Z Babysitter Club in between homework assignments during the school year. He printed business cards and this spring he began to actively promote, spreading information about his services on demand. To make it work, Jaffe keeps 25% of the proceeds for himself, which he plans to reinvest in the business. He might even release an app.

“The prices are much lower than for professional services. They are very attractive to our consumer base,” Yaffe said. In some cases, teen fares in the Hamptons are a steal for the East End, where a private sports coaching session through a service like Hamptons Premiere can cost as much as $300 for a 90-minute session with a basketball genius.

“A teenager can charge $70 an hour. Based on the way the market works, this is a price that parents are happy to pay, and for a teenager, this is an excellent salary, ”Jaffe explained.

Right now, the most in-demand job among teenagers is babysitting.

Future college sophomore Mia Scholl, 20, was earning $10 an hour as a waitress at a diner near the University of Miami. The job included answering phone calls, managing delivery orders from Grubhub, and serving tables. Back home in Westchester County for the summer, the medical student landed a job as a hostess at the Scarsdale Golf Club. Here she earns $18 an hour. $3 more than she earned last year.

“I didn't have a formal interview,” she said. “The job was just handed to me.”

The extra money will help the girl when she returns for the fall semester.

“I study in a city that is now the most expensive place to live in the country,” Scholl said.

The bank, meanwhile, has set its sights on investing. His plan is to put his summer earnings into the stock exchange.

“A lot of companies aren't doing very well, so their stock prices are falling accordingly,” the teenager said. “I feel like this could be a good time to start investing.”