Teens In the Workplace
Today’s U.S. workforce is more diverse than during any other period in history. It’s not uncommon in this day and age to find a woman standing next to a man on a factory assembly line or to see an African-American working alongside an Asian-American in an office setting.
Adding to this diversity is the increasing number of adolescent workers delivering pizza, scaling ladders at construction sites or working late at local convenience stores. And where there are teen workers, there is also the potential for occupational injury and illness for those employees.
Millions of teens under the age of 18 enter the U.S. workforce each year—more than 3 million during the summer months alone. The majority of teens take positions in retail industry jobs such as fast food restaurants and retail stores, while many others accept positions in the service and agriculture industries.
Every year, however, thousands of these teens are admitted to emergency rooms due to work-related injuries. On average, close to 200,000 adolescents suffer injuries on the job and approximately 70 die from these injuries every year, with most of these deaths and injuries occurring in retail stores and restaurants, according to a 1993 NIOSH study.
Why Do Adolescents Work?
Most of today’s teen workers no longer work in the fields or at the factory to help support their families. Their reasons for working are more personal: They want their own spending money. According to Dawn Castillo, chief of surveillance and field investigations branch and a supervising epidemiologist for NIOSH, “Adolescents spend most of their income on discretionary items” or their own individual needs.
A recent Massachusetts Department of Health survey backs Castillo’s findings. In the survey, teens were asked why they work. Some of their answers included to earn spending money, to save up for a car or further education or to learn a skill. While not shocking answers, these findings support the hypothesis that many of today’s adolescents don’t necessarily have to work, but choose to do so for personal gain.
These results help explain why the United States has more adolescents working than any other developed country. On average, about 45 percent of American teens are employed at some point throughout the year. While most Americans generally believe that work is beneficial for adolescents because it en- courages a sense of responsibility and promotes money management skills, few realize the risks involved when teens put themselves in unsafe situations on the job.
Hazards in the Workplace
“Teens have the highest rate of nonfatal [work-related] injuries,” says Castillo. This is an alarming yet curious fact since, generally, adolescents encounter the same potential on-the-job hazards as adult workers. Depending on the work performed, some common potential hazards include automobile and machinery operation, working in high-homicide industries such as retail, working with or near electrical or hot equipment or working in areas where falls or slips could occur (see sidebar, Types of Work Associated with Teen Work-Related Injuries).
What differs for these teens from their adult counterparts is the rate at which the potential hazards become actual workplace injuries. According to a 1998 publication, Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States, the rate of injury per hour worked appears almost twice as high for adolescent workers as for adult workers. Approximately 4.9 teens are injured per 100 full-time adolescent workers, compared to 2.8 per 100 full-time adult workers.
An obvious reason for this discrepancy is lack of experience of adolescent workers. According to Castillo, “Level of experience is an underlying factor” with respect to work-related injuries.
In addition, gaps in current laws and enforcement comprise another possible reason for the high rate of teen injury. Other factors include inexperienced supervisors who are inadequately trained in workplace safety; working in industries that don’t generally hire professionals trained in industrial hygiene and/or safety; physical limitations due to lack of size and strength; or a simple lack of maturity—“goofing off” on the job.
Creating a Safer Working Environment
Castillo says, “Teen workers must be active participants [with respect to workplace safety], and be aware of laws and regulations.” Adolescents must know their rights as workers, practice proper workplace safety and be able to recognize potential hazards. However, since teen workers are not legal adults, additional responsibility is needed from various parties.
For instance, the employer must comply with all applicable OSHA regulations and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Fair Labor Standards Act and ensure that each worker is properly trained in these regulations. Also, the employer must provide teen workers with appropriate supervision, a prevention program and regular evaluation of equipment and usage.
Parents and educators should also take an active role in their teens’ or students’ employment. Both need to be familiar with current labor laws and regulations and speak with employers to voice their concerns about safety on the job.
Fortunately, much of this information can be found in materials from a program called Work Safe This Summer, an initiative spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Labor that was developed to help all parties better understand the rights of the teen worker. This program puts the impetus on everyone by encouraging what Castillo calls “active participation and awareness” by employers, parents, teachers and most importantly, the adolescent worker. This initiative also includes a “Teen Worker’s Bill of Rights” that plainly states what the teen worker is entitled to on the job and what’s expected from him or her. The program can be found on the DOL website at www.dol.gov/dol/teensafety.htm.
Other useful Internet sites related to occupational health and safety for adolescent workers include the NIOSH website at www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html, the National Consumers League’s website at www.natlconsumersleague.org and the National Safety Council’s website at www.nsc.org.
Growing Pains
Adolescent workers will continue to be a significant group in the American work force—and many will continue to work without the benefit of a trained IH or safety professional on staff.
This growth will only further underscore the importance of employer involvement and programs such as Work Safe This Summer. To ensure a safe and healthy workplace for the younger generation, everyone must be involved and understand the positive and negative effects of putting our teens to work.
This article appeared in the Synergist in May 2001. More information can be found in a teens in the workplace factsheet.