Toronto 16-year-old can't find a job, despite applying to every retail and fast food establishment that's hiring: 'If teenagers can’t even land a dishwashing job, what happens when the real wave of desperation hits?'

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Aug 22, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Teenagers should be able to get part-time jobs in any functioning economy, but unfortunately, that's not always the case. Even businesses that typically employ some teenage workers, like restaurants and clothing stores, might shun a younger workforce for employees who can work more consistently and reliably, like adults without degrees who don't have the added responsibility of schoolwork and extracurricular activities.

Teen workers can be a liability because they are only legally allowed to work a certain number of hours without a break. When I worked 8-hour shifts as a 17-year-old, my managers were adamant that I take a 30-minute break after working for four hours. It wasn't because they cared about me having a decent lunch hour; it was because the law mandated that they do so.

In cities where the minimum wage is higher than $7.25, hiring managers might be less willing to give teens the benefit of the doubt, because they only have so much they can spare on payroll. There's a reason that companies are hiring minimum wage workers and scheduling them for slightly less than 40 hours a week. It's so they can have what are functionally full-time employees without giving them the benefits that full-time employees enjoy, like health insurance. Outside of the summer months, most teenagers cannot or will not work for 38 hours a week.

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via Egor Litvinov

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The teen in this story is desperate. She wants to get a job to help support her family, but it seems like nobody in the Toronto area will hire her. She took to the internet to desperately plead for a job.
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via Vitaly Gariev

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