Teens with summer jobs make less in Philly than other big cities
Lower minimum wages and lower teen pay go hand-in-hand, but fewer teens work in states with higher minimum wages, according to a recent study using U.S. wage and workforce data.
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Summer break has officially begun for Philadelphia students, and for some, that will mean taking on a seasonal job to fill the weeks and make some cash.
The good news: Worker wages in general are on the rise in the Philadelphia region, as employers seek to compete in a tight labor market. The bad news: Teen employment in Philadelphia is less lucrative than in other U.S. metro areas, on average.
An analysis by Atlanta-based job-hunting site Cool Jobs found that the average teen job in the Philadelphia region pays $780 per month ($786 when adjusted for cost of living). Philadelphia has the 10th-lowest adjusted teen wage among large metro areas in the United States, and it’s well below the national average of $880.
Around one in five teenagers in the Philadelphia area get a summer job, Cool Jobs found, which is slightly more than the proportion of all U.S. teens who work while school is out.
Looking at state-by-state rankings, average teen wages were similar for Pennsylvania, at $779 per month when adjusted for cost of living, which was the fourth-lowest among all 47 ranked states. New Jersey, at $822 adjusted, fared better but was still below the national average.
Delaware came in at No. 8, with an adjusted monthly wage of $1,032 for teens.
Cool Jobs’ analysis was based on recently released 2021 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and U.S. Department of Labor. That means data was collected when the labor market was at its tightest.
The analysis found that states with higher minimum wage also have higher teen wages. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage remains at $7.25, the federal minimum, which is lower than any of the states surrounding Pennsylvania.
Places with higher minimum wage and higher teen wages also had fewer teens participating in the workforce.
In recent years, teen participation in the workforce has been on the rise since a sharp drop-off in 2020, when many businesses shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19. In May, teen workforce participation was at 36.8%.
But the percentage of teens who work is far lower than it once was. After a peak near 60% in 1978, it has dropped throughout the decades that followed, with especially steep declines during recessions.