How much would you pay a teen helper?

I have only hired teens for a couple of jobs. I haven't needed one for an 8 hour day, so I pay by the job. A couple of them helped me last year clean out the barn in the spring. They worked really well, scraped the floors down to nothing. I paid them $20 each. The two boys are only 13 or so. They were very happy. Then I had them pick rocks, again $20 each basically for a morning job. They keep coming back looking for more work but haven't had anything. If I paid by the hour I think I would start out at $5 or so.

We do craft shows for a living and anytime people hired our daughters to help run their booths they paid them between $7.50 and $10.00 an hour and usually gave them a bonus if they did a good job. That was 4 or 5 years ago too.

We pay $10 per hour, include lunch and drinks (if the work goes over the lunch hour). I work side by side with them. So I am setting an example as well as supervising.

If I had an individual who showed a desire to work hard independently or used power equipment, I would raise the pay accordingly. I would go as high as $20 per hour.

We are not out to make a lot of money farming...it's a quality of life thing for me...my time on earth is short...if I can get help to make projects complete faster so I can enjoy the other parts more...I don't mine sharing my weath with others.

So why would you look to hire another teenager? Lots of people hire teenagers so they can get away with paying less, but if you are willing to pay a fair wage why not hire an adult?

And before anyone says it - no, I am not bashing teenagers - I have a couple of hardworking boys here at home, but if Daisy has had so much trouble with teenage hires in the past it seems like maybe hiring an older person would be a better fit for her.

we hire college students, pay them $10/hr, and provide a great homecooked meal -sometimes 2. They work their butts off - we work right alongside with them. It's always fun and we always feed good about it when done.

I find the more you pay, the better quality of work you get in any situation. This also applies to how much training you give your helping hands and the care (food and drink). The more you give, the more you get. Just make sure it's worth the price.

I've had ONE experience hiring a teenagar. I've had ONE experience ever hiring anyone, ever, and it was a teen.

I recently placed an ad on craigslist, and several of the replies were from teens (out of 12). I would not discount all teens based on my one negative experience, but I also cannot discount my experience. I'm sorry if you thought my intention was to pay a teenager less than someone else, because that was not the case. The pay was the same regardless of age but I can see how my OP was misleading. I jumped the gun in posting my question.

Thank you for all your words of wisdom, it's helped me very much.

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I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.

with sweat: $12.00
without sweat: $8

Daisy, no - I didn't think you intended to pay less because it was a teenager. That was kind of my point - you were looking to pay fair wages so I felt that there was no reason to think you were restricted to only hiring teenagers. Sorry if I made it sound like you were cheap.