More than half of Morton East students have jobs, survey says.

In a random survey of 104 Morton East students, 57.7% of students have a job.  Nationwide, nearly 30% of high school students are employed in a job for at least a portion of the school year. For many, working a job provides spending money for a social life. For others, working is necessary to help the family make ends meet or to save for college. One pro with working while in high school is It can teach the relationship between earnings and education. Most high school students work low-income jobs that require little to no education. This can help make it clear that, to earn a good living, schooling is essential. One con with working while in high school is It can hurt academic achievement. While the correlation between working and grades is not easy to measure, researchers have learned that students who work upward of 20 hours a week suffer from reduced academic performance.  Some students here at East who said they had a hard time coming to class the next day after a long work night, or they said they had a hard time keeping up on assignments because of their jobs.

We asked random students at Morton East what their craziest experience while working was.   Jobs can be dangerous nowadays,  and quite a few students here at Morton East did not feel safe while working.

“I’ve experienced a robbery,” senior Ian Carranza said.

According to the Illinois Department of Labor, workers 16 and up may work up to 50 hours in one week and up to 10 hours a day only between the last day of school and Labor Day. Some jobs work their employees who are minors longer than the legal requirements.  We also asked random students at Morton East what is the longest shift they have worked.

“The longest shift I’ve worked was 12 hours long,” senior Fernando Quintana said.

Unfortunately, some students dislike their jobs because they don’t have control over their schedules.

“Most of the time the manager would overwork me and would always change my schedule around,” junior Marcos Flores said. Not all management is the same in the work place. Some places keep your schedule consistent while others switch it every week.

No matter the job environment students here at Morton East work hard to get what they want.