Here in northern NJ we have jobs as well; you can take your pick: Dollar General, Shop-Rite, Wal-Mart. You must be available for all shifts as well.
These McJobs hardly let teen drivers keep gas in their cars (if they can buy a car).
Yep, back in 1963 the federal minimum wage went to $1.25 per hour. That would buy lunch for two people with change left. Now it is $7.25 and that will barely buy lunch for one at a fast food place if you’re lucky. Five dollars an hour was a dream then, I could not imagine what I would do with all that money if I ever made that much. Ten dollars an hour now is enough to support one VERY FRUGAL person who does not smoke, drink or spend money on any other non-necessities and only in a relatively low cost of living area and provided he can find a place to rent that does not consume his entire income. At ten an hour a person who smoked the same number and brand of cigarettes I used to smoke back in the late sixties or early seventies would need forty hours or more at ten an hour every month just to buy cigarettes and that is in South Carolina! I have no idea what it costs to buy cigarettes in New York or Chicago now.