3 . Best Summer Jobs for High School Students

Working during the summer when school is out of session is a great opportunity for teenagers to make money and gain valuable workplace experience.

Food and drink service jobs are plentiful. Although average base pay is poor, workers who carts tips can do well for themselves. And some national chains have the resources to pay more Starbucks employees can earn about $12 per how on average, and may qualify for a benefits package that includes health insurance.

Grocery store jobs are also relatively plentiful. Although most grocery employees don’t earn tips, base pay is generally above the federal minimum wage—about $12 per hour. Jobs that require workers to operate heavy machinery are inaccessible to workers under age 18. Grocery store employees typically work in shifts, with part-timers polling four to eight hours at a stretch. Peak shopping hours tend to fall on weekends and early evenings.

If you’ve already taken and done well on standardized tests like the SAT or ACT, you can help these students and earn decent pay as a tutor. Tutor pay varies by specialty, experience, and educational attainment. Tutors who themselves are high school students or recent graduates aren’t likely to earn much more than the national average rate of S18 per hour.

Even if you haven’t yet decided what you want your “rear” career to be, high school summers offer the perfect opportunity to test a job you think you’ll like. Summer internships are often unpaid, forcing students to consider whether the opportunity is worth the cost. That’s likely to come down to the value of the experience and the connections that could land you a higher-paying, career-track job down the road.