By Trista Bowser
Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

Due to the labor shortage in Ohio, many companies are employing teens who are looking to get into the workforce to keep their business going. An Ohio bill is being created to allow these teens to work later hours throughout the school year.

Mike Todd, 53, has been an owner of two Dairy Queens in Ohio for the past 24 years, one of which is located in Pickerington. Recently, he has noticed that many of the worker applicants are under 16 years of age.

"I'd say at least 60% to 65% of my employees are of high school age," Todd said.

Currently, 14 and 15-year-old workers are unable to work past 7 p.m. and can only work three hours in a day for only 18 hours in a week due to state and federal laws. In the summer when school isn't in session, teens are allowed to work until 9 p.m.

"Traditionally, most quick-service restaurants, and probably most sit-down restaurants as well, their peak hours are after 7 p.m.," Todd said. "The people who are under the age of 16, they provide a very vital role for us, to kind of fill in the gaps before the nighttime rush begins."

State Sen. Tim Schaffer proposed changing these rules in Senate Bill 251, which would allow minors to work with more flexibility.

Schaffer, 59, who represents the 20th District in the Ohio State Senate, heard about Todd's situation and immediately wanted to help find a solution.

Senator Schaffer was pulled aside by the executive director of the Pickerington Chamber of Commerce and asked if he had heard about Mike Todd's issue. "Everybody's hearing all about the struggle to get good workers in their businesses," said Schaffer. "That's not a secret. Everybody is struggling with that, but nobody has really said anything about expanding the hours that teenagers could work."

Senate Bill 251 would allow teens to work until 9 p.m. both in the summer and the school year, but it would still limit them to three hours per day on school days and 18 hours per week.

"I'd emphasize the guard rails that are already in the law that we're not changing, which is that they can't work more than three hours on a school day... and they can't work more than 18 hours a week during school session," Schaffer said.

Brandon Janis, 25, is one of the owners of Gino's Pizzeria in Medina.

At Gino's, around 50% of their employees are still in high school.

"We definitely try to target sophomores and juniors, that way they know they have a job all through high school and if they end up going to college, they can stay with us to deliver," said Janis.

But Janis said it can be difficult at times to schedule these students while meeting the needs of their education, extracurricular activities and the amount of hours that they are legally able to work.

"It's pretty hard to juggle when they can leave and what days they can actually work, because obviously everybody has different schedules. If they have some sports that they're playing, we have to work around that. It's definitely challenging," Janis said, though "I'm not saying it's impossible because we've been doing it for the last five years."

Eve Nevar, 18, a senior at Agape Christian Academy, works at a pizza shop and does some landscaping. It can be difficult to balance school, extracurricular activities, and work as she is busy with basketball along with taking college credit classes.

"It's kind of a struggle. I think it's beneficial because it helps me learn time management, but I also think it's kind of hard to keep up with sometimes. I have to figure out when I can work but [also] how can I get my paper written," Nevar said.

Nevar believes that S.B. 251 would be beneficial to high school students.

"I think it would definitely be helpful having more flexibility. I think that would help a lot," Nevar said "High schoolers want to work, but it's hard to be able to when you also want to do extracurriculars."

The Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee is currently reviewing the bill. It is co-sponsored by two Republicans, Schaffer and Steve Wilson, and two Democrats, Tina Maharath and Kenny Yuko.

The outcome of Ohio Senate Bill 251 might hinge on federal action, though. The federal government still limits the hours teenagers can work.

The Ohio Senate has requested the same changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act that Ohio Senate Bill 251 proposes. That measure is now on its way to the Ohio House of Representatives.

"Getting anything through Congress, no matter how noble the cause, always takes longer," explained Schaffer via email.

"The bottom line is, we want people who want to work, and the majority of applications that we have received at our business show us that these young people want to work, they want the job, and they want the experience of having their own money and having their own set of responsibilities," said Todd.

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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As the year comes to an end, one event aims to help high schoolers in Arizona learn how to better manage their money. The "Bite of Reality" fairs across the West engage high schoolers by assigning them a persona and students then having to create a budget accordingly.

Sarae Bay, assistant vice president and manager director with the GoWest Foundation, said her organization works with credit unions in Arizona and help sponsor the fairs. She said the exercise is an opportunity for young people to "experiment and make mistakes with finances in a realistic but safe environment."

"They complete a 90 minute budgeting exercise, and it really helps give students a realistic look at money management by updating their budgets in real time to see the true impact of their everyday as well as planned purchases and expenses," she said.

Bay added participants' fictional persona will include an occupation, salary, credit score, possible spouse and child and debt among various other considerations. They then visit "merchants" to purchase items such as housing, groceries, transportation and child care. When they find themselves in a bind, local credit unions are then able to offer guidance.

More than 90 "Bite of Reality" fairs have reached 9,000 students across the West, including Arizona. Bay added that students have left the real-life simulation feeling more prepared to make better financial decisions, and says adds that while all young people's situations are different, no one can go wrong with learning how to better manage their money.

"So the more practice they have in a safe environment, where they aren't going to have a catastrophic mistake that is detrimental to their credit which would impact their ability to find an apartment to live in, or get a small-business loan or a graduate-school loan down the line, it is really, really critical," she continued.

Bay said having been a financial educator and counselor for many years, she knows many people "cringe" at the thought of making a budget and says a simulation exercise like "Bite of Reality" has made doing so less of a burden and more interactive, hopefully leaving participants with important lifelong skills.


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First-generation college students face a host of expectations and challenges - and that's why New Mexico State University will spotlight their accomplishments this month. First-gen students account for about one-third of the NMSU student population.

Rosa De La Torre-Burmeister, advising technology assistant director, says parents, siblings and other family members of first-generation students often are overwhelmed with pride.

"From the siblings, it's nothing but excitement and they want to follow," she explained. "They want to be like their brother or sister. They're celebrated as, I would call them, a 'hero.'"

She added many students new to the university system say they're motivated by watching their own parents achieve dreams after moving to the U.S. without financial resources, a firm grasp on English or the opportunity to pursue higher education.

She said first-generation students face pressures at home and school. They may have trouble relating to peers from families who've attended college for decades, learning the unspoken cultural norms and navigating university life. This is the fifth year NMSU will honor those efforts which Torre-Burmeister feels is important, during a time when good news is often overshadowed.

"There's so many successes that we don't celebrate - there are just so many other negative issues out there that we don't celebrate these moments for these students - these individuals who have worked so hard to earn this certification," she continued.

Torre-Burmeister is a first-generation student, who added she still finds it hard to believe she went from picking onions and tomatoes to graduating from Doña Ana Community College and receiving advanced degrees from Penn University and NMSU.

About 300 young adults leaving foster care in California will now receive a monthly check to help them make ends meet, part of the state's first guaranteed income program.

Some 150 people in Ventura will receive $1,000 a month and another 150 in San Francisco will receive $1,200 dollars a month, with no strings attached.

Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, who wrote the bill to launch the program, said "paternalistic" programs restricting the aid to cover only food or rent have not worked in the past.

"People in poverty need to be empowered, just like the rest of us, to make their own decisions," Cortese contended. "It really should be up to them to decide whether they need food, a warm coat, or rent. These aren't decisions that the state should be making, these are decisions that individuals should be making."

Opponents worry people receiving unrestricted income could waste it on luxuries, but post-analysis of pilot programs in Stockton and Santa Clara County disprove the concern. While the effort is the first statewide universal basic income program, there are also about 200 local programs now operating across California.

Cortese argued such programs reduce homelessness and end up saving the state money in the long run.

"We have significant economic disparity issues in this state," Cortese pointed out. "This gets the kind of outcomes that we're looking for in terms of giving people a leg up and keeping them out of the systems that cost us a lot of money; incarceration, like mental health and so forth."

Cortese hopes to secure funding next year for a similar proposal, called the California Success, Opportunity, and Academic Resilience or "SOAR" program, which would give a five-month stipend to the 15,000 homeless children who exit California high schools each year.


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