After a long, vigorous day of school, the last thing a student needs is to end his day with an exhausting eight hour work shift. In today’s society, the amount of overworked teens has turned into a huge problem and has negative effects on minors. Work industries need to make sure that minors work a maximum of twenty hours a week.

According to Teens in the Work Force by Alison Morantz, 16.5 percent of teenagers work over thirty hours a week while juggling school. Every now and then, I have a week where I work over thirty hours and I feel like I am going to die. I have no idea how teenagers manage  working so many hours a week for endless months.  When do they have time to sleep? Probably never. Maybe a few hours if they get lucky.

Last time I checked, a good night’s sleep is extremely essential for one’s health. Sleep deprivation causes fatigue, clumsiness, weight gain and negatively affects the brain. Not enough sleep will most likely negatively affect a student’s performance in school. How can students stay awake in class, pay attention and learn while getting no sleep the night before.

With long hours of work and coming home late every night when will students find time to do homework and study. Do industries realize overworking students can possibly ruins their grades let alone the future. If companies only had minors work twenty hours a week then they would have more time to study and sleep. I think everyone deserves at least six hours of sleep a night and businesses do not make this possible for minors.

Actually, there is a law to prevent overworking minors but obviously many companies do not follow this. According to the law minors can only work twenty hours a week during school and cannot work more than four hours on a week day. Every single company needs to obey this law because the law exists for a reason. I am pretty sure if the government did a better job enforcing this law then the amount of overworking minors would not turn into such an issue.

With all of this work and school when will minors have time to enjoy themselves and have fun? When students look back on their high school experience they should have more memories than school and work. All industries need to do everyone a favor and make sure minors do not work more that twenty hours a week.