[junipergreen]

Yeah, meant the bit about poor teenagers being reliable, because they need the jobs. Didn't mean to agree with the sentiment that middle-class kids are unreliable. Most probably aren't. Though I myself once flaked on a job in college to spend the summer in the city my boyfriend lived in. So guess I'm anecdotal evidence they can be. I found another job in the other city, but likely wouldn't have given up a sure-thing to take that risk if I hadn't had a safety net.

[true_religion]

I'm not saying that middle-class children are flakey, but you have to consider how most low-paying employers treat their employees.

They offer X hours per week, and constantly juggle the scheduling to suit themselves so workers don't neccesarily know when they will be called in. They do things like require long hours on one day (e.g. a 12 hour day), then cut short the hours on the next day to avoid the worker being classified as full-time or overtime pay.

It's these kind of annoyances that a middle-class kid will just ignore. They have other obligations and can get away with leaving money on the table if necessary. They don't really care if they work 25 hours a week or 20 hours. To a poor worker though those 5 hours can make or break the budget, so they'll come work a 12 hour shift if the boss requires it instead of dropping the whole day and thus getting less hours per week.