carthago wrote:
Let's think about what's going on in a McDonald's manager's mind when interviewing the adult and teen applicants, holding all else equal.
The adult applicant, let's call him Tim, has never worked before, but is clearly an adult. Does this mean he is hiding something? Perhaps he has a history (which he neglects to mention) of working and skipping out on employers after doing some nasty stuff, is this what would turn up if I do a background check? I really don't want to get that far and find out I can't hire him. Tim seems like he would be a good worker, but at his age, he might not be satisfied with the McDonalds work environment, if for no other reason then because his coworkers are going to be much younger than him. The pay isn't attractive either. Will Tim skip out once he finds something better? Tim doesn't seem to fit the mold, which is raising a lot of questions right now.
The teen applicant, let's call him Johnny, is just like all the other applicants I get. I know everything about Johnny before he opens his mouth. I know I can keep him until he graduates high school, which is 2 years away, which is plenty of time to train him. It might be a long time before Johnny starts complaining about his job, because he's too young to know how low this job is on the totem pole. To Johnny, this is great. A free meal at the end of his shift is like the icing on the cake. I never really had any questions for Johnny. As long as he's not a drug addled sociopath, I just want to know when he can start.
It's not the nasty hateful kind of discrimination, it's just business.
Carthago thanks for this, this makes a lot of sense. I was very angry about not receiving a reply from my application to Pizza Hut but now I understand why I wasn't considered. It's unfortunate but I guess you cannot blame the employers. I would probably also choose a teen to work there if I was the manager.