It's your very first day working. You tie your apron strings and pull your dorky hat on for the first time. You've never been so excited or proud. You've finally got a job you've waited 14 years and nine months for.
But if you're in Victoria, chances are you've been hired illegally.
The Wage Inspectorate recently audited businesses in south-eastern Victoria and found 80 per cent of employers hiring children under 15 years old were doing so illegally.
For employers, hiring teenagers has always been a good way to bring new workers through the door, often at a cheaper rate. But with it comes responsibility.
Historically, children could leave school at 14 and nine months to enter the workforce. That's no longer the case. In Victoria, students must be 17 before they can leave school, but they can have part-time or casual jobs much earlier.
In 2003, laws changed allowing children to work from the age of 11, if only delivering goods.
Or they could work from age 13 if permits were obtained by employers.
But most employers either were not told or were not paying attention.
Richard Bowen owns and runs the Gippsland-based business Bow's Ice Cream and said there needed to be more education around hiring young people.
Missed opportunities
In his 42 years of operation, Mr Bowen estimated he had hired 1,000 staff members and said it was important for employers to remember teenagers had individual needs.
"We ask them what their schedule is … we love for the kids to play sport," he said.
"We've had two girls go on to become GPs, lots of nurses."
Mr Bowen hoped finding out about the 2003 change to hiring ages — allowing children as young as 13 to be employed if a permit was obtained — would help address hospitality worker shortages, which have been a problem across the board since the pandemic began.
"I don't know where they've gone, we used to have a stack of resumes, we still advertise the same, we advertise harder than we ever have," he said.
"What we're hoping is that this next layer, having 13-year-olds is going to open up a new opportunity for new people coming in to work for us."
Looking back on the past 19 years, Mr Bowen reflected on missed opportunities but acknowledged 13-year-olds might be too young for front-facing roles within his business.
"There have been some young people who are 14 that I would have hired, but they were not quite 14 and nine months.
"So I've missed a few over the years, by not knowing that legislation."
Jessica Downey is the Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Wage Inspectorate and said the department aimed to educate businesses about best practices to ensure kids going into the workplace were looked after.
"There is an online application, which will ask you for information about the duty the child is undertaking and a little bit about the child themselves," she said.
Currently, the permit system requires employers to apply for a permit for each child they hire. From July next year that will change, allowing businesses to apply for one licence to cover multiple workers.
"Our message is simple. Employers of kids under 15 years need a permit from the Wage Inspectorate."
While the Inspectorate was seeking to educate rather than penalise at this time, companies found breaking the law faced fines of up to $18,000, sole traders could be fined up to $11,000, and parents who let their children work for employers without permits could be fined $2,000.
