They have to buy their own tshirts!

amother

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 7:48 am

Anyone feels it's a chutzpa for camps to charge teenage girls $8 for their staff t shirts?
They're paid so little as it is....
Lakewood day camp, over 25 kids in bunk, girls are paid about $500/4 weeks and that's considered well paid!

amother

Wine

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 8:25 am

Agree that it's well paid. Most camps I know will give you one but charge you if you need another (extra or replacement.) I don't like what this camp is doing, but it's $8 when most girls get paid at least $50 to $100 less.

zaq

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 12:38 pm

Yes, if the counselors HAVE to wear camp T-shirts, the camp should provide them. Very chintzy to charge for them, especially as the shirts are free advertising for the camp. I think the camp should pay THEM to wear them!

amother

Tangerine

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 12:46 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I agree. I'm curious though if you've said anything to the camp?

I know that we're all so hesitant to be the one who complains, but if we all just grin and bear it and keep quiet, this these quietly keep piling on. We keep getting nickel & dimed & pushed around, more and more. The camps/schools try one thing, & when everyone holds their tongues & they get away with it, they move on to the next thing. And so on. By the time, a complaint or two is registered, they've gone so far that it's impossible to do anything about it, or they can throw the statement "No, we haven't had any complaints from anyone else" at you.

We need to speak up.

amother

Red

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 12:58 pm

My daughter is making $300, $350 maybe?, for the month at sleep away camp. (Incidentally, I think that is what I made 25 years ago at the same camp). But they don't charge them for shirts and they give them a canteen account.
I understand the pathetic salary, but don't charge theses poor kids.

amother

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 1:58 pm

amother [ Tangerine ] wrote:

You're absolutely right!
And no I didn't say something to the camp because.... is only $8!
And it's my daughter's first year working there.
I feel like I'm always complaining about "extra charges" everywhere so I'm embarassed to but I will.
Camps would not manage without those counselors, its not a sleep away camp where she's having fun the rest of the time. She's working with little kids. It's fun but they work really hard. They are paid about $5/hour if you do the math. And that's considered a camp that pays "well"!

amother

Royalblue

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 2:11 pm

$500 is relatively well-paid so I would probably let it slide.
In Brooklyn you would be earning 175 for a month unless you’re 16+ and on youth Corp, which very few girls are on since the cuts to the program were made.

amother

Magenta

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 2:25 pm

I was a daycamp counselor for 4 years a long, long time ago. My first year I received $200 for the 8 weeks! The second summerthey paid me a whopping 500 for the 8 weeks. It was obviously a substantial raise (I was a really awesome staffer according to the parents) albeit still a paltry amount. Since it was a day camp , I had a second job in the evening the last 2 summers. However I did get a new Camp Counselor shirt each year for free.

Although they went to sleepover camp and loved it, I did not encourage my own kids to be camp counselors although one of the boys did end up working at one during one summer. They did substantial volunteering for charities in the summers they were too young to legally work and once they hit 16, they got regular ft summer jobs.

amother

Tangerine

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 3:02 pm

amother [ Magenta ] wrote:

What kind of summer jobs? I'm looking for ideas.

amother

Tangerine

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 3:13 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

It's $8 here, $5 there, $20 here, $3 here, and so it goes on.. (per child). It racks up a tidy sum.

This is precisely the strategy. Continue asking the parents for small amounts here and there, cause who will pick up the phone for $8?

amother

Magenta

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 5:50 pm

amother [ Tangerine ] wrote:

What kind of summer jobs? I'm looking for ideas.

One child worked for an NGO, one for a US government agency. Also worked at a local bagel shop on Sundays and a different summer at a restaurant as a greeter. One kiddo was the overnight camp counselor but other summers worked retail and restaurants. If the kid was selected for a really unique opportunity that prevented them from working in the summer, we were okay with that.

notshanarishona

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 5:53 pm

Of course it's a chutzpah but the camps can get anyway with treating their staff like dirt because of supply and demand. It would take some major collaboration and protests to get normal conditions for teenagers working in camps.

creditcards

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 6:38 pm

I wouldn't mind if they charge because I would consider it as another outfit she can wear and buy her one less shirt for camp. In the 9 days when they don't have enough clothing, that's considered an outfit.

amother

Sun, Jun 30 2019, 7:16 pm

notshanarishona wrote:

Bh they treat them quite nice actually!
The pay is not great but they really try to make them have a good time as well.