But first, of course, your teen needs to find a job. Fortunately, the Internet is a wonderful resource with thousands of job listings available. Here are a few sites to help your teen narrow the search. I recommend starting with Cool Works because it has thousands of listings for openings at national parks, dude ranches, kids' camps, cruise ships, and amusement parks. In fact, some amusement parks even employ kids as young as 14.
Teens can research by state or by type of work.
Another advantage of this site is that it has listings for midsummer positions in case teens have to spend part of their vacation in school or away on family trips. The site also links to internship programs and volunteer positions. My Summers, a division of Camp Finders, a referral service for campers, is more limited in scope since it deals only with summer camp positions and applicants must be at least 18 years old. Still, the site promises to put qualified applicants in touch with quality camps. Once teens get into the work world, they'll have to contend with all sorts of payroll and tax terms, such as gross income, take-home pay, withholding tax, and Social Security and Medicare taxes.