Bitcoin Forum

A mises.org blog post called to my attention the unemployment rate of teenagers.

http://blog.mises.org/16222/set-kids-free-to-work/

In 2000, 34 percents of boys are employed. Now in 2010, 14 to 15 percents of boys are employed. Same trend for girls as well.

However, old people employment rate went up. Back in 2000, 29 percents of men aged 60 to 69 are employed. In 2010, it's 34 percents of men are holding a job.

That's pretty bad for kids. They have less and less job experience. They will probably go to college with a loan and will have no job experience whatsoever too. We have structural problems in our economy as requirement tighten. (need college degrees and stuff)


So guys, with bitcoin, teenagers can work unregulated and unscrutinized by the law. They will gain experience necessary to succeed in the job market. If they're good, nobody will be the wiser and will pay them lot of  bitcoin.

The only question is how we reach them and expand our job market?

That's not the ONLY question.  A question I've been thinking a lot about is what are an employer's potential liabilities if they are caught paying employees in bitcoins "under the table."

I honestly don't know the answer if the employer is in Finland and the employee is in Ecuador, and suspect the answer might depend on whether or not the person doing the work is considered an independent contractor or an employee.

It's hard to hold an employer liable if he's anonymous.

Seconded. Anonymity isn't even required. The obscurity of telecommutable jobs is enough protection on its own.

I pay people 5 BTC per article. Is that illegal?

Who knows? Maybe you should just... give them 5 bitcoins, instead of 'paying' them.

All minimum wage does is eliminate jobs that can be valued less than $8/hour. It basically makes it illegal for me to collect aluminum cans or scrape gun off the sidewalk for a fair wage from an employer.

Which could lead to unemployment problems in the economy.

Bitcoin does not make it easier to get around employment laws than the already available option of paying in cash. The problem is that most employers don't want to break employment laws.

Will we be demonized for offering teenagers employment?  :D

Who is "we" and who are you thinking will "demonize" you?

The media will demonize the bitcoin community for employing teenagers?

If the bitcoin community is breaking employment laws and child labor laws, then yes, they will probably be shown in a bad light by the media.

Well, I don't know how the media is going to portray little Johnny working under slave labor, while he's just coding at home on the PC for a check in the mail.

"Little Johnny, like most boys his age, would be usually at mindless play and doing his state-mandated homework. Oh, but no. Due to some evil forces over the internet, he has been forced to code at absurd rates."

ROFL.  ;D

You must not watch much TV. That would not be a hard angle for them to run with at all.

I don't. Heh.

Yeah. This would be considered exploitation by the media and the population at large. Paying anyone less than minimum wage is generally frowned upon. Paying in bitcoins would probably be fine though, as long as they were presented in a sober and accurate manner to the people being hired. None of that "one bitcoin will be worth more than a share of Berkshire-Hathaway one day" nonsense. Otherwise you run the risk of being accused of lying to and exploiting teenagers.

In the UK I believe you must pay your employees their wages in sterling. If someone is contracting then that is a different matter.

hire them as "volunteers" then give them BTC like some non profits give their volunteers snack. its not money, its digital goods.

Not a bad idea. You'd have to be careful how you worded your advertisements for volunteers, but that could work. I don't think there are any governments yet that recognize bitcoins as a legitimate currency, so it probably would legally fall under that "snack" category, more or less.

In the UK at least there are apprenticeships schemes where you can pay staff something like $2.50 per hour, which is way under minimum wage. Big company's are going to go with the apprenticeship scheme so as not to open themselves up to liability.
Lots of small company's already take people on 'under the table' with cash so Bitcoins don't offer anything new.

Oh yeah. That totally reminds of the unpaid and stipended internships this side of the ocean. I'd forgotten about those. So I guess there is precedent for this after all.