Mica Mckee grabbed cleaner and microfiber cloths from a large blue bucket of supplies and got to work detailing a car in Anchorage. She cleaned crumbs from the seat, wiped dust from the dashboard and wiped muddy footprints from the door.
It was only 1 p.m. and it wasn’t even her first job of the day. She had already babysat for four hours. Later this week, she’s house sitting and pet sitting.
Between managing school, sports and family travel, it can be difficult for teens to make time for a part time job. So some teens in Anchorage are earning cash working odd jobs instead.
Mckee has been working since she was ten and has done almost any odd job you can think of, from painting a house to shoveling snow, but her favorite is pet sitting. She’ll earn $180 for around three hours to detail the Honda.
She said she makes at least $1000 each month, and sometimes earns that much in a week.
“Personally, I don’t like asking my mom for money so if I want to go do something it’s time to get to working,” Mckee said.
Mckee has tried more traditional jobs. Last year, she got a part time job in retail and after that, she worked at a childcare center for a couple months, but she said regular work didn’t suit her. She wanted more flexibility, so she quit to devote herself to odd jobs.
“Out of everything I’ve ever done. These are like the easiest while still challenging because you’re working for people,” she said. “You’re setting your own standards, setting your own prices, which [can be] really awkward to talk to people about- it’s probably my least favorite topic.”
Mckee finds customers through a Facebook group called Alaska Teens for Hire. It’s a hub for 13 to 19 year olds looking for work and adults who have an odd job to offer. The group has three subgroups serving Anchorage, Chugiak and Eagle River and the Matanuska Susitna Borough with more than 10,000 members combined.
Teens use a template pinned to the page explaining which jobs they’re available for, when, and for how much. Those looking for help follow the same process– what work they’re looking for, when, and how much they’re willing to pay.
Jenny Finch, an administrator for the group, said teens who post are willing to do just about anything for some cash.
“Yard work, dog poop scooping, and, you know, all the yucky stuff that nobody wants to do on their own.”
The group started six years ago when the creator, Charles Clark, hired neighborhood kids to do various chores. In a message, he said he’s noticed the decline of opportunities for youth in Alaska and wanted to create a space dedicated to them.
Finch said the majority of teens get paid more than minimum wage. A typical recent job posting offers $40 for moving four tires from the back of a car into storage, and a different post offers $15 an hour for weeding a garden.
Some of the older teenagers tackle big jobs like gutter cleaning and landscaping and even driveway sealing. One teen, Caleb Azzelin, started a lawn and landscaping business after initially finding work through the Facebook group, and now manages five employees.
His business, called Caleb’s Services, provides weekly lawn services to 110 customers.
Finch said safety is a top priority for the group. You have to answer a set of questions to join, and she said the groups’ administrators screen each profile. Admins screen job postings too, to make sure the jobs aren’t dangerous and comply with child labor laws. She said feedback from group members has been overwhelmingly positive.
“People really appreciate what we’re doing,” said Finch. “They give the kids great reviews. And they kind of see like we’re helping them grow into, you know, the next generation to essentially run the world.”
The most popular postings in the summer are for yard work.
16 year old Oliver Casurella has a list of lawns he mows each week. He said most of his customers are elders, or single moms who juggle multiple kids. He appreciates being able to set his own schedule.
“It makes it so much easier for hanging out with friends and social life and stuff,” said Casurella.
He isn’t in the Facebook group. Instead, he sends a neighborhood-wide email asking if anyone has work for him. If he gets an email back, he finds a gap in his schedule to get the job done.
Right now he’s helping build a deck.
“I really like working for one of my neighbors building his deck because I get to work with a carpenter. And I’ve been learning a lot of stuff with that. We haven’t started the building process yet, we’ve really just been tearing it down,” Casurella said.
Casurella doesn’t set his prices, instead, he lets his customers decide what’s reasonable. He said it’s always worked out in his favor.
“One person said, ‘I can never pay you enough for the gratitude we have for you helping us.’ So that’s really nice of them,” he said.
He doesn’t know what his future career will be, but he said he won’t be doing odd jobs forever.
Mckee, on the other hand, doesn’t plan to stop doing odd jobs anytime soon. She said the flexibility would be hard to give up, and she looks forward to seeing her customers each week. If she were to move or pursue college, she said she’d still do odd jobs.
“If I do decide not to go to college, I’ll probably try and do a little side business,” she said. “At some point, if the whole side thing isn’t working out anymore, [at] a certain point, obviously I will get a regular job.”
