Lauren got a raise.  I was walking on campus of one of the school’s where I teach when she came running up to me just as excited as the time she told me about getting her first job.

Lauren is in second grade.  After doing a lesson on ways for kids to make extra money, she came to class the following week with a job to take the garbage bin down to the curb and bring it back up.  She would earn $2 each week for doing this.

Apparently she’s been doing a great job because she got a raise.  She announced to me that she now earns $3 a week for doing the same thing.  That’s a 50% raise.  Nice.

It’s also a life lesson.  When we do good work, people notice, and often we get rewarded.  Maybe it’s a nice bonus, or a raise, or words of recognition.  

Taking down the garbage bin will probably not turn into a career for Lauren, but her work ethic will help her earn other jobs with more responsibility and more pay.  It’s already happening.  And although she may not discuss her bin-toting experience during her first “real” interview, she won’t need to.  By then she’ll have accumulated a lot of other experiences.   Some of which may result in raises not quite so significant as her taste of 50%.  And that’s another life lesson.