How much would you pay a teen to...

Parent Cafe
1

<p>How much would you pay a teen to untarnish your silver? </p>

<p>Imagine that the holidays are coming. You’re frazzled with shopping, wrapping, working, etc., and it’s your turn to host the big, formal family dinner. What would you pay the neighborhood’s teenage entrepreneur to shine-up your silver for you? The place setting flatware, the hostess set, the platters and bowls, etc. </p>

<p>Would you prefer to see a $x.xx per ounce rate?
Or a fixed-cost per typical item?</p>

<p>For a benchmark, I just called a professional plating/polishing service. They charge $10 per piece to polish flatware that is old and scratched. However, it could be “as low as” $5 per piece if there aren’t many scratches. :eek: </p>

<p>For my “what if,” I’m not talking about buffing and polishing out scratches. Just getting the “good silver” ready for the holidays.</p>

2

<p>Depends how many pieces you have and how long it’s going to take. Let’s assume that you have 5-pc place settings for 12, plus serving spoons/forks, a couple of other things such as a sugar shell/pie server/ladle/salt spoons and up to 5 platters/bowls/gravy boat.</p>

<p>It the stuff is in bad shape it could take several hours to get it really clean. If not, maybe an hour or so. I’d offer the kid about $20 if you think it will take some scrubbing.</p>

3

<p>I would pay for their time. They are not professionals, neither are you. It wouldn’t be fair to hold them to the exact amount. I would feel bad if they spent 5 hours and getting paid $20 because that’s what you agreed on.</p>

4

<p>I would likely pay by the hour…maybe $10? Or estimate fairly how many hours you think it should take and multiply that by ten dollars and pay a flat fee.</p>

5

<p>I’d pay by the hour - minimum wage unless you’re purposely trying to give this teen extra dough. I’d go min wage (or somewhat above) because this is an unskilled job for someone with no experience. I wouldn’t go below min wage. If I felt they did a really good job and worked hard to do it quickly, I’d give a bonus and tell them why they earned it (afterwards) to encourage them to work hard and quickly at any job they might get.</p>

6

<p>That job shouldn’t take too long unless the pieces are badly tarnished. I’d pay a lump sum for the whole job. But I’d be careful to show him/her how to do it. Unless the pieces are silver and not plated, unskilled hands can rub off too much silver.</p>

7

<p>I’d polish the silver myself. I find it very fulfilling to see the black tarnish come off and the silver shine uncovered.</p>

<p>But…if you really were hiring someone…I’d hire them to do so many pieces in a certain amount of time…and I’d pay by the hour. In other words…I wouldn’t just pay by the hour as this might encourage a “slower” rate of polishing. I would say “I’ll pay you for 4 hours at $10 per hour to polish these __(insert number) items”.</p>

8

<p>I think I would do some of the silver WITH the teenage entrepreneur to a) demonstrate proper technique, and b) determine how long it takes to do well. Then I’d pay $10/hour to get the job done. And then I’d buy new silver storage bags that prevent tarnishing.</p>

<p>[Pacific</a> Silvercloth Fabric By-The-Yard - Anti-Tarnish Silver Cloth $15.95 a yard](<a href=“http://www.silverguard.com/c-6-pacific-silvercloth.aspx]Pacific”>http://www.silverguard.com/c-6-pacific-silvercloth.aspx)
and
3M’s tarnish prevention strips:
[3M</a> Anti-Tarnish Strips for Sterling Silver, Gold, & Brass. Genuine Anti-Tarnish Strips](<a href=“http://www.silverguard.com/c-9-3m-anti-tarnish-strips.aspx]3M”>http://www.silverguard.com/c-9-3m-anti-tarnish-strips.aspx)</p>

9

<p>I love anti tarnish bags…but they don’t work very well for the items we have displayed in our china cabinet:( However, those items DO get polished more frequently as they are the ones used most frequently.</p>

10

<p>I think 10 an hour is fine, once you have demonstrated proper technique. </p>

<p>I have just inherited quite a bit of silver- both plate and solid. After polishing items that will come in contact with food, do you rinse so that any polish residue is gone or not? I have never really used silver before.</p>

11

<p>When I polish, I polish and then rinse. AND I also use paper doilies on my silver serving pieces. Most of the rest of my “silver serving” stuff actually is holders for glass bowls or plates. I have a silver tea service which I have NEVER used OR polished. Bleh.</p>

12

<p>And pipmom, be very careful not to have salty things touch your silver. It will “pit” it and leave tiny specks of tarnish that you will never, ever get out. I once put salted nuts in a little silver bowl – big mistake. That’s why salad serving forks and spoons aren’t silver – the salt in the dressing would pit it.</p>

<p>Same thing with egg yolks, BTW. Don’t use a silver spoon for mayonnaise or it will tarnish like crazy. (Not pit, though.)</p>

13

<p>I’d use non-silver silverware.</p>

14

<p>Teenager? My own? Minimum wage. Period. I used to hate the task when my mom would ask me, but I never got anything but the dinner we ate it from.</p>

15

<p>We have tried that metal plate that you use with water softener and hotwater and it works like magic. Ours wasn’t this brand but it should work the same, I just Googled “metal plate silver cleaner.”</p>

<p>[Metal</a> Silver Plate Cleaner](<a href=“How does aluminum foil clean silverware”>How does aluminum foil clean silverware)</p>

16

<p>For what it’s worth, you can do the EXACT same thing with heavy duty aluminum foil, really hot water, and baking soda.</p>

<p>And if you are impressed, you can buy the tshirt:</p>

<p><a href=“http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/stand_back_square_0.png[/url]”>http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/stand_back_square_0.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/science_square_2.jpg[/url]”>http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/science_square_2.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/science_square_0.png[/url]”>http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/science_square_0.png&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/science_square_1.png[/url]”>http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/science_square_1.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>[xkcd</a> store](<a href=“http://store.xkcd.com/]xkcd”>http://store.xkcd.com/)</p>

<p>:-)</p>

17

<p>To the general question of how much would you pay your teen something, I pay my D $10 / hour to do odd jobs for me, but I’m kind of a softie. She makes $9.25 at her paying summer job. She’s organized my closet, organized some boxes in our basement, stuff like that.</p>

18

<p>If you are trying to figure out how much an entrepreneurial teenager should charge for the job:</p>

<p>Have the kid polish some silver and keep track of how long it takes for each piece or how long it takes for a certain number of pieces or how many they can do in 15 minutes/half hour.</p>

<p>Then figure out how much they need to charge per piece to get minimum wage. Perhaps figure out how much it would take for the hostess set, etc.</p>

<p>Then they could set a price list per piece, per setting, per hostess set, etc. Any or all of those options. They would also be able to give the person with the silver an idea of how long they’d need for the job.</p>

<p>I personally wouldn’t pay someone to polish silver because I don’t own any. My mom and sister do though, but I personally hate the taste of the stuff…makes my fillings go wonky or something…ick.</p>

19

<p>I pay my daughters and other teens I hire $10.00 an hour for an assortment of jobs. As long as they arent slackers, I dont mind. If they are slackers, I either dont hire them. or next time I pay per the job not the hours. Sounds like I would apply same theory to this as well.</p>

20

<p>I second the hot water and foil. Why pay someone for what you can do in no time. Just set the silver in a foil lined pan and pour hot water over it. Go do whatever you need to do and come back a few minutes later and poof! it’s done. No fuss, no muss.</p>