The Nebraska State Legislature passed Legislative Bill 258 with a vote of 33-16 in favor of the bill in early February. Every high school student in Gretna (and Nebraska) could be impacted by this legislation. The new law aims to create a lower minimum wage for workers aged 14-15 and a training period wage for workers under 20. This law was originally introduced to the floor on January 14, 2025, by State Sen. Jane Raybould of District 28, and, just over a year later, her law is starting to make waves in the community.
“It came along back in 2023 when I started to see the minimum wage increase. I started to hear from other retailers, primarily grocery retailers, but other retailers, on how they were struggling with the minimum wage increase,” Raybould said. “One of the impacts was that people are not hiring as many 14 and 15-year-olds as they did in the past, that they are leaving positions open and not filled, and/or they’re reducing hours of existing employees.”
This bill takes a unique path to creating jobs for those just entering the workforce. One main claim of Raybould’s feeds off the fact that, for most, this will be their first job. Teens are entering the workforce with little to no professional job experience and have many restrictions on what they can do and when they do it because of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and state labor laws.
“Fourteen- and 15-year-olds are prohibited from doing a lot of activities, such as working with compactors. Compactors are for trash. Are working in bakeries and delis, operations where they’re involving grease, involving sharp knives, elements like that. Fourteen- and 15-year-olds are also restricted in the hours that they may work,” Raybould said.
With these parameters, many businesses have been wary of hiring teens for years. Lowering the wage for them gives an incentive to businesses to open those opportunities to teens.
Not everyone has been in favor of this new law, though. Legislators like Danielle Conrad claim that the bill makes these teen workers “subhuman.” Others, like State Sen. Stan Clouse, claim that the vote of the people has not been upheld. In 2022, Nebraska voters approved a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage gradually to $15 an hour by this year, 2026
Raybould quickly counters these arguments by offering up points that even though the minimum wage will be lower for teens, it is still higher than the national minimum wage and that other states have the same policy.
“Many states have a wage differential for 14 and 15-year-olds, (its) pretty standard. I think Minnesota has a wage differential of $8.73; that’s how much they charge them,” she said. “Nebraska starts out at $13.50, which is higher than most states as a wage for 14 and 15-year-olds.”
So what are some tips that teens can use, as summer jobs are quickly approaching and many people are searching for those jobs?
Tip One: Be available.
“Make yourself available, and not around your soccer schedule, your football schedule, your cheer schedule, your dance schedule,” Raybould said. “Businesses cannot keep your schedule straight as they try to give you hours.”
Tip Two: Be flexible.
“Instead of saying, oh, I can work from 10 to three. No, you can say, ‘Hey, I’m available from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.’ You know, they need to understand that a business with everything else that’s pressing around them, they can’t try to accommodate your schedule,” Raybould said.
Tip Three: If you already have a job paying $15.00, stay. If you’re under 16, you could be moved down to the new lower wage.
“I think you need to learn some of that mentality of sometimes you have to, like every, every job situation’s not going to be perfect. It’s not always going to be sunshine and roses and all that kind of stuff,” business teacher Christine Swantek said.
Tip Four: Look at wages before applying and accepting a job. Some jobs may still be willing to pay $15.00, while others will drop down.
