By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice
Labor Day isn’t just policy and parades. It’s first alarms, first shifts and the pride of a small raise. The numbers say buying power ticked up this year and Colorado stays competitive. The stories say the first rung is where grit takes shape.
The first paycheck isn’t just money. It’s alarms, bus schedules and showing up when friends don’t. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Secretary of Labor, tells it plainly. “My parents insisted that I get a job… I wanted to be a cheerleader in high school and I couldn’t afford the uniform… I was working 12-hour days… I raised the money that I needed to buy that uniform.”
Doug Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, remembers a mop and waxed aisles. “I went to a local grocery store called Big Star… I got to clean the floors, and I stayed there for five years… all the way from high school to college.”
“My first job was not unique. It was delivering newspapers.”says Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence. The lesson lands before the paycheck: show up, get it right, do it again tomorrow.
That’s what cabinet members had to say about their first jobs in a short video released by the White House before Labor Day.
What early work teaches
First jobs teach safety and responsibility before they pay much. “My first job was as a lifeguard at the indoor pool that my mom worked at,” says Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, offers the craftsman’s rule. “Whatever you do, you should apply all of your talents and all of your energy to trying to do it well.”
Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator, remembers the promotion that came with a 50-cent raise.
On a typical day nationwide, about a third of Americans ages 15–24 do work or work-related activities. Weekdays lean toward work and school while weekends tilt to leisure. The clock becomes a coach, not a cop.
Time use shifts with age; the chart below shows how school gives way to work as teens move into their twenties and thirties nationally.
Education still shapes outcomes here. In the latest 12-month read, unemployment runs 7.4% for workers without a high school diploma and 2.3% for those with a bachelor’s or higher.
Wages and the first rung
The national median weekly pay for full-time workers hit $1,196 in Q2, up 4.6% as prices rose 2.4%. Women earned $1,078, about 81.1% of men’s $1,330. Buying power improved.
Young people sit lower on the ladder as they learn the clock. The median for ages 16–24 is $758—$797 for young men and $712 for young women. Teens 16–19 earn $640.
Nationally, real earnings have turned positive again—the chart below tracks the trend since 2015.
Colorado, right now
Colorado’s unemployment rate is 4.5% compared with 4.2% for the U.S. Labor force participation sits at 67.6% and the employment-population ratio at 64.5%. Among age groups, teens track differently (ages 16-19), with unemployment at a 12-month average of 20.1%.
These are the headline rates, wages and July movers at a glance.
Employers added 3,700 nonfarm payroll jobs in July. Construction ≈+3,800 led the gains and trade, transport and utilities ≈+2,800 followed while leisure and hospitality ≈−1,800 and education and health ≈−1,100 fell. Over the year, the state is up 16,400 jobs. Private pay remains strong; average hourly earnings are $38.93 in Colorado against $36.44 for the U.S., and the average workweek is 33.4 hours.
Education still shapes outcomes here. In the latest 12-month read, unemployment runs 7.4% for workers without a high school diploma and 2.3% for those with a bachelor’s or higher. First jobs don’t settle the school question; they prime habits that make each rung easier.
In Colorado, participation is a strength. This snapshot shows who is in the workforce by age, education, sex and race.
If you run a team, save a shift for a teen this fall.
On-ramps that work
Apprenticeships and references still move the needle. Paid programs tie classroom basics to on-the-job skill and simple recommendation letters have been shown to lift young applicants’ employment and earnings in the first couple of years. For teens staring at that first rung, the combination of a coach at work and a vouch from a trusted adult is often enough to get a foot in the door.
The ethic that outlasts the shift
Kennedy remembers unglamorous work in the reptile house, squeegee in hand. “I was feeding the reptiles, cleaning the cages, cleaning the glass and cleaning the guardrails with brass polisher. My parents instilled in all of us a very strong work ethic. From a young age, I learned that the little things count.”
The lesson still holds. Show up, learn the little things, earn a raise, then earn another. If you’ve built your career, hand the ladder down. The kid with a mop or a squeegee is ready to climb.
