Basic Trope: Children are depicted having jobs (paid or not) that, in Real Life, they could not legally hold for whatever reason.
- Straight:
- In an American-like setting, Alice and Bob have jobs at a burger place despite being 10.
- In an American-like setting, Alice and Bob work at a steel mill despite being only 16.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice and Bob have jobs despite being 3.
- Everybody gets a job and starts working the moment they leave their mother’s womb.
- Alice and Bob are only 6 years old, yet perform dangerous tasks at a construction site.
- Downplayed:
- Alice and Bob sometimes pitch at a family farm, a Family Business, do odd jobs for a neighbour (such as shoveling the driveway or mowing the lawn) or hold jobs like a lemonade stand.
- Alice and Bob are specified as volunteering or doing community service.
- Alice and Bob are teenagers who work at Burger Fool instead of going to school.
- Justified:
- Child labour is legal in the world where Alice and Bob live in.
- Even if, in Real Life, child labour is illegal at the time the work was made, it's a period piece.
- The boss keeps his illegal child-labor practices a secret.
- Inverted: Despite being 16, Alice and Bob are too young to work.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob appears to be working, but they’re only doing a quick favor for the manager.
- It's only an internship as the work-experience part of their education.
- Double Subverted:
- But they are soon hired as actual employees.
- The work Alice and Bob are made to do exceeds what is allowable even for an internship. note
- Parodied: The children hold jobs in an Improbable Age - including positions that would be impossible for them to hold in real life.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice and Bob have jobs sometimes.
- Defied: A coworker reports that the boss is trying to hire minors. OSHA shows up and shuts the whole thing down.
- Lampshaded: "Aren't you a little young to be working here...?"
- "Well, I need some money, so I took a part time job. This is the only place willing to hire minors."
- Discussed: Alice and Bob complain about child labour laws, to which their parents Charlie and Diane remind them that as a Family Business, it is legal for them to work within legal parameters.
- Exploited: Child labour is cheap, this may be A Very Special Episode talking about exploitation of child labour.
- Implied: Alice and Bob are visibly younger and shorter than their coworkers.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice and Bob work in a place with No OSHA Compliance and suffer serious injuries.
- Alice and Bob are glad to work jobs, but find the working life isn't quite what they thought it was.
- Alice and Bob are both former child actors.
- Reconstructed: But once they get their pay, they find it's not so bad.
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob are exploited as illegal workers...until OSHA finds out what's going on. The feds come and shut the place down, and their boss is thrown in prison.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice and Bob are doctors.
- Alice and Bob are lawyers. While they still have the brains of children, they are really good at their jobs.
- Played for Horror: The reason Alice and Bob are working despite being children is because they were enslaved.
