Since January 1, 2023, as a student you can work up to six hundred hours per year at reduced social security contributions. Opinions are divided about the maximum number of working hours for students. Marouane and Hamid believe that as a student you should be able to work indefinitely and think that six hundred hours per year is not enough. The reactions of the other young people are mixed. “I think there should still be enough time to develop as a young person. It is a fairly vulnerable period in which you are in, in which you want to discover what you are capable of. I think some young people would lose themselves in working if there were no maximum,” says Mette.
Yet some young people feel pressure to work more in a student job. “My father worked very hard for me. I study and he pays for it, but I felt obliged to go to work. Not to help him financially, but to pay less for him,” says Maria.
Mette states that the prices of goods should be lower, so that young people do not work overtime as student workers and that young people can focus on school. Maria, Hamid and Maroune agree to this. “In an ideal world, young people should not have to worry about money,” he said.
