It is a common scene at any public pool: the teenager in the red bathing suit watching over the pool. These teenagers are employed with the most important job of saving lives. However, many lifeguards do not get paid an amount that would seem to fit this very important job. At Ingomar North Swim Club, the lifeguards have a starting pay of minimum wage. Lifeguards are specially trained life savers and minimum wage is not enough for the job that they do. The lifeguards at Ingomar North Swim Club should be paid more because lifeguards have to take and pay for classes to be a certified lifeguard; lifeguards are in charge of people’s safety and lives, and the lifeguards usually have to do additional tasks other than watching over the pool.

In the first place, lifeguards are required to take a class to be a certified lifeguard before they are able to work as one. The class taken by lifeguards covers twelve chapters of information crucial to knowing how to save lives, recognize dangerous situations, and how to react in emergency situations (American V). Being a lifeguard is not a job that anyone can do. It is not a job where applicants are given a few days of training by a supervisor before they are allowed to work by themselves; the lifeguard has to pay approximately three hundred dollars in order to take an extensive course on how to do their job. A lifeguard working at minimum wage has to work forty hours in order to pay off the expenses of a three hundred dollar course, and that does not even take into account the time commitment the courses take. The course provided by the American Red Cross offers both an “in-person course format (25 hours, 20 minutes)” or a “Blended Learning course format (19.5 hours in-person, 7.5 hours online)” (“Lifeguard Training”). The lifeguard must complete either one of those courses and take a test at the end of  the course to prove that they are able to protect and save lives. Other jobs that pay minimum wage do not have to go through the extensive training that lifeguards have to. Ultimately, the amount of training done by lifeguards in order to be employed deserves much more that just minimum wage.

In addition to all of their training, a lifeguard’s primary job is watching over the safety of the patrons at the pool. This is not a job where if the lifeguard make a mistake, the pool loses profit. This is a job where if the lifeguard messed up, lives are lost. As a result,this job is very stressful as the lifeguards do not want to be responsible for the deaths of people. An average of 3,536 unintentional deaths by drowning occur in the United State annually; one in five of those being children under fourteen (“Unintentional”). No one wants anyone, especially children, to die unintentionally while they are having fun in a pool. Is your child’s life worth only minimum wage? The lifeguards at the pool are there to keep the number of drownings as close to zero as possible. If a lifeguard sees someone drowning, they are there to save them. If a lifeguard sees someone doing something potentially dangerous, they are there to stop them. Lifeguards are trained to help save the lives of those who are drowning. However, the Journal of Emergency Medical Services states that only “5–15% of patients treated with standard CPR survive cardiac arrest” (Halperin). This means that even if a lifeguard does everything right, even if they try their hardest to save a life, there is a good chance that nothing could be done to save that life. The lifeguard then has to live with the fact that the were not able to save that life. Is it right to put teenagers through this trauma only for the benefit of seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour?

As well as the primary duty of watching over patrons, lifeguards at Ingomar North Swim Club usually have to do other tasks. A typical five hour shift at Ingomar North Swim Club will consist of sitting in the lifeguard chair watching over the main pool or baby pool for about three hours and then other duties the other two hours. The lifeguards often have to clean the locker rooms, clean up the premises, do pool maintenance, and work the snack shack. The lifeguards are essentially a janitorial crew, cashiers, and lifeguards all in one. For comparison, a cashier worker at McDonald’s has an average salary of nine dollars and hour (Hicken). This is one dollar and seventy-five cents more than a starting lifeguard at Ingomar North Swim Club, and their job is only part of the lifeguard’s job. The lifeguards have to also learn how to use special equipment, such as pool vacuums, to clean and maintain the pool, and will have to do extra cleaning before the pool opens. Does it make sense to pay someone minimum wage when they are doing the equivalent of three jobs? The lifeguards are the sole employees that work at the pool daily and are in charge of making sure that each day runs smoothly. By having the lifeguards do the work that they do instead of hiring more employees to do it, the pool saves a lot of money. As a result, the lifeguards should be rewarded for the extra work that they do to help save the pool money.

Controversially, many people will say that lifeguard’s jobs do not contain enough work to be paid more. There are many people under the impression that the only reason that teenagers become lifeguards is to be paid to sit around and get a tan without caring about the safety of the patrons. Sadly, this may be true for some lifeguards, but it does not hold true for the majority. And even if lifeguards go into the job thinking that it will be easy and fun, they will be proven wrong quickly. Between watching the pool, cleaning, maintaining the pool, selling food, and being in charge of the entrance, there is almost never a break in a lifeguard’s work. There is also the fact that lifeguards are in charge of people’s lives. Many lifeguards go through days scared that they might have to save someone, or even worse, that they may not be able to save someone. To say that being a lifeguard is easy, does not require much work, and therefore does not require higher pay, would simply be false.

All in all, people go to Ingomar North Swim Club to have fun and do not want to worry about their safety, the cleanliness of the facility, or anything of the sort. But what they do not often think about is the people who make it possible for them to not worry. The lifeguards put in hours upon hours of work to keep the pool clean and safe for everyone’s safety. These loyal employees simply do not get paid enough for the hard work that they do. To see a change, contact Ingomar North Swim Club at theingomarswimclub@gmail.com or contact a member of the Board of Directors.

Works Cited
American Red Cross Lifeguarding Manual. N.p.: Krames StayWell Strategic Partnerships
Division, 2012. PDF.
Halperin, Henry. "Through the Years." - Journal of Emergency Medical Services. N.p.,
Aug.-Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Hicken, Melanie. "McDonalds to Give a Pay Raise to Hourly Workers." CNNMoney. Cable
News Network, Apr.-May 2015. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
"Lifeguard Training | Train to Be a Lifeguard | American Red Cross." American Red Cross. N.p.,
2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
"Unintentional Drowning: Get the Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.