Vice News gets inside look at summer work of teens on the farm

Each summer Nemire’s Detasseling in Michigan hires hundreds of 13- to 16-year-olds to work in their cornfields doing detasseling, where they go row-by-row to remove the tops of corn in order to control pollination. VICE News Tonight follows 13-year-old detasseler Abigail on the job.

A typical day for Abigail starts at 6 a.m., when she heads to the bus to join 200 of her peers who spend their summers detasseling and making minimum wage. Aside from the extra money to save up for a car, Abigail tells VICE News Tonight the job will look good on her resume and show her hard work: “I really like this job just because I guess it’s kind of easy to me. It’s long hours and really hot, but it does make me happy.”

VICE News Tonight’s ongoing series “American Jobs” profiles Americans working in jobs today that reflect that landscape of our current economy.