Malia Obama may have interned as a production assistant, but her parents want her and younger sister Sasha to experience minimum wage work in the future.
In an interview with Parade magazine, Michelle Obama told the magazine, "I think every kid needs to get a taste of what it's like to do that real hard work."
The Obamas are no strangers to minimum wage jobs and financial hardship. In college, President Obama got by taking a job as a painter, scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins and working at an assisted living facility for senior citizens.
Michelle Obama worked at a bookbinding shop in high school. Even out of law school, the couple struggled financially. They lived on the second floor of the home owned by Michelle’s mother. For the first five years of their marriage, they drove a used car that cost $1,000. After the birth of Sasha, their student-loan bills were more than their mortgage.
Speaking about their daughters, "We are looking for opportunities for them to feel as if going to work and getting a paycheck is not always fun, not always stimulating, not always fair. But that's what most folks go through every single day," the president told Parade.
The Obamas were interviewed to promote the summit the White House held on Monday to discuss policies to aid working families.
Read more at Parade.