We know little about how early work experience influences adult outcomes for high school dropouts. This brief reports on how these early workers fare compared with youth who drop out but don’t go to work and youth who complete high school. Although early workers are twice as likely to be employed at age 25 as youth who drop out without working, dropouts who were employed at age 25 work roughly the same number of hours and have similar average earnings regardless of whether they worked as teenagers. Both groups fare worse than youth who complete high school.