Sea Isle Looking for Beach Tag Checkers to "Join Our Team"

Walking along the beach all day and getting paid for it sounds like a pretty good summer job, doesn’t it?

But factor in all that time trekking through the scorching hot sand and then having to ask complete strangers, “May I see your beach tag, please?” and maybe you’ll change your mind.

“It’s a tough job,” Sea Isle City’s chief financial officer Jennifer McIver said. “It’s hot out there, and it’s tough to walk up to strangers and ask them for their beach tags.”

Despite the challenges mentioned by McIver, Sea Isle is looking to recruit more beach tag checkers this summer than it has had in previous years – and is using social media for the first time to do it.

A posting on Sea Isle’s Facebook page invites would-be beach tag inspectors to “join our team.”

“Enjoy talking to people? Love the sun? Fan of the beach?” the posting asks.

As of late last week, the city had already received 20 applications, McIver noted.

“The more the merrier,” she said.

    Sea Isle's beachgoers are likely to see more beach tag inspectors walking the beaches this summer.
  

Job seekers may fill out an application by visiting https://www.seaislecitynj.us/Employment.

Sea Isle hasn’t determined yet how many beach tag checkers it hopes to hire this summer, but is looking to do better than other years, McIver explained.

“In previous years, we only had a few. Last year, we only had a handful. This is the first year that we’ve actively sought beach tag inspectors. Maybe they just didn’t know about it in the past,” McIver said of the challenges of hiring more employees.

The beach tag inspectors McIver referred to are the ones who walk along the beaches to check for tags. Sea Isle also has stationary beach tag checkers who greet beachgoers on the pathways leading to the beaches.

Sea Isle is looking to entice the beach tag inspectors who walk the shoreline by paying them $17 per hour, somewhat higher than the state minimum wage of $15.49 per hour, McIver said.

Beach tag checkers will receive special training on the finer points of their job – including the best ways to approach beachgoers to ask them if they have their tags.

Although beachgoers often object to having to buy beach tags, beach tag sales are an important source of revenue for Sea Isle and other Jersey Shore communities. It covers the cost of keeping the beaches clean, collecting the trash, employing lifeguards and hiring summer police officers. The revenue also helps to pay for Sea Isle’s share of beach replenishment projects.

For 2024, Sea Isle had record-high revenue of $1.7 million for beach tag sales between Memorial Day and Labor Day. A $5 across-the-board price increase for seasonal, weekly and daily beach tags in 2024 was a major reason why Sea Isle reaped record revenue.

    Beach tag inspector Carole Yoder, right, greets beachgoers in 2024.