The fact that adolescents are compelled to work can usually be explained as caused by financial needs of their families. The objectives of this study are to characterize the content and the structure of the social representation of adolescence work, by working and non working adolescents, 14 to 18 years old; compare the representations in both groups, and to evaluate if the hypotheses of the central core of representation are confirmed by other technique of social representations analysis. The sample included 724 high school students of a public school of São Paulo city. Data collection was carried out through word free evocation technique, using "work" as inductor term, and employing 21 focal groups. The results show the representations of work in both groups are significantly associated to positive moral and psychosocial meanings. The greatest part of the elements classified as central core hypotheses was confirmed in the several thematic axis of the content analysis of focal groups.