Agnostic.com

4 4

LINK Some lawmakers propose loosening child labor laws to fill worker shortage | PBS NewsHour

(Ironically, most of these lawmakers are the same ones who are upset about illegal aliens coming here to find work, which helped create the "labor shortage" with policies preventing illegals from doing the work they've done for us for years.)

MADISON, Wis. ✈ — Lawmakers in several states are embracing legislation to let children work in more hazardous occupations, longer hours on school nights and in expanded roles including serving alcohol in bars and restaurants as young as 14.

The efforts to significantly roll back labor rules are largely led by Republican lawmakers to address worker shortages and in some cases run afoul of federal regulations.

Child welfare advocates worry the measures represent a coordinated push to scale back hard-won protections for minors.

“The consequences are potentially disastrous,” said Reid Maki, director of the Child Labor Coalition, which advocates against exploitative labor policies. “You can’t balance a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teen workers.”

Lawmakers proposed loosening child labor laws in at least 10 states over the past two years, according to a report published last month by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Some bills became law, while others were withdrawn or vetoed.

Legislators in Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa are actively considering relaxing child labor laws to address worker shortages, which are driving up wages and contributing to inflation. Employers have struggled to fill open positions after a spike in retirements, deaths and illnesses from COVID-19, decreases in legal immigration and other factors.

The job market is one of the tightest since World War II, with the unemployment rate at 3.4 percent — the lowest in 54 years.

Bringing more children into the labor market is, of course, not the only way to solve the problem. Economists point to several other strategies the country can employ to alleviate the labor crunch without asking kids to work more hours or in dangerous settings.

The most obvious is encouraging immigration, which is politically divisive, but which has been a cornerstone of the country’s ability to grow for years in the face of an aging population. Other strategies could include incentivizing older workers to delay retirement, expanding opportunities for formerly incarcerated people and making child-care more affordable, so that parents have greater flexibility to work.

In Wisconsin, lawmakers are backing a proposal to allow 14-year-olds to serve alcohol in bars and restaurants. If passed, Wisconsin would have the lowest such limit nationwide, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The Ohio Legislature is on track to pass a bill allowing students ages 14 and 15 to work until 9 p.m. during the school year with their parents’ permission. That’s later than federal law allows, so a companion measure asks the U.S. Congress to amend its own laws.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, students that age can only work until 7 p.m. during the school year. Congress passed the law in 1938 to stop children from being exposed to dangerous conditions and abusive practices in mines, factories, farms and street trades.

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law in March eliminating permits that required employers to verify a child’s age and their parent’s consent. Without work permit requirements, companies caught violating child labor laws can more easily claim ignorance. Other measures to loosen child labor laws have been passed into law in New Jersey, New Hampshire and Iowa.

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law last year allowing teens aged 16 and 17 to work unsupervised in child care centers. The state Legislature approved a bill this month to allow teens of that age to serve alcohol in restaurants. It would also expand the hours minors can work. Reynolds, who said in April she supports more youth employment, has until June 3 to sign or veto the measure.

Republicans dropped provisions from a version of the bill allowing children aged 14 and 15 to work in dangerous fields including mining, logging and meatpacking. But it kept some provisions that the Labor Department say violate federal law, including allowing children as young as 14 to briefly work in freezers and meat coolers, and extending work hours in industrial laundries and assembly lines.

Teen workers are more likely to accept low pay and less likely to unionize or push for better working conditions, said Maki, of the Child Labor Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy network.

“There are employers that benefit from having kind of docile teen workers,” Maki said, adding that teens are easy targets for industries that rely on vulnerable populations such as immigrants and the formerly incarcerated to fill dangerous jobs.

The Department of Labor reported in February that child labor violations had increased by nearly 70 percent since 2018. The agency is increasing enforcement and asking Congress to allow larger fines against violators.

It fined one of the nation’s largest meatpacking sanitation contractors $1.5 million in February after investigators found the company illegally employed more than 100 children at locations in eight states. The child workers cleaned bone saws and other dangerous equipment in meatpacking plants, often using hazardous chemicals.

National business lobbyists, chambers of commerce and well-funded conservative groups are backing the state bills to increase teen participation in the workforce, including Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political network and the National Federation of Independent Business, which typically aligns with Republicans.

The conservative Opportunity Solutions Project and its parent organization, Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability, helped lawmakers in Arkansas and Missouri draft bills to roll back child labor protections, The Washington Post reported. The groups, and allied lawmakers, often say their efforts are about expanding parental rights and giving teenagers more work experience.

“There’s no reason why anyone should have to get the government’s permission to get a job,” Republican Arkansas Rep. Rebecca Burkes, who sponsored the bill to eliminate child work permits, said on the House floor. “This is simply about eliminating the bureaucracy that is required and taking away the parent’s decision about whether their child can work.”

Margaret Wurth, a children’s rights researcher with Human Rights Watch, a member of the Child Labor Coalition, described bills like the one passed in Arkansas as “attempts to undermine safe and important workplace protections and to reduce workers’ power.”

Current laws fail to protect many child workers, Wurth said.

She wants lawmakers to end exceptions for child labor in agriculture. Federal law allows children 12 and older to work on farms for any amount of time outside of school hours, with parental permission. Farm workers over 16 can work at dangerous heights or operate heavy machinery, hazardous tasks reserved for adult workers in other industries.

Twenty-four children died from work injuries in in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Around half of deadly work incidents happened on farms, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office covering child deaths between 2003 and 2016.

“More children die working in agriculture than in any other sector,” Wurth said. “Enforcement isn’t going to help much for child farm workers unless the standards improve.”

snytiger6 9 May 27
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

4 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

Fuck over the legal and illegal immigrants who will work for those low wages!!

Instead fuck over our youth by not paying even what is considered an illegal wage!!!

Welcome to the obstructionist regressive christofascist republican maga death cult vision of America

2

A really enterprising person could set up employment agencies at the various border crossings and charge a commission, paid by eager employers, maybe have states subsidize to transport workers & their families from there with social workers and volunteers ready upon arrival to help them find housing....problem solved, money made....even happy landlords!

2

They would love to bring back slavery if they could.

There’s the truth!

I am pretty sure you are right about that. Some republicans would love to bring back slavery.

1

I started working, voluntarily, at age 14 and I see many mom/pop merchants who's children work in the shop. Child labor laws are, as everyone knows, a modern idea that's only preventing children at risk of abuse to gain freedom. It does not hurt their body, mind, or character so I'm leaning away from prevention laws. They should make equal pay for their work and, I think, have profit sharing.

I think child labor laws were put in place to prevent child employment outside of the child doing labor for their families business.

As a child, I did a hell of a lot of chores around the house and yard. Far more than any of my friends or other kids in the neighborhood for which I received no pay or allowance money. To get money I did various jobs for neighbors and had a paper route. When I finally turned 16, I was able to get a work permit and worked at a fast food restaurant and earned money to travel for a month to Japan, Hong Kong (still a British colony then), Thailand, The Philippines and stopped over in Hawaii on the way back.

I realize children do work. However, I think I'd have done much better in though high school where I had a high C average, if I didn't have so much work to do. When I finally got to college my GPA soared to 3.6 . I think my college GPA would have still been higher had I been able to have the time to study more as a child, in stead of having endless chores which kept me worn out all the time.

@snytiger6 Your admirable education, following earned income, is a fine example for what I'm saying. Money makes it possible to escape and learn a new way of life but we are denying the benefits of wage laws to kids who are still being overworked (or worse) at home. Parents see kids as slaves whom they love. They're so cute and give one's life meaning.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:725636
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.