A new law passed by the Iowa Legislature designed to increase youth employment opportunities in a tight labor market appears to violate federal child labor protections, according to U.S. Labor Department officials.
The new state law, yet to be signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, allows kids to work in “laundries” and to “perform light assembly work as long as the assembly is not performed on machines or in an area with machines,” which federal officials say is likely prohibited.
Reynolds has until June 2 to sign the bill.
In a letter to Iowa Democratic lawmakers, Seema Nanda, the Labor Department’s chief lawyer, and Jessica Looman, the principal deputy administrator of the department division that enforces child labor laws, said that if jobs are not specifically allowed by federal regulation then they cannot be performed by 14- and 15-year-olds and can be considered “oppressive child labor.”
The bill also allows 14- and 15-year-olds to “perform non-incidental work in meat freezers,” which federal officials say is explicitly forbidden under federal law.
Additionally, the legislation lets 14- and 15-year-olds work until 9 p.m. during the school year. In their letter, Nanda and Looman write that allowing this “appears to violate” the federal rule that children can only work until 7 p.m.
In a statement, the Gov. Reynolds' spokesperson said, "Iowa’s new legislation and some of its current laws related to employment of minors differ with aspects of federal employment law. This is also...
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