WASHINGTON — Across the country, lawmakers in several states are looking at legislation that allows children to work longer hours on school nights, sometimes in hazardous conditions, and even serve alcohol, while underage.
The efforts are largely led by Republican lawmakers seeking to address worker shortages, the Associated Press reported. In some cases, the law changes run afoul of federal regulations.
Child welfare advocates say the changes represent a coordinated push to roll back protections for minors.
“The consequences are potentially disastrous,” Reid Maki, director of the Washington-based Child Labor Coalition, told the AP. The Child Labor Coalition advocates against exploitative labor policies.
“You can’t balance a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teen workers,” Maki said.
Teen workers are more likely to accept low pay and less likely to unionize or push for better working conditions, Maki said.
“There are employers that benefit from having kind of docile teen workers,” Maki said. And teens are easy targets for industries that rely on vulnerable populations, such as immigrants and the formerly incarcerated, to do dangerous work, he told the AP.
In February, for example, the Labor Department issued a $1.5 million fine to one of the nation’s largest meatpacking sanitation contractors after investigators found the company illegally employed more than 100 children at 13 meat processing sites in eight states. The children were used to clean bone saws and...
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