June is Youth Employment Month in Michigan, a time to celebrate our youngest and newest members of the workforce and to make sure they have opportunities that help them build a brighter future by combining academic success and healthy workplaces.
Working at a paying job helps our youth build a strong work ethic, learn time management skills, accomplish tasks, follow directions and more. It's their first introduction to the working world, and it's important that our youth have these opportunities — as long as they're done with the proper protections in place.
Many of us recall seeing historical images of children working in hazardous occupations prior to the passage of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. Starting at extremely young ages, children working was an important piece of the overall family economic unit. With low wages and poverty, every hand in the household needed to chip in to maintain food and shelter. However, this type of employment also had a detrimental impact on the health, development, longevity and overall contribution to our society, so our nation made a policy decision that ended children working before the age of 14 and established guardrails for those between age 14 and 17 while still in school.
Today, these guardrails are in place to protect youth from hazardous conditions, ensure they are fully participating in school and maintain their hours of work are balanced with adequate rest periods. The safety and well-being of our youth is...
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