States are weakening child labor restrictions nearly 8 decades after the US government took kids out of the workforce

kuontom@kbin.social to Politics@kbin.social – 72 points – States are weakening child labor restrictions nearly 8 decades after the US government took kids out of the workforce
phys.org

A movement to weaken American child labor protections at the state level began in 2022. By June 2023, Arkansas, Iowa, New Jersey and New Hampshire had enacted this kind of legislation, and lawmakers in at least another eight states had introduced similar measures.

The laws generally make it easier for kids from 14 to 17 years old to work longer and later—and in occupations that were previously off-limits for minors.

"[This] allow(s) young adults to develop their skills in the workforce" - Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on signing Iowa's more permissive child labor law.

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At least part is worker shortages. Any unemployment less than 5% is generally considered full employment. We are at 3.7% even with concerns of the economy possibly going into a recession, so more jobs than works to fill them. Couple of reasons unemployment is so low.

  • Total covid deaths in the US is pass 1.2 million, adding excess deaths pushes that significantly higher. Including disability from covid means a lot of people not in the workforce anymore.
  • US average population age is going up, which means the ratio of workers to retired is likely increasing, putting further pressure on finding more workers.
  • US has a long history of worker exploitation. Current unemployment makes that harder along with more people being work from home. At least some business "leaders" are pushing to change that anyway they can (back to office, employing kids, doing silent layoffs, etc.)

Employment pool can be expanded, or workers can be more efficient to do more with less time. Certain states want to expand the employment pool and the easiest way is to make it so kids can work more. I can think of no real reasons this is a good thing and is actually a net positive. "allow(a) young adults to devleop their skills in the workforce." is not one of them, and is more likely code to try to get new workers to be like old workers pre-pandemic.

the reality is, the jobs they're wanting to get kids into aren't well paying, and most, you can't support yourself, never mind a family on. rather than increasing pay... which they could absolutely do... they've decided that employing their bought-and-paid-for congress people to roll back protections so they can exploit kids (who won't know they're being underpaid, presumably.)

The goal is to underpay everyone for the most part, and you're right this is one way to further that goal.

I'll grant that some wanting to expand who can be employed might actually think they are helping make the world a better place, but mostly because they are being stupid.

This exactly. Employers will put pressure on all wages with the simple "I can pay a 16 year old $8 an hour to do the same thing. So I CAN'T give you more."