Let’s Get American Kids to Work (Safely)

AMAC Exclusive – By David P. Deavel

Legislation concerning teens in the workplace has been proposed at both the state and federal levels this spring. Democrats are trying to portray themselves as the protectors of children and Republicans as the ones taking away their safety. While some of the legislation proposed by Democrats has a claim to partially making kids safer, the facts point to problems of their own making. On the other hand, the legislation being pushed mostly (but not exclusively) by Republicans that is being condemned in regime media outlets is actually much better for kids as a whole since it addresses the problem of their declining work experiences. American kids are under a lot of stresses these days—and the fact that they work less and less is probably a big part of the problem.

Senator Cory Booker introduced a bill called the Child Labor Exploitation and Accountability Act that would prevent companies that commit “serious, repeated, or pervasive” violations of labor law from getting contracts with the USDA for up to five  years. Given the USDA’s role in procuring food for school lunches, this would sting. The legislation comes on the heels of Democratic-led but bipartisan legislation sponsored in both the House and Senate last month that would increase penalties for companies in violation of child labor laws.

Putting companies’ feet to the fire on their hiring practices is eminently worth doing. The legislation was provoked by a number of reports of meatpacking companies and sanitation companies that were putting kids in dangerous jobs, sometime working overnight shifts in meatpacking plants. One major meatpacking company paid $1.5  million dollars in penalties last year for having minors “clean meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters.” At least three of them were injured in doing this work that involves dangerous chemicals.

Yet if at the federal level the emphasis has been on the protection of minors, much state legislation has been geared at making it easier for teenagers to work in safe and age-appropriate jobs. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation last month that made it easier for teens to get jobs. The Youth Hiring Act of 2023 put an end to the demand for companies to get work permits for those under 16 years old. It has been represented as a Republican attack on children, but the reality is a bit different.

First, the concern about such loosening of restrictions reveals that the problems being worried about may have their origins in something other than the legislation at hand. A CNN article about Arkansas’s new law makes clear that the abuses might have contributing factors beyond working conditions. The article cites critics who say, “the work certificate served as a form of protection for vulnerable youth, especially immigrant youth, who may not always have a parent or guardian to sign off for them to work and who could be exploited without that certificate.”

In other words, companies might find it easier to exploit illegal immigrant children who have come here alone. This is the major worry expressed in many of the other articles about the federal legislation as well. Fair enough. But why are there so many unaccompanied minors? This comes down to the Biden Administration’s determined resistance to real enforcement of our border. It’s a resistance that effectively enables the trafficking of people over our southern border. Many of these people, especially children, are forced to find work to pay the coyotes who brought them.

In short, one way to address exploitation of children in workplaces is tougher enforcement of our border. It is significant, then, that the Florida senate passed a bill this week meant to deal with illegal immigration that mandates that companies use E-Verify to check the legal status of employees. Too many Democrats (and many Republicans) don’t want to deal with the condition that creates so many of the problems in the first place.

Second, though, it’s not just Republican states that are attempting to make it easier for teens to work. A long article by Ariana Figueroa at GPB about the trends at the state level shows that while Red States are certainly leading the way with bills in Ohio, Iowa, and Missouri, Democrats are often doing the same things. New Hampshire and New Jersey both passed laws in 2022 that increased the number of hours teens can work and lowered the ages for working. Deep blue Minnesota has introduced legislation this year that would permit 16 and 17-year-olds to work in construction. And the push to allow teens to work in the logging industry has been bipartisan as well.

These moves make a lot of sense. As Republican legislator Dusty Johnson said about his own proposals to allow South Dakotan 14- and 15-year-olds to work between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. for up to 24 hours per week, “If a high school student can play in a football game until 9 p.m., or play video games late into the evening, they should also be allowed to hold a job if they wish to.” While having high school students work overnight in a meatpacking plant using harsh chemicals to clean sharp blades is not wise, neither is limiting young people’s ability to get the experience of holding down jobs.

A 2019 CNBC article about the declining percentage of teens holding down jobs argued that when work interferes with attention to school, this can lead to worse outcomes over the long haul. But work (as with sports and other activities) need not interfere with attention to school, and even this article noted that those who don’t work “forgo an opportunity to learn valuable lessons about finance when they are young.” Not only that, but they also forgo the opportunity to gain a knowledge of how to comport themselves in the workplace: showing up on time and treating coworkers and customers well, working hard in tasks that might seem menial but are very important, and thinking on their feet. For many teens, a job builds both a strong work-ethic and independence.

Holding down jobs is good for almost all teenagers at least part of the time; some will benefit from more hours than others. While it’s important to stop companies from exploiting teens, especially illegal immigrants, it’s also important to get those teens the opportunity to start working earlier. These goals are clearly compatible. For many of us adults who have “made it” in the world of work, the lessons we learned from those first jobs were just as valuable as the ones we learned in school. We want to see the next generation learn those same lessons—and make a little money as they do it. Let’s make it easier for teens to learn them even as we make sure they do it safely.

David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative.