The United States is regressing. Gun legislation continues to be lax, several states have banned abortion and now even child labour laws are being relaxed. In the midwestern state of Iowa, children will be allowed to work longer hours and take up jobs that were earlier prohibited like serving alcohol and assembly line work. What has changed? The Iowa Senate, controlled by Republicans, passed a new bill before dawn on Tuesday to fight labour shortages.
It’s the biggest push to roll back laws protecting children from labour in the United States since the 1930s, according to reports in the media.
Nights shifts and permission to serve alcohol
The Iowa senate pulled an all-nighter and passed changes to the state’s child labour laws to allow 14 to 17-year-olds to work longer hours and in restricted fields with parental permission.
The controversial bill permits children as young as 14 to work six-hour night shifts, 15-year-olds to work in plants on assembly lines and move items of up to 22 kilos, and 16-year-olds to serve alcohol even though they can’t legally drink themselves. Minors can work until 9 pm during the school year and until 11 pm during the summer, two hours later than the current law and for six hours a day, up from the four hours currently.
The Democrats voted against the bill as did two Republicans. But the rest of the Grand Old Party caucus voted in its favour.
The Iowa bill passed the senate vote of 32-12 and the voting took place just before 5 am, after a heated debate.
The Iowa state senate voted to allow children to work longer hours and serve alcohol. Representational picture/Pixabay
No added compensation
Democrats in the Iowa senate attempted to introduce additional compensation for working children, as they are more likely to get injured because of their inexperience. However, the Republicans, who are in control, paid no heed.
According to the bill, businesses will not be liable for injuries or illnesses a student suffers on the job unless the student can prove that their boss told them to perform the action which made them injured or ill, reports VICE.
“A business that accepts a secondary student into a work-based learning program shall not be subject to civil liability for any claim for bodily injury to the student… unless the student is acting within the course and scope of the student’s employment at the direction of the business,” the bill states.
Graphic: Pranay Bhardwaj
The outrage
Democrats in the senate protested and attempted to delay the bill but were unsuccessful. Along with activists and labour advocates, they criticised the bill which allows children to work in fields riddled with danger – roofing, excavating and demolition.
“No Iowa teenager should be working in America’s deadliest jobs,” said Zach Wahls, the Senate minority leader, according to a report in The Guardian. “Iowa Republican politicians want to solve the … workforce crisis on the literal backs of children.”
Eric Blanc, an author and professor of labour studies at Rutgers University, told VICE that the decision to roll back laws that were “codified over 100 years ago is a pretty unprecedented attack”. “It goes above and beyond previous attacks on workers’ rights, which have tended to focus on things like preventing unions, preventing increases to the minimum wage law,” he added.
Labour unions held protests against the bill. According to Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, efforts to relax child labour laws in the US were “a lazy way of dealing with the fact that certain states don’t have enough workers”.
But the Republicans have defended the bill and denied claims that it was an attempt to address the workforce shortage in Iowa.
“We do know slavery existed in the past, but one place it doesn’t exist, that’s in this bill,” said Senator Adrian Dickey. “Throwing around such terms loosely and callously for shock value in the news, on social media, even within the walls of this great building, is irresponsible and wrong.”
He said that Democrats have been protesting over “false narratives” about the bill but none came to him with concerns.
A restaurant and candy shop in Maine has a sign posted stating that they hire teens ages 14 and older. File photo/AP
Iowa not alone
However, Iowa is not the only state which is introducing changes to minor employment amid a reported shortage of workers.
In March, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation to roll back child labour protections. It did away with state requirements to verify that children are at least 16 before they get a job.
The bill’s sponsor, Rebecca Burkes, said that the previous regulation was “one small burden on businesses, and also steps in front of parents’ decision-making process about whether their child under 16 years of age can get a job”, according to a report in The Guardian.
In Ohio, legislators reintroduced a bipartisan bill earlier this year to extend working hours for 14- and 15-year-olds with permission from a parent or legal guardian, and called on Congress to adopt the same rollbacks at the federal level.
In Minnesota, a similar bill was introduced in January to extend work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds. New Jersey Governor Phil Muray signed a law in July last year that allowed 14 and 15-year-olds to work for longer hours during summer months and holidays and extended work hours for 16 and 17-year-olds.
In Wisconsin, Republicans passed a bill that would expand work hours for those aged 14 and 15 but was vetoed by Governor Tony Evers in February 2022.
The US Department of Labour’s top lawyer, Seema Nanda, said it is “irresponsible for states to consider loosening child labour protections”. But no one seems to be listening.
Last year, a federal investigation found child labour violations involving more than a hundred teenagers at McDonald’s in the US. Representational picture/Reuters
Child labour violations in the US
Child labour laws were among the earliest wins for the workers’ rights movement in the US. The federal child labour bill was introduced in US Congress in 1906, which outlawed the transport in interstate commerce of any articles mined or manufactured by children under the age of 14.
But now several American states, especially those controlled by Republicans, seem to be going backwards.
Last year, there was a big 37 per cent jump in the number of children working illegally in factories, eateries and other workplaces in the US. The US Department of Labour found 3,876 children working in breach of labour rules. More than 688 were working in hazardous conditions, according to a report in DailyMail.
However, these numbers are underreported. According to experts, the estimate is between 20 and 100 times higher: As many as 388,000 children are overworked and 69,000 are indulging in hazardous tasks that could damage their health or lead to accidents.
Several Republican-led states moved to ease regulations surrounding child labour. Representational picture/AFP
There’s some evidence to support the data. Children as young as 13 were reported with chemical burns from cleaning slaughterhouses in Nebraska. An investigation by Reuters found that at least four major suppliers of Hyundai Motor Co and its sister firm Kia Corp employed children, mostly migrant minors, at factories in Alabama. Fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts and Chipotle also violated child labour laws by making 14 and 15-year-olds work longer, not supervising minors after 8 pm, and not providing appropriate meal breaks.
While child labour violations continue, several states are rolling back child labour protections, further exposing this vulnerable lot to exploitation.
More than a century ago, the US decided that its children should spend more time in schools and not factories. But today it can’t seem to leave them kids alone.
With inputs from agencies
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