News & Commentary April 18, 2023

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/april-18/

By Iman Masmoudi

Iman Masmoudi is a student at Harvard Law School.

The Iowa Senate passes a child labor law allowing more minors to work; the White House announces a sweeping executive order to improve child and family care resources; and the WGA authorizes a writers’ strike.

This morning, the Iowa Senate passed a law allowing younger children, 14 – 17 years old, to work night shifts, on assembly lines, and to serve alcohol. This bill was heavily lobbied for by the restaurant industry and now moves to the Iowa House for consideration. This comes on the heels of an overall rise in child labor law violations, as the Washington Post reports today, with several other states making efforts or already succeeding in rolling back child labor laws. The permissive expansions of child labor go beyond the restaurant industry to construction sites, assembly lines, slaughter houses, or other potentially dangerous workplaces. The push is motivated both by socially conservative views about young kids potentially wasting time hanging out with friends and by various industries seeking low-wage workers in a difficult labor market for employers.

FULL story at link above.