Should Child Labor Laws Be Amended? (solutions, insurance, companies, economy)
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I think letting kids work at younger ages is a great idea. Any kid that wants to work and can do the work should be able to get the job. Some kids need to work to help their parents. One of my brothers and I bought milk and bread with our paper money when I was 12 and he was 11. We all can't be born with a silver spoon in our mouths. That's just the way life is. Some kids would do better apprenticing out when they are younger instead of having to sit all day at school, disrupt the class, and still make bad grades. We all progress at different rates. Calluses are good for you.
I think a strong vocational program should precede teenagers working those kind of jobs. I have often said that college or academic track wasn't for everyone. I think, though, that teens should have skills before taking a job that may seem momentarily attractive but may be a very bad long-range solution.
Expanding on this thought, making a vocational course of instruction, for at least a semester and probably a school year allows a student to be taught both his or her rights as a worker, and what he or she is giving up by leaving academics. Disclosure and educated choices are essential.
Also a student should be able to "drop back in" to the academic program for maybe a year or two after "going vocational."
You’re right. My neighbor had his roof replaced recently. All were probably here illegally -even the 10 year old kid that was on the roof and should’ve been in school. I found it very upsetting and told my neighbor so.
My neighbor made a comment about illegal unaccompanied minor kids and didn’t care that he was up on his roof. My husband wasn’t bothered either. I asked him how he would feel if our other neighbor’s (14 yrs.) son was put to work on the roof. He was against that because our neighbor’s son was from a good family.
It seems like people just don’t care about children -especially if they’re poor.
Kids aren’t even legally allowed to work a full week. I’m thinking (especially after reading some of the comments here) that many adults don’t know or even care.
No child should have to work a full week, or work in a dangerous job.
What exactly was your neighbor to do? We have allowed so many illegals to cross into the country that they have decimated the legal construction, and roofing companies.
Any company trying to obey the labor laws will not last a month.
I think letting kids work at younger ages is a great idea. Any kid that wants to work and can do the work should be able to get the job. Some kids need to work to help their parents. One of my brothers and I bought milk and bread with our paper money when I was 12 and he was 11. We all can't be born with a silver spoon in our mouths. That's just the way life is. Some kids would do better apprenticing out when they are younger instead of having to sit all day at school, disrupt the class, and still make bad grades. We all progress at different rates. Calluses are good for you.
Kids are already able to do jobs like delivering papers, helping out in a family business, or babysitting. I just went to a restaurant a week ago that had the two kids helping out on a busy weekend. High schools also still have OJT programs as far as I know.
The issue is allowing kids to do dangerous jobs or work hours that would negatively affect school performance. No kids “need” to work to help their parents. It isn’t their responsibility to support a family when they are 11 or 12. It’s their responsibility to go to school and learn so they can get the training/skills they need to support themselves as they get older.
Terrible idea. Nothing good about it. Where will they draw the line on what a kid will be used for in the quest for profits. We went down this road over a hundred years ago, when nine year olds were forced to work in the coal mines to pay off the debts of their fathers who were killed in mine accidents. Toxic capitalism is back. We put an end to child labor long ago, though it was highly resisted by, you guessed it, Southern states, that wanted to work Black kids in the fields for pitiful pay. Now the same Southern states are going back to their lawless way.
I agree putting 9 yo's in coal mines is beyond horrible. But allowing 14 and 15 year olds to work a little more is fine. Might be a big help to their families. Not everyone is upper middle class and doing fine and the kids prepping for college.
I think talking about the "right" of a 13 or 14 year old to work is a misnomer. The real beneficiary of such a rule are probably the parents of that child. How do you feel about their parents keeping all the wages they earn? Or, how about charging them rent since they are "working"?
Working as a teenager and earning your own money is one of your first steps towards independence and adulthood. I worked so I could have money to spend at the mall and to hang out with friends. I worked so I could have gas money, some kids work to earn money to buy a car. I earned money to start purchasing household items for when I would be able to move into my own place. Having your own money is having power to make your own decisions and not depending on parents.
And did my working indirectly help my parents? Probably. I instinctively paid school and extracurricular expenses because I just didn't want to ask them for the money. My kids did the same.
I agree putting 9 yo's in coal mines is beyond horrible. But allowing 14 and 15 year olds to work a little more is fine. Might be a big help to their families. Not everyone is upper middle class and doing fine and the kids prepping for college.
Quote:
Originally Posted by amil23
I think letting kids work at younger ages is a great idea. Any kid that wants to work and can do the work should be able to get the job. Some kids need to work to help their parents. One of my brothers and I bought milk and bread with our paper money when I was 12 and he was 11. We all can't be born with a silver spoon in our mouths. That's just the way life is. Some kids would do better apprenticing out when they are younger instead of having to sit all day at school, disrupt the class, and still make bad grades. We all progress at different rates. Calluses are good for you.
I'm not aware that anyone's objecting to letting younger kids work. The issue here is whether to allow teens to work in dangerous industrial environments.
There were a couple of kids in my neighborhood, who one weekend decided they wanted to make some money weeding yards. These were 11-year-olds! I thought it was a brilliant idea, and very age-appropriate. Perfect timing, bc my yard needed weeding. After eventually joining them to loan them some weeding tools and show them some skills for getting the deep-rooted ones, I noticed in conversation that they were pretty bright kids. It was a rewarding experience all around.
Really nice kids. But to think, that they were only 3 years away from being sent to a butchery to haul carcasses in and out of freezers and work around industrial choppers and meat grinders? No way, Jose!
According to the cases that have come to the media's attention in this regard, it was refugee kids ("illegals") who were found to be employed on meat-packing assembly lines and whatnot. Is that why some states want to change the laws? To more easily exploit the kids fleeing drug violence in their country?
Haven't those kids been through enough, making the dangerous trek alone from Central America through Mexico and somehow getting across the border unscathed? Does anyone even know if the DO make it across the border unscathed? They're highly vulnerable to falling prey to all kinds of unsavory characters en route. And their "safe havens" in the US want to send them into freezers and factories to work after school until 9 p.m., judging by some initiatives? The next thing we know, Tyson Chicken will start scooping the kids up in the border towns and bussing them to their factories. They'll be cheaper labor even than the adult illegals.
How low can America sink?
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 04-08-2023 at 08:34 AM..
What exactly was your neighbor to do? We have allowed so many illegals to cross into the country that they have decimated the legal construction, and roofing companies.
Any company trying to obey the labor laws will not last a month.
The company that did our roof did not violate any labor laws. There certainly were not any minors on our roof.
I'm not aware that anyone's objecting to letting younger kids work. The issue here is whether to allow teens to work in dangerous industrial environments.
There were a couple of kids in my neighborhood, who one weekend decided they wanted to make some money weeding yards. These were 11-year-olds! I thought it was a brilliant idea, and very age-appropriate. Perfect timing, bc my yard needed weeding. After eventually joining them to loan them some weeding tools and show them some skills for getting the deep-rooted ones, I noticed in conversation that they were pretty bright kids. It was a rewarding experience all around.
Really nice kids. But to think, that they were only 3 years away from being sent to a butchery to haul carcasses in and out of freezers and work around industrial choppers and meat grinders? No way, Jose!
These laws that were passed I doubt they were specifically written for teens to work in dangerous environments. Or if any teen would actually work that way. What has changed from 100 years ago is workers compensation. If you are an employer and hire a 14yo to work in a dangerous situation and they get hurt workers comp comes into play. And your workers comp insurance company would have to agree to cover someone that young. If they won't pay such a claim your business will be out of pocket for that. No business would take that chance.
Show me where not in theory but in practice that now 14 year olds are working in dangerous situations? Seems like a click bait story.
These laws that were passed I doubt they were specifically written for teens to work in dangerous environments. Or if any teen would actually work that way. What has changed from 100 years ago is workers compensation. If you are an employer and hire a 14yo to work in a dangerous situation and they get hurt workers comp comes into play. And your workers comp insurance company would have to agree to cover someone that young. If they won't pay such a claim your business will be out of pocket for that. No business would take that chance.
Show me where not in theory but in practice that now 14 year olds are working in dangerous situations? Seems like a click bait story.
Excerpt: "The laws take aim at the number of hours that children are allowed to work and protect employers from liabilities due to sickness or accidents. In the case of the latter, those employer protections dovetail with the kind of dangerous industries the bills are looking to prop up: construction in Minnesota, and meatpacking plants in Iowa. The bills come as efforts to expand legal working ages in other states have ramped up recently, and as the US has seen an increase in child labor violations since 2015."
They want kids to work long hours and employers to NOT be responsible if kids get hurt. This is just plain sick.
Better wages and health care benefits will get adults off their duffs and back into the workforce.
It would help of we had more vo-tech training so young people could enter the construction workforce after high school. I worked in a housing plant a couple of summers while in junior college and trust me, no 14-year-old should be swinging a hammer except maybe for building a 4-H project chicken coop in their back yard while under adult supervision, and certainly should not be hopping across on attic rafters or trying to handle pneumatically operated air nailers.
I can see some kids working, as in some family businesses. We patronized a Mexican restaurant in Colorado Springs where the kids did their homework at one table while the parents ran the eatery and the kids would help out by clearing the dirty dishes off the tables after patrons finished. But the kids did not work in the kitchen with knives or around hot ovens and range tops. Common sense is key here. There are some relatively benign situations where a mid-teen could work, but still, their education should remain paramount; a poorly literate adult is not much of an asset to our nation.
I want the vo-tech training on a wide scale so we can stop importing skilled construction workers from south of the border.
For me it boils down to how employers look for ways to cut corners on costs and safety no matter the damage to OUR kids/adult workers or the community or the harm it does to the nation from having so many imported workers. The present situation amounts to the old game of privatizing profits and socializing the costs onto the backs of taxpayers.
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