You feel your feet heavy from standing around all day at your job, and all that has been on your mind is a warm and crisp Chick-fil-A sandwich. So, you decide to drive to the nearest restaurant, get out of your vehicle and dine in. As you open the door to the front entrance, your stomach growls as the wonderful aroma hits your nose. You keep walking and catch a glimpse of the worker when you suddenly halt and cannot help but be dazed at what you see behind the counter. You rub your eyes in confusion and open them again to confirm your suspicion that there is a child behind the counter in that familiar red uniform ready to serve you.
Lawmakers in the U.S. over the past few years have been pushing to weaken child labor laws in several states. Many states are allowing children as young as 14, and in some cases even younger, to work in places such as retail and fast food. Even worse, these bills that were passed allow children to work in even worse environments, such as meat coolers and industrial laundries. We are seeing this trend mostly with Republican lawmakers who think children should be in the workforce, arguing that we should not prevent teens from “valuable job experience because of their age.” Valuable job experience in fast food? They are children, and they should not have to worry about a lousy minimum-wage job.
Another reason lawmakers have been pushing for this bill is a rise in teenagers aged 16 to 19 not working because they are choosing to focus on their studies. This trend should be admired as kids try to focus more on school than minimum-wage jobs. Having a minimum wage job after school is the worst, as you rarely have time to put into school. It is good that we are seeing this increase, but even then, we are seeing a major increase in child labor law violations throughout the workforce. There were 3,876 cases in 2022 alone in the U.S., in which nearly 700 minors were found to be working in hazardous workplaces.
It feels that as a country we are regressing to the Gilded Age, putting our kids in dangerous situations just for $7.25/hr. These cases are astounding as children in middle school should not be in the workforce and in such dangerous conditions. Many of these laws are being used to cover up other issues instead of fixing them by preying on the most vulnerable age group who can be subject to exploitation. Instead of passing laws to put children in the workforce, our governments should focus on regaining adults in the workforce by paying them fairly and treating them right. The need for children in the workplace is a response to older teenagers and young adults not working, but kids should not be the answer to solving our problems.
