Alarming growth in exploitative child labor is already a problem in Kentucky, with violations rising and the state making national news on the issue. A nationwide effort funded by corporate interest groups is seeking to roll back child labor laws across many states. Here in the commonwealth, House Bill (HB) 255 would wipe out any state child labor regulations and laws that exceed the modest federal floor, immediately removing limits on the already expansive hours kids may work and even opening the door to employers exposing kids to additional hazardous types of work. The bill will fuel more school dropouts and create dangerous workplaces for children and their co-workers.
Bill allows employers to schedule kids for unlimited hours
HB 255 repeals the child labor regulation that establishes standards for employment of minors and eliminates the state statute that allows the Commissioner of Workplace Standards to promulgate future protections for children in the workforce they may deem necessary. This ties the state’s hands in its ability to respond to changes in technology and workplace conditions in order to keep kids safe in the future.
One immediate effect of this change would be to eliminate already broad guardrails on the hours and days of the week 16- and 17-year-old kids may be scheduled to work. HB 255 would:
- Allow employers to schedule teens for unlimited hours of work per day, even on school days and perhaps even during hours school is in session. Under the current regulations, employers can already schedule these teens for up to six hours on school days and six-and-a-half with parental permission (or up to eight hours a day on weekends). Additionally, the current regulations only allow scheduling 16- and 17-year-olds to work hours outside of the school day.
- Allow employers to schedule teens for unlimited hours of work per week even while school is in session. Currently law already allows employers to schedule teens for up to 30 hours a week, or 32.5 hours with parental permission, and even up to 40 hours a week with parental permission and a 2.0 grade point average.
- Allow employers to schedule teens for late or overnight shifts, including on school nights. Currently, employers must limit teens’ work hours on school days to between 6 a. m. and 10:30 p.m., or 11:00 p.m. with parental permission, and as late as 1:00 am on days not preceding a school day.
The House Committee substitute to HB 255 also creates more avenues where kids younger than 16 can work hours beyond what is allowed under federal law, including for children who have been expelled from school or have a child to support.
HB 255 allows kids to work hazardous occupations prohibited under federal law
In addition, HB 255 permits kids under the age of 16 to be employed in more types of jobs that are currently disallowed under state and federal law because they are considered hazardous. That list includes use of power-driven mowers and cutters; car repair work involving the use of lifting apparatuses; catching and cooping poultry in preparation for transport or for market; certain occupations in manufacturing, communications and public utilities; youth peddling and public messenger services; loading and unloading of goods or property; and other occupations the U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) deems to be hazardous.
These activities would put Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)-covered employers in Kentucky (most employers) in violation of federal law. But creating lower state standards than federal law creates confusion, HB 255 bars the state from referencing federal law in its enforcement, and the federal government has less capacity to enforce its labor standards than the state’s already limited capacity.
HB 255 will fuel more dropouts and workplace injuries
We know that helping kids become ready for careers or for college through high school is essential to their success in life. And research shows that “teenagers who spent long hours in jobs were more likely to drop out of high school than those who worked moderate hours or did not work at all.” Allowing additional hours and days of work will impinge on success in preparing for postsecondary education or vocational pathways to good jobs following high school. Already, there are 19,000 Kentucky kids ages 16 to 19 who are not in school or working, and this bill will exacerbate that problem, threatening the progress Kentucky has made in graduation rates in recent decades.
In addition, allowing employers to work kids longer hours will harm children and their fellow workers by increasing the likelihood of workplace injuries. Kids need more sleep because their minds and bodies are still growing, and young workers are less experienced with the equipment and processes involved in any workplace. Allowing additional hours of work on top of school hours, and work through the night, will increase the likelihood of injury for these kids and put their fellow workers at additional risk.
The new hazardous occupations allowable for younger kids under HB 255 are particularly alarming. Jobs like mowing and weedeating or working at a poultry factory farm are inherently dangerous. Over the summer, the DOL issued a statement urging landscaping employers to do more to protect their workers, who face hazards from vehicles, chemicals, machines, blades, water hazards, animals and insects, power lines and heat. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 1,072 fatalities in landscaping work over a recent decade, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls landscaping “one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States,” as recent deaths in Kentucky have shown. The DOL statement advised “landscaping employers who hire young people for summer jobs to be aware of federal law that restricts employees under age 17 from working in hazardous occupations.”
Bill is part of national corporate effort to eliminate child and worker protections
The Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission report for January shows that HB 255 is being lobbied on by the Opportunity Solutions Project (OSP), also known as the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA). OSP/FGA is a Florida-based think tank that has been behind efforts in the Kentucky legislature to slash unemployment insurance, food assistance and other forms of aid to workers, including HB 367 to cut SNAP aid this legislative session and for which they recently testified in committee. OSP/FGA is also involved in efforts to roll back child labor laws in other places. A total of 28 states have introduced bills to weaken these laws in recent years, even while 14 states have introduced legislation to do the exact opposite and strengthen child labor protections.
Kentucky shouldn’t follow the direction of an out-of-state interest group, voluntarily cut off its ability to protect kids from the growing problem of exploitative child labor, and further hinder the ability of children to make a successful transition into a healthy and thriving adulthood. But that’s exactly what HB 255 will do.
