Bloomberg News reports that the U.S. Department of Labor has proposed reducing regulations that prevent teens from working in dangerous jobs.
The Labor Department plans to unwind decades-old youth labor protections by allowing teenagers to work longer hours under some of the nation’s most hazardous workplace conditions, sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg Law.
The DOL will propose relaxing current rules—known as Hazardous Occupations Orders (HOs)—that prohibit 16- and 17-year-old apprentices and student learners from receiving extended, supervised training in certain dangerous jobs, said the two sources. That includes roofing work, as well as operating chainsaws, and various other power-driven machines that federal law recognizes as too dangerous for youth younger than 18.
The sources’ accounts were corroborated by a summary of a draft regulation obtained by Bloomberg Law.
“The Department proposes to safely launch more family-sustaining careers by removing current regulatory restrictions on the amount of time that apprentices and student learners may perform HO-governed work,” the DOL states in the summary.
It appears that the current administration won’t rest until every piece of progressive legislation and regulation of the past century has been erased.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But these “kids” working these dangerous jobs should still have to wait for a bathroom escort when they’re at school.
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Perfect, because nothing says social progress quite like the weakening of child labor laws.
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…because it is obviously safety regulations that are preventing young people from finding empoyment. :0/
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Maybe the purpose of this new approach is to recruit child labor to replace the deported immigrants in hazardous jobs. I wonder if they need parental consent.
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That sounds about right, Diane.
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Federal child labor laws vary by age, with some laws for work at age 14.
The following website lists federal Child Labor laws for 17 occupations banned for persons under the age of 18, many with some exceptions.
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=c4387a34fcaa0b36d657d3574da730e4&node=pt29.3.570&rgn=div5#sp29.3.570.e
States also have rules regarding the employment of young workers. In addition, some states have separate minimum wage requirements. The federal website says: “When federal and state rules are different, the rules that provide the most protection will apply. Be sure to find out about the rules in your state.”
https://www.youthrules.gov/law-library/state-laws/index.htm
This proposed action is consistent with ALEC’s drive for deregulation of “occupational” licenses. https://www.alec.org/model-policy/occupational-board-reform-act/
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It is interesting to see how agriculture is subject to special rules. Children working on family farms are exempt from all the rules, and children must be at least 14 to drive a tractor or hay baler if a 4H member and having passed a required safety course. There are no safety courses that would allow a child under 18 to operate a paper baler.
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What is the difference between a hay baler and a paper baler?
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Then how about putting Trump’s grandkids to WORK? What about politicians’ grandkids and children? Good GRIEF.
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Like any of these people ever did any of these jobs, ever, in their lifetimes.
They’re okay with it because it will never be THEIR kid in this kind of training. Not their kids and not the kids of anyone they know, or have ever met.
It’s all abstract to them. They are as far removed from their constituents as it is possible to be and still live in the same country.
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This is another reckless, bone headed idea from the king of bone spurs that enabled #45 to escape from serving his country in Vietnam.
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Coddled, fancy people sitting around opining about how “kids these days” don’t work hard enough.
And they all inherited wealth.
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I’m sure the Trump kids didn’t spend their summers in high school on a scaffold washing the windows of Trump tower, but it is OK for other people’s children.
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Why am I not surprised?
What’s next? Lowering the minimum age for employment so businesses can hire 12 years olds to, oh, climb scaffolding, operate buzz saws, use jackhammers? I mean, they would be a lot cheaper than adults, right?
Oy! 😟
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Inhaling mercury vapors is dangerous. Coal mining is dangerous. Working on a chemical plant is dangerous. Chainsaw is perfectly ok for anyone with some brains and ability to hold the chainsaw. It is exactly the current laws that prevent so-called children – they are not children at 16 anymore – to do even simplest jobs that caused these “children” to feel self-entitled and spend too much time on social media sites instead of doing what children are meant for – helping their parents. The whole “children are flowers” is an aberration of the last century. The whole prior development of the humanity sees that families give birth to three, five, seven or more children, whose primary mission is to help out, to be breadwinners.
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Please, sir, may I have another bowl of gruel?
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Yeh, Duane, he’s pretty much a troll.
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The whole “prior development” where families had huge numbers of children who were put to work, also had large numbers of children die.
From disease, from accidents, from infections or tetanus if they cut themselves.
And, BTW, our kids helped us raise beef cattle, helped grow and weed our large garden, did a lot of the canning and preserving, helped bale and stack hay, drove a tractor, cut the grass, so they were not “flowers.” But we were very careful to supervise them and teach them safety techniques. I would never trust some business or farm who wanted to hire teenagers to work with certain machinery, to properly train and supervise them.
He!!, a lot of places don’t properly train their adults. Industrial accidents happen, people get maimed and killed. I don’t want that happening to children, and if you think it’s okay, then I hope to G-d you don’t have any kids.
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So, driving a tractor is safer than using a chainsaw? I’d say pretty much the same. Point being, the jobs that fifty years ago were done by middle-school or high-school kids are now being done by immigrants. Not that I am against the immigrants, I am just saying that adolescents have fewer options to earn their own money – and to help their families – nowadays compared to even half a century ago.
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I’m done replying to you.
If you don’t already have kids, get your tubes tied.
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Your ignorance is pathetic. Any occupation that entails working with machinery be it cutting tools like a chainsaw or farm equipment is dangerous . The farm equipment on family farms was exempted for political expediency to get the support of farm state senators for child labor laws . Not because it was not dangerous to children .
Logging , Construction , any industry using the cutting type tools like the chainsaw have the highest rates of fatal and non fatal record-able injuries . Although the largest cause of injuries is trips and falls in workplaces that use these tools ,the tools go hand in hand with the industry . NYC construction site see 15-20 fatalities a year 100s of very serious injuries and thousands of injuries that OSHA considers to be record-able . Meaning that the worker had to receive medical treatment and was not able to return right to work “lost time. ”
The occasional use of a Chain Saw or a power cutting tool in the home is even dangerous unless done with parental supervision and even then it can be a problem . I defy you to walk on to a major construction site without finding several men missing fingers .
“During the five-year time period, there were an estimated 115,895 emergency department visits for injuries related to the use of a chain saw occurring in the US. This yielded an average annual frequency of 23,179 injuries.”
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/aem/2015/459697/
Don’t Come back again
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Any child protection laws must come with funding, facilities, and just things to do instead of performing a dangerous job – you cannot simply feed them, you need them to do something, otherwise they go crazy of boredom. Now, what exactly are you suggesting they do? Bunch up into traveling bands or choruses? How about a boot camp – soon the country will need boots on the ground in Iran. Oh, I see, their primary job is to graduate school. Says who? Why do they need to spend thirteen years learning very basic math and reading skills? Many of them cannot even read by the end of high school, at the same time their parents work two, three jobs just to have food on the table.
Point being, without a comprehensive system of providing things to do (might as well call them “jobs”) as well as money to get by (might as well call it “salary”) the protection laws are not worth the paper they are written on.
This is basically what Diane has been talking for the last decade – poverty is the root cause of most issues. One would not have to get a job on a construction site if their parents had a decent job and income. So don’t get angry with the messenger. It is the system which is rotten.
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BackAgain
As for boots on the ground in Iran I propose to have you carrying the flag at the head of the line . As for the needs of the parents to send children into the work force if workers had the ability to secure a decent wage from employment than that would not be a problem . I propose the guillotine as the solution for income inequality .
Perhaps you were bored and going crazy, I rather enjoyed my youth and it included a part time job in HS as probably did the youth of most on this page. . There are plenty of opportunities for part time youth employment that do not include dangerous employment. . The problem may be that a failed economy has adults including teachers in the sh*t hole states working two or three part time jobs.
But the bare facts remain to be dealt with . You propose adding children to a labor force that is really not creating enough jobs or to rephrase that a labor force whose unemployment rate is improving only because the employment rate is dropping . There is a reason that wages are stagnant and that is to be found in the worker to population ratios which are lower for prime age workers and for all workers as older workers retire . Into this mix you propose sending children into the workforce to do jobs that adults would be doing at a higher wage.
“If you compare today’s numbers to December 2000, the picture is even more striking.
The labor force participation rate in Dec. 2000 was 67%. Today it is just 62.8%.
The employment-to-population ratio then was 64.4%. Now it’s 60.3%.
The population not in the labor force — they don’t have jobs and aren’t looking — has climbed a stunning 25.3 million over those years.
Think about it this way. If the labor force participation rate were the same today as it was in December 2000, the unemployment rate wouldn’t be 3.9%. It would be 10%!
Yes, many who’ve left the labor force over the past 18 years are baby boomers entering retirement. But that doesn’t come close to explaining the massive increase in labor dropouts.
For example, the labor force participation rate among 20- to 24-year-olds was 78% in December 2000. It’s just 71% today. For those 25-34 years old, the rate declined from 85% to 83%.
In contrast, among those 55 and older, the participation rate increased — going from 33% in December 2000 to 40% now.
Clearly, there are still millions of potential workers sitting on the sidelines.. ”
Like I said don’t come BackAgain .
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/unemployment-jobs-economy-wages/
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I think farm equipment on family farms was also exempted because it would be impossible to enforce.
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Good gawd, MORE THAN SICK. My stomach is turning.
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Agree, Yvonne. First, ruining education for “other people’s children,” now planning child labor.
This is America?
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A modest proposal…
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Next up, bring back lead paint.
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TC,
We could start a list of old time things likely to make a comeback as regulations are repealed.
How about DDT? How about spraying our food with toxins as it is growing?
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Love it .
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The first child that gets maimed or killed because of these new regulations is on their heads.
Many of these laws were put in place for a reason – they didn’t just say “hey, how else can we reduce family and child job training and job opportunities”
At least address the reason the regulation/law was enacted and then address either how it no longer applies or will be mitigated in a better way.
Just saying it’s preventing “opportunity” for these children is laughable. What do they have in mind, the plethora of children whose father owns a tree cutting/lumberjack business that they desperately need to help with?
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Businesses can easily exploit young workers. Years ago, I lobbied against loosening of child labor laws in our state legislature. Business lobbyists who complained about low test scores nevertheless thought teens should be allowed to work til 1 a.m. on school nights and up to 40 hours a week. Thankfully the legislature was persuaded that education is students’ first and most important job, but now that there are fewer immigrants to exploit, I guess I’m not surprised by efforts to find other victims to exploit.
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Okay so I have been having this running debate with my “Problem Solver” .Democratic Congressman about skills and the work force and the role of education in society. My position has been that the Skills shortage is mostly a convenient myth, that workers do not lack skills they lack the political power to secure a fair share of the economic pie.
We do not have 6 million unfilled jobs that are taking long periods to fill because of a lack of skills . We have 6 million people leaving the work force quitting, being fired, retiring and employers replacing them monthly with 6 million other people. . 3 million of those jobs caught in that monthly churn are in sectors that require very little skills or pay at the lowest end of the wage scale. . But even if we do have skills shortages in some sectors of the economy, it would be difficult to have our schools meet the needs of individual employers especially when the nature of the work place keeps changing and what guarantee is that employer giving that he will not relocate. . Till the early 90s, 80% of employers provided worker training today the number is fewer than 50 %.
And how do we train workers in NY for specific jobs in Indiana located a hundred miles from nowhere for low wages and to avoid Unions. As they then are complaining of worker shortages. Why we even have a shortage of teachers something that never used to be a problem. And still isn’t in wealthy suburbs of NYC. We churned out teachers easily, till we stopped paying them. My position schools are responsible for educating children to become adults who then are capable of learning specific skills after they graduate. Adults, who may in the course of their lives, have to retrain either with the same employer or in a new career several times.
So his aide sends me an email last week asking me what I thought of the German apprentice programs. Keep in mind I had a 5 year apprenticeship after I graduated collage. My response was that the Germans at very an early age put their children into different tracks. That inherently that will fall on working class children and not the wealthy. That if you want to adopt the German model, why not adopt everything from the social welfare programs, to labor law and the Unionization rate . That Germany’s
economic power is due to a hell of a lot more factors than their education system and just like the America of 1950 – 1975 there is no more guarantee that Germany will remain an economic and manufacturing powerhouse in the future, employing humans, than there was for the industrial heartland
Then I saw a reference to this proposal yesterday on Facebook I sent an email link out and said if my Democratic Congressman signs on to this and this what he had in mind.
Tell Tom I am going to shove my foot where the sun doesn’t shine.
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“That if you want to adopt the German model, why not adopt everything from the social welfare programs, to labor law and the Unionization rate.” Indeed, why not adopt everything? It is a system. Cannot have child labor protection laws without letting them do something meaningful.
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They are doing something meaningful . They are going to school and being young adults . Perhaps we should allow them to vote at 16 and to drink ,after all if it is good enough for adults it is good enough for children .
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@Joel Herman: Perhaps. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/learning/should-the-voting-age-be-lowered-to-16.html If young adults are treated like normal people, states would not have to institute free-range laws: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/05/08/free-to-roam-utahs-first-of-its-kind-free-range-parenting-law-takes-effect/
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So we have restricted access to the most dangerous occupations and with that we have injury numbers 2. times higher than that found in adults. and we have some fools who favor putting children on construction sites. Even 20 – 24 year old’s are more likely to get injured than 25 year old’s
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/youth/default.html
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