MADISON, Wis. – At the urging of Wisconsin employers, Republicans in the Legislature have proposed eliminating restrictions on hiring 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds. The sponsors said the current youth work permits are a “needless administrative barriers that slow down the hiring process.” The sponsors: Senator Cory Tomczyk of Mosinee and Representatives Amy Binsfeld of Sheboygan and Clint Moses of Menomonie. Their bill would end requirements for a work permit or parental permission. In unveiling their proposal, the sponsors said: “It’s important that young people have the opportunity to work without having to endure excessive government regulation.” If bill passed, the bill would mean Wisconsin would have be the lowest such age hiring limit in the nation.
National GOP move
The Wisconsin bill rubberstamps a national Republican initiative for hiring kids to work longer hours and in more hazardous occupations. Their argument: Looser age-dependent hiring rules would help employers deal with worker shortages. Backers also say early work experience is valuable for kids. Iowa adopted such a law in May. Similar GOP legislation is active in 14 other states.
Especially ill-timed?
The work change is oddly timed. A teenager, Michael Schuls, 16, was killed in a wood-stacking machine at a factory near Viroqua in May. In February a Wisconsin-based company, Packers Sanitation, was fined $15 million by the U.S. Labor Department for violating federal child-labor laws at slaughterhouses. More than 100 teens, ages 13 to 17, were in overnight industrial clean-up jobs with dangerous chemicals.