Government

Iowa Legislators Invite 9th Graders To Make Factory Work Great Again

We all rise together. But if you fall, you fall on your parent's health insurance policy.

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What the 21st century really needs is more children working in heavy industry, said no sane person. And yet that’s exactly what some Iowa Republicans are proposing in laws pending before both houses of the state’s legislature.

No longer will 14-year-olds be excluded from toiling in industrial laundries or meat freezers if Republican Senator Jason Schultz gets his way. Fifteen-year-olds will be entrusted to keep you safe from drowning at the pool as lifeguards. And with a simple waiver from the labor commissioner, they’ll even be allowed to work in light assembly and load objects weighing up to 50 lbs. Live your dream, kids!

Eighth graders will learn responsibility by working six hours after school, as the good Lord intended. It’s just like in the Bible where Jesus said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Only heaven is a bar where 16- and 17-year-olds will be able to serve alcohol with a parent or guardian’s permission.

And if your kid is blessed enough to get into a program of “work-based learning or a school or employer-administered, work-related program approved by the department of workforce development or the department of education,” then the director of the department of workforce development or department of education can waive all the rules and let your 14-year-old work in any business where there is “adequate supervision.” Hosanna!

But wait, there’s more! As an added incentive to these businesses to teach your teen a trade, the bill shields them from almost all civil liability for harms befalling your kid, even those caused by the business’s negligence.

A business that accepts a secondary student in a work-based learning program shall not be subject to civil liability for any claim for bodily injury to the student or sickness or death by accident of the student arising from the business’s negligent act or omission during the student’s participation in the work-based learning program at the business or worksite.

As non-profit news outlet Iowa Starting Line points out, this would exclude kids from worker’s compensation and make their families individually liable for on-the-job injuries.

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Verily, Iowa is a paradise on earth, or it will be when they pass Senate File 167. Shine on, Hawkeyes.

Bill Expands Iowa Child Labor, Limits Teens’ Protection If Hurt [IA Starting Line]
The good and the bad of Iowa’s bill that would bring big changes to child labor laws [Des Moines Register]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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