The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Possible Connecticut youth labor study sparks debate of ‘slippery slope’
Teenagers 18 and under who are looking for paid work in Connecticut can take any number of available jobs, as long as they meet certain requirements. Now, some state legislators want to learn more about their employment options, and the possibility of expanding them.
The General Assembly’s Commerce Committee is reviewing a bill that calls for a study of what jobs can be done by certain minors, in accordance with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and related regulations. As job shortages persist in Connecticut, some business groups have argued that bolstering job opportunities for teens could not only help to tackle the labor shortage seen in some industries, but also help teenagers gain important work experience. Other groups are concerned, however, that a new study could pave the way for loosening youth-labor regulations — a trend that has already emerged across several other states.
“We’ve all been horrified with the stories of the slaughterhouses (in other states) and the exploitation of child labor,” state Rep. Stephen Meskers, D-Greenwich, and co-chairman of the Commerce Committee said during a public hearing Tuesday. “Where I’m interested is providing both a learning experience and, at some level, paid experience, at very limited scope.”
The bill has emerged after several other states have passed legislation to let children work in more hazardous occupations, for longer hours on school nights and in expanded roles. In Iowa, for instance, a law signed last year by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, includes a provision that allows 16- and 17-yearolds to work under certain conditions in fields such as manufacturing.
At the same time, reports have emerged in recent months of some employers in other states allegedly flouting the law by using minors to do dangerous work in settings such as meatpacking plants.
In Connecticut, the regulations for work done by minors includes the state Department of Education’s issuance of “working papers” for 14year-olds to work as caddies or in the pro shops of golf courses, and for 15-year-olds to work in that capacity, “or in mercantile/retail environments,” according to a summary on the state Department of Labor’s website. Working papers for 14- and 15-year-olds, “are not issued under any other circumstances but for the above mentioned,” while there are a number of other permitted occupations for 14and 15-year-olds that do not require such documentation, the summary adds.
State Labor Department data on the number of minors working in Connecticut was not immediately available.
Even with the regulations that are in place, several people who testified at Tuesday’s hearing expressed concerns that a study could lead to a rollback of reforms passed during the 20th century that largely stamped out dangerous child labor that had been prevalent in places such as factories, farms and mines.
“Some may suggest this bill is merely a study, an innocuous piece of legislation that amounts to little,” said Ed Hawthorne, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, a federation of hundreds of local unions that represent almost 250,000 active and retired workers. “I suggest to you that acting on this bill begins a slippery slope of eroding child-labor protections that would a send a clear message about our values as a state. And we urge you to reject it.”
Another constituent who testified against the bill, Rick Melita, cited the reports of child-labor exploitation in other states.
“I suppose one could turn a blind eye to their suffering … if you don’t care about brown children, or if you only care about more affordable Cheetos or boosting quarterly profits,” Melita said. “We should be strengthening child protections rather than seeking loopholes.”
“I don’t think your concerns are different than our concerns,”
Meskers said, in response to Melita’s testimony. “The idea of camp counselors, 15-years-old and 16-years-old, I don’t know if that’s a slippery slope … But I certainly don’t want to see children in industrial jobs, I don’t want to see loss of life, I don’t want to see loss of education or people taken advantage of.”
State Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury and committee co-chairwoman, cited lifeguard as an acceptable job for teenagers, including those as young as 15, as long as they had adult supervision.
The need for teen lifeguards increased during the past few years because, “we found that during the pandemic and right after that, we actually couldn’t staff our parks and rec facilities,” Hartley said. “And we recognized how important it is to be able to (offer) summer programs, where so many of our kids learn to swim.”
Department of Labor Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo also expressed doubts about the bill. She said that her misgivings focus on the study’s requirement for the agency to review statutes and regulations not under its jurisdiction and the workload that it would place on her staff.
If the bill were passed as it’s now written, “it would require CTDOL to produce a study that would contain information that is already available through existing statutes and regulations,” Bartolomeo said
in written testimony. “It would also add a significant workload, absent funding, to a unit with no additional capacity.”
The Connecticut Business & Industry Association, which has thousands of member companies, is the only group so far that has come out in support of the bill. Ashley Zane, a government affairs associate for CBIA, cited the state’s labor shortage with an estimated total of about 94,000 job openings in December. She also pointed to studies that showed work experience could be beneficial for teenagers’ professional and social development.
“Employers are able to identify talent and make investments earlier in the future workforce, and young adults have the ability to determine if the position is a viable
career option for them,” Zane said in written testimony. “The average college graduate in Connecticut will graduate with $35,162 in student loan debt with less than half of all students currently working in the field of study. Early work experience may help countless students evaluate their path and make more informed decisions.”
Zane also said that CBIA wanted any jobs taken by teenagers to complement their academic work.
The Commerce Committee has not yet voted on the bill. It has a March 26 deadline to move the bill out of committee to the floor of the General Assembly for consideration.