Loosening Child Labor Laws Put Kids At Risk Say Critics

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

Child labor violations are on the rise across the country. Yet Republicans in multiple states are working to roll back regulations for underaged workers, including lowering age limits, removing restrictions for dangerous work and extending allowable work hours, including on school nights. Critics say the new laws endanger children, depress wages and make it harder for regulatory officials to catch bad actors. California may have stronger regulations by comparison, but we’ll explore the limits of the state’s oversight and the conditions that push so many children into the workforce. Guests: Jacob Bogage, business and technology reporter, The Washington Post Hernan Hernandez, executive director, The California Farmworker Foundation Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns, United Farm Workers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:32.1	From KQED.
0:37.1	The From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Rachel Myro in for Mina Kim.
0:53.7	Coming up on forum, you could be forgiven
0:56.2	for thinking up until a few weeks ago that child labor, especially in dangerous industries,
1:02.3	was a thing of the past, something America put behind it around the turn of the last century.
1:08.2	But as corporate lobbyists and Republican lawmakers roll back legal
1:12.4	protections in state after state, it's becoming clear the past is present, right here, even in
1:18.6	California, where child labor rules may be stronger on paper, but don't deter kids, especially in
1:24.3	agricultural communities, from taking on arduous jobs.
1:28.2	We'll learn more after this news.
1:35.9	This is Forum. I'm Rachel Myro in for Mina Kim.
1:39.8	Blame demographics.
1:41.6	Blame the lack of comprehensive immigration reform for more than 30 years.
1:46.4	Whatever the case, there's just not enough working-age adults to do all the work that needs to be
1:52.1	done in America today, especially the dangerous labor, the tedious labor, the labor that happens
1:58.3	out in the hot sun day after day. For a variety of reasons,
	...

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