Republicans are fixing our labor problems.

[faethor]

See being restricted from hiring children must be hurting our nation! I'm assuming Missouri Republican Jane Cunningham believes the US to have a labor shortage and we should therefore not restrict child labor. That'd be unfair to businesses.

Reminds me of the time our own loonie Michele Bachmann stated all employment problems would be fixed if the USA was to eliminate the minimum wage.

 

[redrumloa]

This part makes no sense and I question why anyone would advocate it.

This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen.

The rest makes complete sense.

Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

Teenagers often work even while going to school, simple fact. I had my first job at 13 and pretty much worked through adulthood. My daughter just got her first job at 17, my 14 year old son wants to get a job. Their school grades are very good and are well rounded kids.

 

[cecilia]

I've no problem with kids WHO are IN School taking part time jobs.

but what if there are illegal children who are not going to school? they now can easily become slave labor to managers who want cheap, desperate labor.

while I was in LA I often saw sweat shops getting busted by the cops

if companies can only hired kids IF they are registered in a school and ONLY for part time work will that prevent people from abusing others??

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

This is wonderful. Now children are no longer a burden. Single mothers can send their kids out to pick fruit or get into those hard to reach places in the mines, etc and get off the public dole. The more kids they have the better. Kid's also have no idea of the value of money and can be had for a pittance.

I can't see any better way to solve the massive labour shortage facing the nation. It's like there is absolutely nobody left who isn't already working 24 hours a day. That's why the unemployment rate is currently zero.

 

[redrumloa]

This is wonderful. Now children are no longer a burden. Single mothers can send their kids out to pick fruit or get into those hard to reach places in the mines, etc and get off the public dole. The more kids they have the better. Kid's also have no idea of the value of money and can be had for a pittance.

I can't see any better way to solve the massive labour shortage facing the nation. It's like there is absolutely nobody left who isn't already working 24 hours a day. That's why the unemployment rate is currently zero.

What an exaggeration! This does not change laws requiring children to attend school or laws against child abuse.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

What an exaggeration!

Today it is. Everything is done in steps. Can you remember what the US was like in the mid nineties? Pretty different. Bet your kids can't remember it though. There is an agenda at play and if you lok back over the years you can see the general direction it's going in. Think it's stopped?

 

[metalman]

Reminds me of the time our own loonie Michele Bachmann stated all employment problems would be fixed if the USA was to eliminate the minimum wage.

The effect of a minimum wage is a classic example of the law of unintended consequences. Minimum wages laws create unemployment. The unemployment burden falls mostly on young workers and people with few skills. The minimum wage, in other words, prices young low skilled workers from the job market.

Between 2007 and 2009 the federal minimum wage increased by 41%, from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour. Approximately 98,000 jobs--a 6.9% reduction in employment among 16- to 19-year-old workers occurred in the states affected by all three stages of the federal minimum wage hike.

The latest government stats show an unemployment rate of 9.7% among adult males and 7.9% among adult females. The teenage unemployment rate is 26%. Unemployment for black teens is 40%.

An individual will not be hired at minimum wage if an employer feels that he is unlikely to produce at least that much value. This is common business sense. Thus, individuals whom employers perceive to be incapable of producing value at the arbitrarily set minimum wage rate are not hired at all, and people who could have been employed at market wages are left unemployed, the least experienced, least skilled, and least productive workers.

Minimum-wage legislation is and always has been the result of special-interest politics. Behind the rhetoric of economic justice and fairness lie purely self-serving political considerations of organized labor. Labor unions and their members are the most obvious beneficiaries of government-imposed minimum wages. As the established elite of the workforce, union members are on the high end of the minimum wage's redistribution process. Higher wages can be obtained by excluding other workers from the labor markets. Although unions already hold privileged positions in labor markets, minimum wages further increase their gains by raising employers' labor costs, using government policy to eliminate those who might undercut the union wage.

Government cannot create wealth by passing minimum wage laws. Otherwise, Congress would long ago have passed laws prohibiting poverty and establishing a minimum wage of $1,000 an hour. In such a world, everyone could be a millionaire.