One of the surprising changes to the budget bill was an amendment loosening Wisconsin’s child labor laws. Without any hearing or opportunity for public debate on the issue, the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) approved an amendment significantly reducing the constraints on hours that may be worked by children.

The JFC amendment, which is now law, eliminates the restriction that 16- and 17-year-olds cannot work more than 8 hours per day, nor more than 6 days or 40 hours per week. It removes any restrictions on their total hours, but adds a prohibition against permitting a minor to be employed during the hours when the minor is required to attend school.

In addition, the JFC amendment removes the former standard that children under age 16 cannot be employed (except on farms and in domestic service) for more than 24 hours per week. Instead, it allows young children to work up to 40 hours per week, but not more than 3 hours on a school day or 18 hours during a school week. At the beginning of each budget, the Joint Finance Committee typically deletes from the budget a long list of non-fiscal policy items recommended by the Governor. Removing those items reflects a bipartisan consensus that the budget process prevents such measures from getting the deliberative consideration that should be given to all legislation. This year the JCF deleted 24 non-fiscal policy items. Unfortunately, as the child labor changes illustrate, non-fiscal changes are sometimes added late during the budget deliberations, and that practice ensures that there will almost no opportunity for meaningful public review and comment.

Supporters of the child labor changes, such as the Wisconsin Grocers Association, contend the new law will provide employers with needed flexibility and will eliminate confusion between state and federal limits on child labor. Opponents argue that the changes are likely to induce some minors to devote more time to employment rather than their education, and the changes enable employers to pressure children to work longer hours.

A recent article by Derek Spellman in The Verona Press does a nice job of covering both sides of the issue. He quotes Reid Maki, coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition of the National Consumers League, who said his organization’s “concern is that there is a body of research out there that if kids start to work more than 20 hours per week” then they begin to suffer academically. In response to the argument that parents, rather than the state, should set limits on their children’s hours of employment, Maki argued that although most parents are good, not all are, and the child labor laws are written for the latter group.

WCCF did not formally take a position on the labor law changes, in part because their late addition to the budget didn’t give us an opportunity to hear and balance the arguments on both sides of the issue. However, in a Capital Times article that quoted me, I expressed strong reservations about making changes that could lead some 16- and 17-year-olds to put earning pocket money ahead of their high school studies.

Looking forward, we hope that the results of these changes will be closely monitored. And we hope that legislators will stop inserting non-fiscal policy into the budget, to the detriment of thorough legislative review and public involvement.

Jon Peacock

Tomorrow—Way #20: Tax Breaks for Corporation and the Wealthy

About the series: “31 Ways in 31 Days” is a series of posts to the WCCF blog exploring the recently-passed biennial budget’s impact on children and families in Wisconsin. Each day in July, we are posting a description of one way the budget will affect kids and families, with an eye toward what should be done going forward to help improve outcomes and move us closer to the goal of making Wisconsin a place where every child has the opportunity to grow up, learn, and thrive in a safe, healthy, economically secure home and community.