5 ms·

US child labour violations rise as businesses defy laws to fill roles

34 points by pera 4y ago

mistrial9 4y ago
in my lifetime, "illegal" workers went from What? to So What. I mean every State in the USA, most cities, many street corners.. How can anyone talk about labor economics without starting with this..
- tstrimple 4y ago
  We can’t address child labor issues until we eliminate undocumented workers?
  - throwaway472919 4y ago
    The kind of infrastructure that can verify one can easily verify the other, check one and people will demand you check both, when really you'd rather check neither and keep making lots of money.
- ethanbond 4y ago
  Starting with what? We have a ton of undocumented laborers and still not enough workers overall. Start with granting amnesty to everyone here without a criminal record and then start opening up our borders? I have to assume that’s what you mean by “start with this.”
legitster 4y ago
I was lucky enough to be able to get a job at 16 (only one among my peers) around 2008. At the time, my boss there said "you're going to be the last generation of teenagers in the US to have jobs". Boy was he wrong! > Federal laws prohibit children under 14 from working in most non-agriculture jobs. One of the weirdest things of these laws is that agricultural jobs... don't seem any less dangerous than any others?
- lockhouse 4y ago
  I don’t think danger was the main consideration here, but rather necessity. Agriculture is really labor intensive. This is also why children are out of school in the summer so they can help out with their family’s farm.
  - Ancalagon 4y ago
    Also considered highly essential - really non-negotiable on an economics/government level - because most people need to, you know, eat.
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      No one is going to starve if children cannot pick strawberries. The necessity here is for cheap food prices, which are politically popular. We care about child labor (and minimum wages), but only so much, so we exempt certain businesses. The fact that a lot of these agricultural jobs are done by minorities is also relevant.
      - Teever 4y ago
        Between something 30%+ food never making it to the table, Rising obesity rates, corn being used for Ethanol production, and the excessive consumption of beef and pork there's an incredible amount of surplus in our food supply chain.
        j_walter 4y ago
        There is a potential for surplus in the food chain, but the logistics of transporting food from where it grows to where it is consumed leads to waste. The waste we have now may be considered low compared to a hundred years ago when we couldn't preserve food to last longer than a few days. Rising urban density leads to less room for food growing and more people to feed...think about NYC and where all the food must come from to support 20 million people every day.
      - 4y ago
toomanyrichies 4y ago
https://archive.ph/ElBsp https://archive.ph/ElBsp
ryandrake 4y ago
"In this labour market, it’s not too surprising . . . employers are being opportunistic and careless,” she added. The way that's written sounds preposterous. We're in a labor market where businesses are less and less successful finding adult workers to work for inadequate wages, and... "Oopsie, we were careless and accidentally started hiring children?" Do they expect anyone to believe that? > Packers Sanitation Services said it was “pleased to have finalised this settlement figure” and that it had a “zero-tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age of 18”. Oh yea, I buy that one.

34 points by pera 4y ago

in my lifetime, "illegal" workers went from What? to So What. I mean every State in the USA, most cities, many street corners.. How can anyone talk about labor economics without starting with this..

tstrimple 4y ago
We can’t address child labor issues until we eliminate undocumented workers?
- throwaway472919 4y ago
  The kind of infrastructure that can verify one can easily verify the other, check one and people will demand you check both, when really you'd rather check neither and keep making lots of money.
ethanbond 4y ago
Starting with what? We have a ton of undocumented laborers and still not enough workers overall. Start with granting amnesty to everyone here without a criminal record and then start opening up our borders? I have to assume that’s what you mean by “start with this.”

legitster 4y ago

I was lucky enough to be able to get a job at 16 (only one among my peers) around 2008. At the time, my boss there said "you're going to be the last generation of teenagers in the US to have jobs". Boy was he wrong! > Federal laws prohibit children under 14 from working in most non-agriculture jobs. One of the weirdest things of these laws is that agricultural jobs... don't seem any less dangerous than any others?

lockhouse 4y ago
I don’t think danger was the main consideration here, but rather necessity. Agriculture is really labor intensive. This is also why children are out of school in the summer so they can help out with their family’s farm.
- Ancalagon 4y ago
  Also considered highly essential - really non-negotiable on an economics/government level - because most people need to, you know, eat.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    No one is going to starve if children cannot pick strawberries. The necessity here is for cheap food prices, which are politically popular. We care about child labor (and minimum wages), but only so much, so we exempt certain businesses. The fact that a lot of these agricultural jobs are done by minorities is also relevant.
    - Teever 4y ago
      Between something 30%+ food never making it to the table, Rising obesity rates, corn being used for Ethanol production, and the excessive consumption of beef and pork there's an incredible amount of surplus in our food supply chain.
      - j_walter 4y ago
        There is a potential for surplus in the food chain, but the logistics of transporting food from where it grows to where it is consumed leads to waste. The waste we have now may be considered low compared to a hundred years ago when we couldn't preserve food to last longer than a few days. Rising urban density leads to less room for food growing and more people to feed...think about NYC and where all the food must come from to support 20 million people every day.
    - 4y ago

toomanyrichies 4y ago

https://archive.ph/ElBsp https://archive.ph/ElBsp

ryandrake 4y ago

"In this labour market, it’s not too surprising . . . employers are being opportunistic and careless,” she added. The way that's written sounds preposterous. We're in a labor market where businesses are less and less successful finding adult workers to work for inadequate wages, and... "Oopsie, we were careless and accidentally started hiring children?" Do they expect anyone to believe that? > Packers Sanitation Services said it was “pleased to have finalised this settlement figure” and that it had a “zero-tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age of 18”. Oh yea, I buy that one.