A Missouri state lawmaker made an irritated call for rolling back protective child labor laws in her state, characterizing kids as spoiled and calling them "lazy."
After decades of laws increasingly protecting children from the often grueling and sometimes dangerous conditions of child labor, more states are attempting to help fill worker shortages in arenas like agriculture with kids. That has resulted in a concerning uptick in injuries and even death.
GOP Missouri state Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch spent a large portion of her comments promoting the proposed rollback in the legislature earlier this week boasting about her own experiences working fulltime as a child, beginning at the age of 9.
She accused children who don't work of instead "playing video games" and "joining gangs."
Toalson Reisch grumbled: "Free healthcare, free food, free this, free that, free, free, free ... I started work at age 9 ... These kids of today are lazy ... Get a job!"
GOP Missouri lawmaker Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch says child labor laws should be rolled back because her constituents are raising lazy children who join gangs instead of working fulltime at age 9 like she did. 👍 pic.twitter.com/1cJUrQaL3Q
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 9, 2024
The proposed change in Missouri child labor regulations would eliminate current work permit requirements for Missouri children aged 14 and 15 that now must be signed by shool officials — but only if they believe the young workers can handle both the job and their schoolwork.
It would also allow children to work until 10 p.m. each night throughout the entire year, which is not allowed by federal law.
Studies have found that children can be exposed to toxins on the job, can suffer cuts and burns, fractures, eye loss, amputations when working with machinery, electrocutions and even death. They're far more vulnerable than adults because of their lower muscle mass and marked lack of experience.
A study by the U.S. Department of Labor found last year that an increasing number of employers were violating child labor laws, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines against major slaughterhouse and meatpacking cleaning companies.
At least three teenage workers were killed last Decrember and this year in farming accidents in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Iowa.
