VOA教育报道2023--US Lawmakers Seek to Fill Labor Shortage with Children

US Lawmakers Seek to Fill Labor¹ Shortage with Children

A report from a policy group in Washington, D.C., says lawmakers in at least 10 states have proposed easing child labor laws over the last two years.

The bills would make it easier for children under 18 to work longer hours during school days and in more kinds of jobs.

The Economic Policy Institute in Washington released the report in March.

The report said some bills propose permitting children to work in places that serve alcohol and in industries such as building.

Lawmakers supporting the new bills say children could fill a labor shortage partly caused by the pandemic. They also say a job can provide teenagers with valuable work experience. Some say the government should not prevent a child from working if they have parental² permission.

The Arkansas legislature passed a bill this year removing a requirement that 14 and 15-year-olds get work permits. The permits had required children to get parental permission, proof of age, and an employer signature. Without work permits, it can be harder for companies to know whether they are employing a child. Arkansas state lawmakers separately passed legislation that increases fines for violating child labor laws.

Under federal law, children's work hours are limited, and they are not permitted to work in dangerous conditions.

One proposal in Minnesota permits 16- and 17-year-old children to work in and around building areas. A bill in Ohio that passed the state senate permits children to work on school days until 9 p.m. Under current law, children can only work until 7 p.m. on school nights.

Allison Paxson is a child and education policy expert with Children's Defense³ Fund Ohio. The Defense Fund is a nonprofit group that aims to help children by supporting education and fighting abuse and poverty.

Paxson told VOA the bill in Ohio and ones in other states are a way for businesses to deal with, what she called, the labor gap by employing children at lower wages. She said children in the U.S. can be paid less than the federal minimum wage for adults.

Speaking after the passage of the bill in the Ohio Senate, State Senator Tim Schaffer said: "Thirteen states currently allow youth under the age of 16 to work until 9:00 p.m. year-round, earning a good wage and learning valuable employment skills."

But Paxson argued that more time working takes away from time at school. The value young people can get "from workplace experience should not be the basis for unraveling their workplace protections, because this comes at the expense of their educations and their futures⁵ in both the short-term and in the long-term," Paxson said.

A study published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence⁶ found that teenagers who work long hours in after-school jobs are more at risk of dropping out of high school.

"Excessive work hours can lead to declining interest...in school," Paxson said.

Child labor a common practice around the world

The U.S. federal government has labor laws meant to protect children. For example, federal law states that 14 and 15-year-olds cannot work more than three hours a day after school. But in many parts of the world, child labor remains⁷ very common.

A 2019 OECD study said that 152 million children were in child labor. In many countries, child labor is important to the economy.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs keeps a list of about 160 products in 78 countries that are produced using child labor. In Brazil, for example, there is evidence that children who are five- to 13-years old grow bananas. In Vietnam, children as young as seven help produce products like rubber, leather and coffee.

Poverty often leads many families to depend on child labor, or push children to take dangerous jobs, the OECD study said. Education, however, is the main alternative to labor for children.

Public education "of good quality is essential as an alternative to child labor and for breaking the poverty cycle."

Words in This Story

gap –n. something that appears to be a mismatch in the numbers, percentages or rates related to one group compared to another group

allow –v. to permit; to let happen

unravel⁴ — v. to come apart

expense — n. a cost

alternative –n. another choice; another possibility that something might happen

essential — adj. very basic to something

cycle — n. a set of events that happen repeatedly

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。

5 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

6 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。