I would also point out, not to give Huckabee any credit, but the silver lining of that bill might allow kids trying to gain freedom from abusive homes, permitting them to go job hunting on their own (although 14/15 seems super young regardless - they couldn’t without someone signing off otherwise). The downsides is parents forcing kids to go to work in dangerous jobs (to your point).
freedom from abusive homes, permitting them to go job hunting on their own
While i see what you’re saying, i think the lede is buried. the important change in law is here:
The state also no longer has to verify the age of those under 16 before they take a job.
The state isn’t even checking how old these children are. And the younger a kid is, the more easily they are exploited. And the power dynamic between boss and kiddo is worse. All this will do is make kids easy to exploit
I don’t have to tell y’all, right? How many hours got stolen from you as kids? Or what kind of crap did you put up with before you knew better?
Without laws letting child workers maintain their own bank account in their own name without parents being co owners allowed to drain it at any time, children working become money pinatas for abusive parents.
I say this as someone who would have benefitted from being independent earlier. My uncle did have me work at 14, and when I went to the bank I found he had stolen every penny, and because I was a minor I had no legal recourse to get it back.
A few years later the courts emancipated me, but it didn’t return the money he had stolen. Mind you, he was not working at the time himself and he got a few hundred from the state a month to care for me, and he spent what he stole on computer parts so he could game.
Children working only is in the child’s benefit if there are ironclad laws allowing them to keep their money, and right now there is not.
