American children & teenagers already work too many hours (especially in contrast to their counterparts in other rich nations):
***** Work Should Help Teens, Not Hurt Them
by David H. Wegman
These days we are neither surprised nor concerned when we meet a teenager who has a job. Many parents expect teens to earn spending money through work. They see employment as part of the transition to adulthood and as an opportunity for teens to learn how to accept responsibility, be punctual, deal with people, and manage money.
In fact, more than 80 percent of teenagers surveyed report having worked during their high school years. But does employment contribute to a young person's development, or detract from it?
Education and healthy growth should be the primary objectives of childhood and adolescence. A good job can contribute to these goals. Yet the benefits of work do not come without costs.
The most obvious problem is that jobs commonly held by young people -- such as in restaurants and supermarkets -- can be dangerous. As many as 100,000 children and teenagers visit hospital emergency rooms each year for treatment of job-related injuries. Job injury rates for teens are almost twice as high as for adults -- in part because teen workers are inexperienced, they frequently do not receive adequate training, and the equipment they operate is often designed for adults.
A New York state study reports that over 40 percent of injured young people who received workers' compensation suffered permanent disability. And at least 70 children under the age of 18 die on the job each year.
Furthermore, very little is known about how many young workers are exposed to toxic or carcinogenic substances, which might not cause illnesses until years after exposure.
Injuries are not the only problem. A number of studies now show that students who work long hours -- usually defined as more than 20 hours per week -- are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, use illegal drugs, or engage in minor delinquency. They may get insufficient sleep and exercise and spend less time with their families. And students who consistently work more than 20 hours per week tend to complete less schooling than their peers.
Since 1938, federal laws have limited work hours only for those younger than 15, despite the fact that the vast majority of teenagers now attend school until at least age 18. At the same time, 20 percent of tenth-graders and 45 percent of twelfth-graders are working more than 20 hours per week during the school year.
When the laws were written, many young people worked to contribute to basic family needs. Today most of the money they earn goes to buy clothes, movie tickets, cars, and other discretionary items.
A modernization of U.S. labor laws is long overdue. Congress should give the U.S. Department of Labor the authority to limit the number of hours worked during the school year by all children under 18. And the department should regulate the number of hours students can work per day and the times when they start and stop working on school nights.
There should be exceptions, of course, particularly when jobs are part of a student's education or when a student has to work because of economic necessity. But even in these cases, procedures should be in place to ensure that a student's educational needs are being met.
Youth also need better protection from hazards at work. The child labor laws that prohibit workers younger than 18 from doing certain jobs need to reflect the modern workplace, not the workplace of the early 20th century. Again, it is the Labor Department's responsibility to update its regulations based on advice provided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
One of the most dangerous of all industries is agriculture, where more youth are killed than in any other industry. Unfortunately, the regulations that apply to young people employed in agriculture are much less restrictive than those in other industries. Children who work on farms deserve the same protection as children and adolescents in other jobs. The child labor regulations should be made as stringent for agricultural jobs as for others.
Finally, there is a critical need for parents and educators, as well as employers, to discuss together the proper balance between school and work. Laws and regulations provide a framework for these discussions. But attention should focus on issues where the needs and opportunities of individual youths can be addressed directly.
David H. Wegman, a professor and chair of the department of work environment at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, recently chaired a committee that examined the health and safety implications of child labor for the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C.
For more information, read _Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States_ by the Committee on the Health and Safety Implications of Child Labor, National Research Council and Institute of Medicine at <http://www.nap.edu/catalog/6019.html?onpi_newsdoc110598>.
Yoshie