Iowa Republicans pass law to allow child labour in all-night session

Several Republican-controlled state legislatures have loosened child labour laws this year

Iowa Republicans worked into Tuesday morning to pass a law loosening the state’s child labour restrictions.

The Iowa Senate ultimately passed the bill, SB 542, by a tally of 32-17. All the chamber’s Democrats voted against the bill, as did two Republicans.

The rest of the GOP caucus voted to support the bill, which allows children as young as 14 to work six-hour night shifts, as young as 15 to work in plants on assembly lines, and as young as 16 to serve alcohol, even though children that young cannot legally drink themselves.

Iowa is not the only Republican-led state that has moved to relax its child labour laws in recent weeks. Arkansas was the first state to roll back child labour protections in March, repealing a requirement that 14 and 15-year-olds receive a document issued by the director of the Division of Labor and the consent of their parent or guardian.

The relaxation of child labour laws comes as new reporting documented the extent to which migrant children were working in the US, which The New York Times called a “crisis.”

Opponents of relaxing child labour laws see the legislation in states like Iowa as a step backward after generations of strengthening child labour protections, a sign that states are bowing the pressures of capital rather than looking out for the best interests of kids.

Supporters, meanwhile, see the laws as providing more opportunities for children who want them. Senator Adrian Dickey, a Republican, said the Iowa law is “providing protections to our youth.”

Democrats in the chamber disagreed.

“I wouldn’t want my granddaughter serving alcohol or getting an exception to do hazardous work in the name of workplace learning,” senator Janice Weinter said in comments reported by WHO13. “A workplace accident can happen in the blink of an eye. It takes mere seconds for a red iron beam to fall. Iowans should not be putting our kids, and they are kids, in dangerous situations.”