From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   A Little Work Never Hurt Anyone—Including Teenagers   
   By Jason L. Riley, April 11, 2023, WSJ   
      
   The U.S. unemployment rate in March was just 3.5%, but among teenagers it was   
   9.8%—close to 3 times as high. It’s not unusual to have a higher teen   
   jobless rate, but it’s a situation that deserves more attention from policy   
   makers when labor    
   markets remain extremely tight.   
      
   The labor-force participation rate for teenagers has been falling for more   
   than 40 years, and the decline in the past two decades has been especially   
   sharp. In 1978, labor-force participation among 16- to 19-year-olds was nearly   
   60%, and 20 years later    
   it was still above 50%. Today, it’s only 37%, even while job openings are as   
   plentiful as ever.   
      
   One reason fewer young people work is minimum-wage laws can make them too   
   expensive to hire, an economic reality that proponents play down or simply   
   ignore. Another cause can be labor laws that make it illegal to hire teenagers   
   at any wage, a situation    
   that a growing number of states are moving to change.   
      
   Axios reported on current efforts in Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and other states to   
   ease teenage work requirements. With the permission of a parent or legal   
   guardian, 14-year-olds could work later into the evening all year long, and   
   15-year-olds could be    
   hired for positions currently off-limits to anyone under 18. Last year,   
   Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey signed bipartisan legislation that   
   allows 16-year-olds to work up to 50 hours a week during summer break and   
   14-year-olds to work up to 40    
   hours a week when not in school.   
      
   Last month in Arkansas, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the   
   Youth Hiring Act, which nixes the requirement that 14- and 15-year-olds get   
   permission from the state to work. “It’s apparently not enough for   
   democrats to trap kids in failing    
   schools. They also want to make it harder for teenagers to work part time or   
   summer jobs,” Ms. Sanders wrote on Twitter after signing the bill. “In   
   Arkansas the days of trapping our people in poverty, welfare and government   
   dependency are over.”   
      
   Those days may be over in Arkansas, but they continue in California, where   
   Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom mocked Ms. Sanders over the new law. “Gotta   
   admit—loosening child labor laws was not on my Top 10 List for our CA   
   legislative session this year,”   
    Mr. Newsom tweeted. He’s right to note that California and Arkansas have   
   different priorities. Last year, at the urging of labor unions, Mr. Newsom   
   signed legislation that allows the cost of hiring a fast-food worker to   
   increase by an average of 41%.   
      
   A New York Times editorial likewise attacked Ms. Sanders and her state for   
   being “at the vanguard of a concerted effort by business lobbyists and   
   Republican legislators to roll back federal and state regulations that have   
   been in place for decades to    
   protect children from abuse.” Like Mr. Newsom, the paper ignores that some   
   Democrats, such as Mr. Murphy, also favor easing work restrictions for young   
   people. To buttress its case, the Times cites reports of U.S. employers   
   exploiting undocumented    
   migrant children. But that’s already illegal, and the proper response is   
   prosecuting the offenders, not limiting the ability of able-bodied teenagers   
   to fill jobs with parental approval.   
      
   The reality is that opponents of these state laws are carrying water for Big   
   Labor. The goal is not protecting children. Rather, it’s protecting the pay   
   of current employees by restricting the supply of labor. To the extent that   
   unions can limit    
   employment opportunities, they can command higher wages for existing workers   
   because employers have fewer alternatives.   
      
   Easing work requirements for young people won’t end the labor shortage, but   
   it will almost certainly help. It will also help young people who take   
   advantage of opportunities to enter the labor force sooner. Among other   
   things, putting teenagers to work    
   can go a long way toward increasing their earnings later in life and keeping   
   them out of trouble with the law. It lays the foundation for productive work   
   habits. You learn the importance of being punctual and dependable. You gain   
   experience that is worth    
   more than your paycheck.   
      
   Research also shows that gainful employment is strongly correlated with a   
   reduction in delinquent behavior. An analysis of New York City’s summer   
   youth employment program, the nation’s largest, concluded that participation   
   “decreases the chance    
   that youth are arrested during the program summer by 17 percent and decreases   
   the chance that they are arrested for a felony during the program summer by 23   
   percent.” Similar programs in Chicago and Boston “have found relatively   
   large reductions in    
   the number of times at-risk youth are arrested for violent and other serious   
   crimes in the year or two after the program ends.”   
      
   If we want safer streets and a brighter future for our children, how about   
   focusing more on expanding job opportunities and less on bail reform?   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-little-work-never-hurt-anyoneincl   
   ding-teenagers-9e8a32d   
      
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