Sunday, June 14, 2015

The changing face of the U.S. Workforce and The need for the evolution of child labor laws

The changing face of the U.S. Workforce



THIS part below is because the laws have become so restrictive on when teens can work trying to "protect" them that it has killed employer interest in hiring them.  This is where you see a direct effect of over-legislating something.  My son would like to earn some money, and minimum wage would be a LOT of money to someone like him who has no bills and is starting out, which is who minimum wage was SUPPOSE to be for... but now we have 18-30 year olds taking up the jobs and wanting the pay raised to match their adult lifestyle on the one end, and the government excessively restricting 15-18 and totally preventing 13-14 from working, even though no daycare license covers that age, on the other end.  Burning the candle hard like this on both ends what do they really think is going to be the result?



And furthermore all that work ethic they and social skills they could have been learning especially to take the edge off the single parents households and households having much fewer children than previous generations... all of that is gone so we have a bunch of adults who don't know how to really be a good coworker and stop feeling so entitled all the time... and a bunch of non-rich kids who are losing out on a chance to build up some savings while their parents still covering their food, basic clothes, shelter, and education, which would have been a good way for minorities to build up a head start in life.  ALL restrictions on child labor in non-mechanical jobs should disappear when school lets out each year for summer and christmas, and only go back into effect the first day of school in that child's county.  And honestly, if you're not going to have daycares licensed for k-12 instead of stopping at 12 years old, you need to free up the work laws so they can work that young.  The laws reflect the 1900s when women were home forever once they got married and got pregnant... all this feminist talk of equality and right to work and fair pay and they forgot to update what we are able to do with the darn kids once we are out there doing all this working and receiving all this fair pay. *rolls eyes* more ways feminism has half-stepped with this.  Feminism doesn't seem to care about family at all, it seems more designed for single childless women and after you leave that reservation and evolve into something more... good luck with your life. Series of weird conflicts til the children are 18.



If a teen was able to work full time and even overtime and save a minimum of $100 per week from an 8-week full time summer job (available hours convenient to the business) from the summer of age 13 through the summer of age 17, that teen would have $4000 saved up by the time they graduate high school, which is enough to buy a decent used car or even pay the closing costs on a modest new HOUSE.  I understand in the past children were being severely exploited, but now many of those jobs that exploited them such as mine work are not mainstream and/or on the decline anyway. Restrict them working in factories and on construction equipment.  Everything else should be left up to the parents to decide.  This no man's land from 13 until they reach 18 is something of a curse in the modern world of single parents and both parents working outside the home.







The child labor laws need to evolve to match the daycare restrictions and improve the ability of the lower and middle classes to get a needed headstart on getting their lives together.  If the government is so interested in making sure they have a good head start in life, automatically withhold half the pay of non-emancipated teenagers in an escrow account and pay it out to them or have them file a tax return for it on their 18th birthday so you'll be sure to have their correct address, and allow them to track the balance of it online or via text.  Then we know parents not stealing their money, and they are not misusing it's intent to give them a head start once they enter adulthood.



"Age



Simply put, the workforce got a lot older. In 2001, 14-18 year olds held 5.2 million jobs. That number dropped to 3.5 million by 2014 — a 33 percent decrease. At the same time, the number of workers ages 55 and up grew by 40 percent, from 20.6 million to 28.9 million."