{"id":89767,"date":"2024-03-28T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/etats-unis-vers-un-assouplissement-du-travail-des-adolescents\/"},"modified":"2024-10-31T11:33:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T10:33:23","slug":"etats-unis-vers-un-assouplissement-du-travail-des-adolescents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/etats-unis-vers-un-assouplissement-du-travail-des-adolescents\/","title":{"rendered":"United States: a move towards greater flexibility in teenage employment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since 1973 and the signing of the fundamental ILO (International Labour Organisation) Convention No. 138<\/a> on the minimum age for admission to employment, the prohibition of child labour \u2014 or at least its strict control \u2014 has been considered a social achievement in many countries, and one that it seems difficult to go back on. Under this convention, any member that ratifies it must specify a minimum age for admission to employment or work on its territory, below which no person should be authorised to work in any occupation. Depending on the 176 signatory countries, the age limit varies between 14 and 16. It should be pointed out, however, that the Convention allows national legislation to authorise, under certain conditions, the performance of light work from the age of 13 (or 12 in the case of developing countries that have set the minimum age for admission to employment at 14).<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In the light of these international regulations, the House Bill 1410, signed by the Republican Governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in March 2023, has caused quite a stir. The bill aims to make it easier to hire minors by exempting children under the age of 16 from having to provide proof of age in order to be recruited. While this may come as a shock at first, it should be remembered that the United States is one of the few countries not to have ratified Convention 138. It should also be noted that this new law is not simply an isolated act, but part of a more global trend.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n

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One ban and many exceptions<\/h2>\n

Since the adoption of the Fair Labor Standards Act<\/a> in 1938, minors under the age of 14 have not been allowed to work in the United States, while those under the age of 18 cannot be assigned dangerous jobs. But there are many exceptions. For example, minors of any age may deliver newspapers, take part in radio, television, film or theatre productions, or work for their parents in a business owned solely by them (except in mining, manufacturing or dangerous work).<\/p>\n

Agriculture is an even greater exception to<\/a> federal law. In this sector, authorised jobs and working hours vary according to age: minors aged 16 or over may carry out any kind of work, whether dangerous or not, for an unlimited number of hours; minors aged 14 and 15 may carry out any non-hazardous agricultural work outside school hours; minors aged 12 and 13 may work outside school hours in non-hazardous jobs, either with the written consent of a parent or on their own farm. Minors under the age of 12 may work on farms owned by their parents, or on small family farms with parental consent.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\n Voir aussi<\/span>\n
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\n \n \"\"<\/a>\n <\/span>\n \n Employment Projections in a Pandemic Environment<\/a>\n \n \n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n <\/a>\n <\/span>\n
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6 April 2021<\/div>\n H\u00c9RY Michel<\/a>\n
\n 5 min.\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n\n Lu, vu, entendu\n <\/a>\n \u00c9conomie<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the face of legislation that is already relatively permissive, the law passed in Arkansas is worrying because it could lead to young people under the age of 16 working in jobs that are dangerous or could damage their health. In addition to Arkansas, other states \u2014 from Ohio and Iowa to Wisconsin \u2014 have proposed legislation to make it easier for teenagers aged 14 and over to work, or to deregulate work for 16- and 17-year-olds. In many cases, these regulatory reforms relate specifically to sectors under pressure<\/a> \u2014 such as the catering industry, where 14- and 15-year-olds are allowed to work until 9pm on school days (Ohio); or nurseries, where teenagers are allowed to look after babies without adult supervision (Iowa).<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n

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Teenage work: the resurgence of a past reality<\/h2>\n

Although the legislation governing the employment of minors still seems to provide a relatively restrictive framework, in reality the employment of adolescents has been on the increase in the United States in recent years. The migration crises that have put large numbers of unaccompanied minors on the road, coupled with the country\u2019s labour shortages, have led to a resurgence of the phenomenon. In June 2021, the United Nations was already warning of a resurgence of child labour after 20 years of improvement, in the context of the Covid crisis<\/a>, responsible for a drop in family incomes in many countries and the closure of schools for several months. And since then, in 2023, the New York Times <\/em>has revealed<\/a> how young unaccompanied minors from South American countries have been illegally recruited for particularly dangerous jobs as roofers, or in slaughterhouses or sawmills, sometimes working 12-hour days. This trend can also be explained by the fact that the use of under-age labour helps to moderate the mechanical rise in wages when unemployment falls.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\n Voir aussi<\/span>\n
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\n \n \"\"<\/a>\n <\/span>\n \n Company Recruitment Difficulties: A Comparative Economic Analysis<\/a>\n \n \n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n <\/a>\n <\/span>\n
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27 February 2023<\/div>\n BERGEAUD Antonin<\/a>\n CETTE Gilbert<\/a>\n
\n 12 p.\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n\n Forum\n <\/a>\n Economics<\/a>\n Society<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It should also be noted that similar cases are beginning to emerge in Europe. In Italy, a survey by Save the Children<\/a>, also in 2023, revealed that nearly one in five 14- and 15-year-olds works, despite legislation prohibiting work by under-16s. And 27.8% of the young people questioned as part of this study felt that they were doing work that was particularly harmful to their schooling, because it was carried out at night or continuously during school hours. In France, breaches of the law appear to be relatively limited at present. Illegal work by minors undoubtedly exists to a small extent, but it is difficult to quantify. The best-known phenomenon concerns the subletting of accounts on delivery platforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the consequences and challenges?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Given the ageing population of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, the example of the United States could be a weak signal of a worldwide resurgence in the use of child labour. Since Covid, new issues have emerged. The ageing of the working population in North America and Europe is gradually exacerbating the labour shortages that began to emerge in the wake of the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this signal were to be amplified, it would not be good news. It\u2019s worth remembering that if the under-15s are to be kept out of the world of work as much as possible, it\u2019s because it causes a number of health and social problems for children. Work is one of the main obstacles to children\u2019s access to education, and is a threat to their healthy growth. Difficult and dangerous work has a greater impact on their health because of their more fragile constitution, and chemical or mechanical hazards, or the carrying of heavy loads, can have more serious and longer-lasting medical consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, it should be noted that young people between the ages of 15 and 25 are at risk when they start working. French statistics have long shown<\/a> that the frequency of accidents at work is higher among young workers than their elders. In the United States, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published<\/a> a report on work-related child injuries in 2019, showing how the number of work-related accidents among under-17s had increased between 2013 and 2016, in correlation with the resumption of the rise in the number of hours worked by teenagers aged 15 to 17.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Number of Work-Related Fatalities to Children Aged 17 and Under (left) and Estimated Number of Hours Worked by Children Aged 15 to 17 (right), 2003 to 2016\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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Source:<\/em> GAO<\/a>, p.\u00a026.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

In view of these figures, there is an urgent need to incorporate a culture of occupational risk prevention into the training of young people. It should also be noted that an epidemiological study by the INRS<\/a> (Institut national de recherche et de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 pour la pr\u00e9vention des accidents du travail et des maladies professionnelles \u2014 the reference body for occupational risk prevention in France) published in 2018 objectively demonstrated the effectiveness of occupational health and safety training in reducing accidents at work among young people during their first years of employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N.B.:<\/em> this article has been translated from French by DeepL, and revised by the author and Futuribles.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 1973 and the signing of the fundamental ILO (International Labour Organisation) Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for admission to employment, the prohibition of child labour \u2014 or at least its strict control \u2014 has been considered a social achievement in many countries, and one that it seems difficult to go back on. Under … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":88057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[133,212],"keyword":[1120,1021,1162,909,880],"class_list":["post-89767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newswatch","tag-economie-et-emploi-en","tag-societe-en","keyword-enfance-en","keyword-droit-du-travail-en","keyword-marche-du-travail-en","keyword-etats-unis-en","keyword-jeunesse-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89767"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99181,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89767\/revisions\/99181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89767"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=89767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}