Settle Iowa’s child labor fight

Several Iowa restaurants are caught in a fight between the state and the U.S. Department of Labor.

This past legislative session, Republicans who control the House and Senate approved a bill loosening child labor laws. Among the changes championed by lawmakers included allowing 14-and 15-year-olds to work as late as 9 p.m. during the school year and 11 p.m. during the summer.

Lawmakers were warned by the labor department and legislative Democrats were warned that the changes would run afoul of tighter federal limits. But like a list of red states across the country Iowa Republicans made the changes anyway and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed them into law.

Restaurant owners were told they could follow the new state regulations. But, sure enough, labor department came to Iowa, gathered information and handed out stiff fines to restaurants that did not follow federal law.

One of those businesses is Sugapeach Chicken & Fish Fry in North Liberty. The restaurant hired 14-an d-a15-year-olds as part of its “Scholars Making Dollars” effort. Now, Sugapeach’s owners face a $65,000 federal fine.

“This is not a train wreck that we started,” said owner Chad Simmons said. “We are innocent bystanders in a fight someone else created.”

He blames state leaders and the Iowa Restaurant Association for adopting“ a policy to purposely antagonize the federal government and the Department of Labor.”

If Iowa were truly serious about assess its regulations to see if they fit the current labor needs in Iowa, state leaders could have worked with the feds to grant a waiver to make sure businesses would not be fined.

That said, the fines being handed down by the Department of Labor are excessive. Putting a restaurant out of business is cruel and unusual punishment unnecessary to solve a child labor issue. If a violation is a result of an owner getting bad information from the state, fine state officials.

But it’s past time for state and federal officials to meet and work out a potential solution to the impasse. Set aside election year politics. Keep kids safe and keep hardworking restaurant in business.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com