Union leaders decry lower child labor fines for Iowa businesses

Iowa labor union leaders say new rules reducing penalties for Iowa businesses that violate the state’s child labor laws will further weaken protections for Iowa teens working dangerous jobs or longer hours.

Administrative rules adopted and filed by the Iowa Labor Services Division would:

The rule changes are a result of a new law passed by Republican lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2023 loosening work requirements for teens as young as 14 that conflicts with federal child labor regulations.

The law, which took effect July 1, 2023, allows teens to work longer hours and at more jobs, including those formerly off-limits as being hazardous.

Supporters have said the bill provides more opportunities for young Iowans who want to work and learn skills while protecting their safety, and could help address the state’s shortage of workers.

Except for violations related to the death of a child, the law allows the state’s regulatory agency charged with enforcing child labor laws to waive or reduce penalties if the “violations would result in a penalty that is disproportionate to the harm done to the minor(s), the size of the employer, or both.”

Under the proposed administrative rules, the director of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing (which now houses the Labor Services Division) shall reduce a penalty as follows:

A penalty also may be reduced by 15 percent based on a “good faith attempt” by an employer to comply with requirements and by 10 percent if it's not been fined for a violation within the past five years.

The new rules do not change penalties for workplace safety or hazardous conditions violations.

The $2,500 penalty would still be assessed on a per-day, per-employee basis. So, if three minor employees work 30 minutes later than they should, that would be a $7,500 fine for that one day, rather than the current $30,000 fine for that day.

“That is a reasonable penalty, as they should not be subject to the same fine as an employer that is unlawfully subjecting a minor to hazardous conditions,” Department of Inspection, Appeals and Licensing spokesperson Stefanie Bond said in a statement to The Gazette.

Bond added the state’s fines serve to act as a deterrent and ensure compliance in order to protect Iowa’s child workers and are independent of federal fines.

The Iowa Legislature's Administrative Rules Review Committee is set to review the published rules next month. If the committee does not object or vote to delay to the rules, they will go into effect after 35 days.

Union leaders: Rules reward bad behavior by bad actors

Labor union officials and a local Democratic lawmaker sharply criticized the proposed changes and called on Reynolds and Republican lawmakers to reverse the rollback of child labor protections.

“Iowans have made it clear that we do not want our kids working dangerous jobs or long hours that interfere with their education and safety,” state Rep. Sami Scheetz, a Cedar Rapids Democrat and union organizer for the Teamsters, said in a statement.

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“We’re already seeing the consequences of last year’s law,” Scheetz said. “Children have been found working in dangerous conditions at slaughterhouses, cleaning equipment like band saws and head splitters. We must support Iowa businesses who follow the rules, not reward bad behavior by bad actors.”

The federal government has imposed hefty fines on several Iowa businesses found violating child labor laws in the last year, including those involved in meatpacking plants where minors were tasked with overnight sanitation shifts, handling dangerous machinery, and using corrosive chemicals.

In one case, a contractor at a Sioux City pork processing plant was fined $649,000 after investigators found 24 minors working hazardous overnight shifts.

Jennifer Scherer from the Economic Policy Institute — an independent, nonprofit think tank that seeks to strengthen labor standards — highlighted a national increase in child labor violations. Since 2019, federal investigators have found an 88 percent increase in children being employed in violation of federal labor provisions.

She said state officials, however, have been reluctant to enforce state labor laws.

“So in some ways, the decrease in the penalty amounts is almost a moot question when we've got a state agency that, to our knowledge, since January of 2023, has not issued any penalties at all, including in some cases that have very clear violations that involve hazards or assignment of youth work outside of work guidelines,” Scherer said.

“And so I guess the question is, are we serious about trying to decrease and deter additional or repeated violations, or are we interested in sending a signal that actually, we're not concerned about people actually following the law?”

She also called on lawmakers to reinstate work permits for 14- and 15-year-olds eliminated under the 2023 Iowa law.

Eliminating work permits --- which required showing proof of age and reiterated work restrictions for teens — deprives kids, parents, employers of accurate legal information, she said.

“We have evidence now that states that maintain youth work permit systems have fewer child labor violations than those who don't have work permit systems or who've eliminated them,” Scherer said.

“So this is certainly one part of Iowa's child labor law that lawmakers could revisit and consider reinstituting because we know it's an effective deterrent and effective way to share accurate information with employers, youth and parents, everybody involved in the system.”

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Margarita Heredia from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1846 and Joshua Brown from the Iowa State Education Association said the changes negatively impact education and safety.

“We know that students who get pushed into working long hours during the school year are more likely to miss class, grow tired in class, and end up at a risk for falling behind or dropping out,” Brown said.

“ … As educators, we opposed Iowa's rollback of the child labor laws in 2023 because it took away the sensible guardrails Iowa had in place for decades, and to ensure that young people could get to get work experience without endangering their health nor missing out on their education. This is not the time to further erode Iowa's child labor laws.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com