By Joe Hickman
Published: Apr. 29, 2024 at 6:20 PM CDT
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) - They may not have a chance to be voted on before the Missouri legislature’s session ends in three weeks, but a pair of bills (HB 1795 and SB 1057) would eliminate Missouri’s requirement for children under age 16 to obtain school-approved work permits before they can begin a job.
The current set-up doesn’t apply to those who are babysitters or working on their family farm. It’s intended for those ages 14-15 who want to work at for-profit businesses such as office or clerical work, retail jobs (cashier, bagging, shelving, selling), maintenance/janitorial services or car cleaning services.
And by the way, there’s a long list from the Department of Labor about what jobs are unacceptable for anyone under 16. Those include door-to-door sales (excluding churches, schools and scouts), operating hazardous machinery, mining or quarrying, handling explosives, driving a car, metal-producing industries, jobs where alcoholic beverages are served and any job dangerous to the life, limb, health or morals of youth.
Those statutes wouldn’t change if one of the bills were to pass. The bills are specific to the work permits handed out by schools that allow 14-15 year-olds to be employed at approved businesses.
“Really it’s just a permission slip that the parent and employer have to insure everyone knows that the student under 16 years-old is going to be getting a job,” Glendale Registrar Angie Martin said of the current set-up. “During this school year I think I’ve processed about 55 so far. The decision is at our discretion but typically if a student needs the job, they can have it as long as they follow the protocol. It’s really to protect the employer.”
“A lot of what we look at is how many hours are they looking to work during the school year,” added Glendale Counselor Justin Parrigon. “Usually we grant it and if the grades start slipping, we start asking questions and having those conversations with the student.”
Republican State Representative Dave Hinman from O’Fallon is the sponsor of the bill on the House side.
“This process went into place in 1957,” he said of the school work permits. “A lot has changed in that time and we need to come up with a different plan. I think the family and parents should make the decision on whether or not their child should go to work if they’re 14-and-15 year-olds instead of the school district giving the permission. I also believe the schools still need to have some involvement and as a parent, I would hope I’d know what’s going on with my child in school with their grades and what their behavior is. And one thing to remember is we still have our federal laws and Missouri statutes that say what kind of job they can have and when they can work.”
For example, 14-15 year-olds are not allowed to work more than three hours on any school day and no more than eight hours on any non-school day. They can’t work more than 40 hours per-week, no more than six days in a week and their working hours must fall between 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on school days and 7 a.m.-9 p.m. during the non-school term.
The Senate version of the bill is still in committee while Hinman’s House bill was voted out of committee in March basically along party lines with Republicans supporting it and Democrats against it.
“I asked the Democratic leader for the committee why they voted against it,” Hinman said. “And her stance was that she believes school districts need to have a say in whether or not a child works.”
Hinman admits to being pessimistic about the chances that the bill will come up for a vote before the end of the legislative session.
“The last three weeks of the session are very robust,” he said matter-of-factly. “We try to hit a lot of the priorities as time winds down and I don’t see this as a priority for our caucus to get done this year. However, I would like the opportunity to bring this up on the floor so we can have that debate between Republicans and Democrats. That way if we do decide to bring it back next year, we can make it a better bill based on what we discussed this year.”
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