The Republican-controlled state Assembly passed a bill on Feb. 13 to eliminate work permit requirements for 14- and 15-year-olds in Wisconsin.
The proposal, approved by the Senate in October, passed the Assembly in a party-line 62-34 vote. The bill would remove the requirement for 14- and 15-year-olds to obtain permission from a parent and a sign-off from their school in order for them to begin working.
The bill now heads to Gov. Tony Evers, who signaled earlier this year he would likely not support it.
Current law prohibits employers from allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to begin working before receiving a work permit from the Department of Workforce Development (DWD). Parents must apply for a permit on behalf of their child and pay $10 a fee, which is later reimbursed by the child’s employer.
Sens. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk; Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee; and Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, introduced the bill in September. Tomczyk told The Daily Cardinal in an email the measure would remove burdensome “bureaucratic red tape,” allowing young people to more easily join the workforce.
“The decision to allow a 14- or 15-year-old to work should be up to the parents, not to someone at school,” Tomczyk said. “Those conversations should happen at the kitchen table between parents and their children.”
The measure follows multiple Republican attempts to loosen labor restrictions for minors under Evers and former Gov. Scott Walker.
In 2017, Walker signed a bill repealing work permit requirements for 16- and 17-year-olds. The Legislature passed a bill in 2021 to allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work longer summer hours, but Evers vetoed the measure.
Evers signaled in his January State of the State address he would veto the measure, calling recent Republican proposals to loosen child labor regulations “not serious” efforts to address “generational, statewide issues,” such as Wisconsin’s ongoing labor shortage.
“Asking more kids to work isn’t a workforce plan,” Evers said.
The DWD would lose more than $200,000 in annual revenue collected through permit fees, and the agency would lose much of its ability to track data on child labor in the state without documentation from the permits, according to the department’s fiscal estimate. The department uses the data to develop outreach efforts aimed at reducing child labor law violations.
Additionally, the money collected from work permits helps fund the department’s efforts to investigate unlawful child labor practices, according to the Cap Times.
Democratic legislators unanimously voted against the bill. Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, told the Cardinal repealing child labor regulations such as work permit requirements is a “slippery slope” to exploitative child labor practices.
“Without safeguards in place, we don't know where these kids are working and if they’re working in safe places,” Sinicki said. “It's very easy for children to get caught up in having a job, and a lot of fast food places will take advantage of these kids.”
Wisconsin is one of at least 28 states that have proposed or passed measures to loosen child labor regulations since 2021. Efforts include eliminating work permit requirements, increasing the amount of hours minors are allowed to work during the summer and lowering the minimum age for working alcohol service jobs.
Francesca Pica is the city news editor emeritus for The Daily Cardinal. She has covered multiple municipal elections and is a leading reporter on Madison labor issues. Additionally, she served as a summer intern for The Capital Times and currently serves as a WisPolitics intern.
