One thing about kids – they work cheap. Heck, they’ll sweep the front steps for a shiny quarter and wash your car for a dollar.
Paul LePage, the Governor of Maine, wants to utilize that good news and loosen the child labor laws.
Right now in Maine, you have to be 16 to work. LePage wants to lower that to 12 because “12-year-old children should not be restricted from working and learning life skills.”
I think the key words here is “children.”
At 12 years old getting through the day without springing a leak of hormones is work enough. You can’t drive at 12 years old so that means walking to work. In Maine. Where I hear it snows. And there’s more uphills than downhills.
While making for great stories to your grandchildren, I’m not sure being exploited as cheap labor is a “lifeskill.”
Republicans are determined to undo every labor reform we’ve had in this country since sweatshops burned to the ground. And trust me, they don’t mean having their own kids work. They mean your kids.
Hey, LePage, you know what they call a 12 year old forced into the workplace to take a job from an adult worker who needs a job? Two Democrats in training, my friend, that’s what you call them.
