A file photo shows the U.S. Capitol building and a stop sign in Washington D.C. [Photo/Xinhua]

The U.S. Department of Labor completed its investigations into three major McDonald's franchisees across four Eastern American states and found multiple instances of children as young as 10 years old being illegally made to work. Overall, 305 children were illegally employed at about five dozen McDonald's restaurants, and the companies employing them were fined $212,544.

The ruling also outlined that those franchisees must stop employing 14-year-olds as fry cooks for long hours in the early morning. Or they should set open restaurants in states like Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, or Arkansas instead. Those states, led by Republican governors and Republican legislatures, are trying to pass laws to make it easier for companies to employ children.

The Iowa bill lets companies make students work for six hours a day, all the way until 9 pm on school nights so that they can have a couple of hours to do homework before going to bed at midnight. It also lets roofing companies hire children to work on top of the sloped roofs of houses, where they run the risk of falling off and being severely injured. In addition to roofing, the bill opens up excavation and demolition jobs to children as young as 14.

But Iowa hasn't given up entirely on protecting children from harm. They did pass a law that would ban children from attending performances by dancers and singers dressed in clothes opposite to their biological genders. Legislators argued that drag shows could harm children. 

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), roofing is one of the most dangerous jobs in America, with a fatality rate of 47 per 100,000 workers. Logging and construction were also listed among the top ten most dangerous jobs. Idaho Senator Jim Risch has introduced a bill in U.S. Senate that seeks to relax laws concerning the employment of children in the logging industry. Minnesota legislators want to make it easier for kids to work on construction sites. In Wisconsin, they have allowed children to serve alcoholic beverages at bars. They are too young to enter the bar but old enough to work there!

Arkansas went so far as to repeal the requirement that children have their age verified and get a parent's approval before working under age. How do you know you are breaking the law against child labor if you don't bother to check?

Why are right-wing legislators so intent on getting more kids in the workplace? Some of them say it is to solve "labor shortages." There aren't labor shortages. There are shortages of workers willing to work for poverty wages. Companies are complaining that they can't keep wages extremely low and maximize profits as much as they want. The Republican Party is beholden to owners of capital; hence they support laws to benefit capital at the expense of labor.

Children don't have expenses, and they can be made to work for low wages. Sometimes they think working is cool, or their parents demand that they must work in order to learn responsibility. But earning money to pay rent and buy food isn't their main reason for working. So they will accept a nominal wage. They also don't understand what the market wage should be.

But the more children who enter the workforce at below-market wages, the fewer opportunities there will be for real workers to find jobs. These proposals are not only bad for children whose exploitation will be legalized, but they are also bad for adults as well. 

Mitchell Blatt is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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