There is no shortage of labor, those corporations don’t want to pay a living wage.

Its not their damn kids working. I hate these politicians.

“It’s too expensive to pay adults more money, so we have to go to child labor” these companies say as they literally give lawmakers $10,000s and $100,000s to pass child labor laws. Like bro you said you don’t have enough money to pay ppl…you donating that much proves it otherwise

This is particularly rough when you realize that unpaid internship is a thing in America and they are calling for child labor to be called learning opportunities.

They’d rather roll back child labor laws to increase their workforce, then simply raise wages to keep adult workers. Simply disgusting.

People seem to forget why we have child labor laws. Without them, lower income families would be forced to rely on the income made from children who would in turn not have the time or mental capacity to focus on their school work. It really shows the priorities of these politicians who want kids to work instead of gaining an education.

I'm from Iowa. One summer, I had a job detassling corn. They would bus a bunch of kids out (I was 14, but there were younger kids). They put us on a bus out there and controlled everything. You have to wear long sleeves and long pants because corn leaves are sharp. Iowa summers are hot and humid. They didn't let us take any breaks if we were too hot or have extra water on hand. We didn't know any better and nothing changed until a kid almost died from heatstroke. Just look what companies try to get away with with adults. It will be worse with kids.

There is big difference between working for a company in a factory and being a yard sweeper, newspaper boy, summer lifeguard and assisting your father at his shoe shop.

Reps: "We need to protect children from the evil groomers!" Also reps: "The children yearn for the mines!"

The "children need to be children" crowd trying to bring back child labour is extremely hilarious

It's no longer possible to say that big corporations aren't evil and immoral. They don't want the best for us.

It's important that legislators do all they can to protect the American citizens from the dangers of higher wages.

Once kids start working for long enough, and it becomes normal, most Americans won't be able to imagine a time where a household could be supported by two parents. Similar to how it's hard to imagine a household being supported by one man now-days. The more labor we give the ruling class, the less value they return to us.

One more thing I hate about kids in the workplace, especially in shitty industries, is how often they will be taken advantage of and mistreated because they're young and naive

One thing that always surprises me in US politics is how bribery is legal in the form of "lobying" like what the actual this even is if not rich people paying to govern your country for you ? Not that some heinous stuff doesn't happen in my country but here it's at least against the law and so can be punished.

My mom grew up in a small town in Iowa. Everyone there would say that there is a greedy smirk on every clerk because of the way they would put local grocery stores out of business. And now, they want to close 3 locations in poor urban areas, causing between 50,000 and 80,000 people to go into a food desert. Truly a disgusting company.

“If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the lower class.” It's funny how they just get fined, never shut down

They would rather roll back child labor laws insted of paying adult workers a living wage.

I am totally against child labor. I had to start working hard work at 16 yrs. Old. Now i am 35 yrs old and burnt out completely. I have worked many dangerous factories and gotten hurt from them. And from all that work has worn down my joints and caused me bad arthritis and my cartilage to be worn down and my bones rubbing on each other at 35! And then recently I went to work at Walmart thinking it would be safer and it wasnt! A supervisor started harrassing me and stocking me and threatened me. From that l fell off a ladder and i smashed my knee on the cemented floor on the isle stocking shelves. I got a huge injury on my knee. Had to get MRI and everything and cant work now, in so much pain! And Walmart has not paid me a dime for workers compensation the whole 3 months i been out of work because of them. And cant get another job. You see I dont want this to happen to anyone and especially not kids. A kid couldn't deal with this kind of stress and trauma. And we should've have kids work this hard so early that can destroy the health of their bodies.

I had concerns of this topic, so I looked it up on KZfaq naturally and it was shadow banned despite many videos covering it. What the auto search didn't mind showing me was child labor happening in other countries. Just something I'd share, along with the fact that we have a child marriage and adult illiteracy problem.

It is heinous that corporations are being allowed to exploit kids as a way to increase their bottom line. Sick.

At age 15, I applied for a part-time job at a fast-food place. While it is normal for some teens to do part-time work here in Japan, they are neither expected nor allowed to put in long hours or do dangerous work. Iowa’s new child labor bills are not fueled by the desire to benefit children, but by the greed to benefit corporations by not paying their workers. Hy-Vee, more like Hy-ly vee-llainous, a sinister smile in every aisle.

A few months back I went to Culver’s (Midwest fast food chain) and I was served by a kid who couldn’t have been older than 14… He could’ve been older than what I think but he had such a baby face and seemed so eager to please. Shocked me how young he seemed to be. I can only hope he was working the job to save up for a new PS5 game or whatever and not because he needs to help put food on the table for his family.

Children working at bars serving alcohol is a big red flag for some kind of abuse to occur

I'm guessing they won't be lowering the minimum age to run for office though. Can't have those kids being able to represent themselves!

We desperately need an uprising by the working class.

Conservative here. Here would be my rules: 1. 16 is the youngest a person can work; 14 is too young. A 14 year old wanting to mow yards with his dad's lawn mower is perfectly fine. 2. The job can not involve serving alcohol or require the use of dangerous machinery. For example, a 16 year old working at McDonalds can run the register and clean, but not handle the grill. 3. When school is not in session, they can work up to 4 hours per shift, 20 hours per week and cannot work past 9pm. When school is in session, the hours are halved and they can't work past 8pm. 4. They cannot be left alone at any time. 5. They should not displace any workers. This should be like an internship where it's more of a learning experience. 6. Their paycheck is completely exempt from taxation until they turn 18. I firmly believe if you can't vote then your paycheck should not be subject to taxation.

I genuinely don’t know how they sleep at night. How do you reinstate child labor and NOT realize you’re a supervillain?

Maybe if they paid better they wouldn't need children.

Anything to keep wages down.

Years ago when I worked for Hy-Vee, I witnessed them breaking child labor laws by making high school students work until midnight because of a manager screw up. Even though the kid was in a different department than me, I told him to go home. He was scheduled to 10 and it was a school night. Luckily the state that I love in has a law that clearly states that Minors must have a cut off time at 10:00pm. Then there was the Osha violations. In the department I worked in, none of the blade guards were fitted correctly or missing completely. Some of the equipments' safety switches were bypassed so they can operate without their guards installed. Also, everyone should see what they do when the health inspector comes through in some of the departments.

Lobbying is still the most messed up thing in our politics. No other issue can ever be fixed when money is the first thing and people second.

POV: You are a U.S citizen your labor gets taxed, but you cannot vote.

Me in history class: Wow, what awful things these kids did, I'm glad I'm living in the future. Iowa: Yaaaaaaaahhhh! It's Rewind Time!

This is horrifying! I'm commenting in hope that this video gets recommended to a lot of peoples. We need more people to know so we can fight this!

So each labor violation cost hyvee about 22k. If you look at that the most heartless way possible (as I’m sure they do) they still come out financially ahead. The value of that child’s labor is certainly more than 22k. What’s up with these BS fines that are insufficient to discourage the illegal acts!?

Follow up question: Can children participate in unions? If not, wouldn't this be union busting?

My grandpa served in the Pacific in WW2. He was big and tough as hell. He worked in a meat packing plant for about 30 years. He would be angry to know he worked so hard for his country only to have children work his dangerous job.

This is a bit of overdramatization, I've had 40 hour week summerwork in construction since I was 14, and this was in early 2000's. And the country is Finland. Construction does have jobs that don't require sharp objects or heavy machinery, such as house painting and putting mortar on wall screws. Lot of these proposed changes have been a thing in Europe for decades. That being said the alcohol serving and meat packing plant one is suspect. Have worked in meat plants myself since I was 18. While meat refineries do have bloodless jobs towards the end of the meat plant where hamburgers look like hamburgers instead of gory pieces of meat, packaging and logistics machines are quite big. The summerwork in question would have to be some very simple and lightweight conveyor belt jobs that don't require sharp tools, forklifts or lifting anything too heavy.

It's so frustrating that corproations used to be afraid of the law, and now they're making and changing them.

"We're protecting the children from the groomers!!!!!! But also we're keeping child marriage legal and reintroducing child labor"

What does it say, when corporations pay more in campaign donations than they pay in code violations?

This should play during prime time on every TV channel as a public service announcement. I'm guessing that most of America has no idea of what's going on here and just who is funding these child labor roll backs. It's disgusting.

We need to have a clause or law that if children are forced to do hard labor they must be paid the same as adults or higher for the higher effort they are forced to put in. Then watch these horrific child labor practices and laws suddenly disappear. Magical.

Hyvee gets fined $750k for child labour laws. Donates $850k to weaken said child labour laws. Fines must be big enough to be a deterrent and not a cost of doing business.

You shouldn't have to work if you are too young to vote and too young to understand when you are being exploited, abused, injured. This is idiotic.

Thank you for informing people and doing investigative journalism.

Imagine being in management and someone asks how to save money to which one person says we'll use the kids! And a group of adults back this idea. Seems barbaric and a waste of education, I know.

Can this "to fill jobs" argument go away since we know ghost job openings are a thing?

Having worked with highschoolers, a lot of them start off very excited and motivated, most of them start to burn out within a week or two. The employers toss stuff at them and few of those teenagers have any type of experience or preparation for the type of work that is given to them and physically and mentally it wears on a lot of them super fast. Jobs that break down adults with years of experience are not going to be forgiving for younger folks. A lot of them end up stressed, tired, and having wear and tear much sooner (foot, back and join problems, sores, bruises, aches, fatigue etc). It's disgusting to expect that type of thing to be acceptable for ANYONE , but then aiming it at youth cause cheap labor....disgusting is too kind of a word for the people that want child labor to return.

I wonder if the fines those companies paid for violating child labor laws even exceeded the amount of money they saved by hiring children rather than adults...

Really love when people with interests different from mine make decisions separate from my input. Businesses are one of the last institutions that aren't even forced to operate even somewhat democratically.

Would the people writing and passing these laws let their own kids work in these dangerous industries? Doubtful.

I worked in a Diner at 14 because my parents forced me to get a job. Not only was it absolutely horrible as I worked with a bunch of adults who were drunk or high all the time, I was forced to do multiple jobs (basically everything but cooking) for $3 an hour, 12 hours a day with no breaks (my state does not require any break or lunch be given) and no tips. Not to mention the injuries that included but not limited to tearing my rotator cuff on my left shoulder to the point my arm would go numb and I couldn't use it, had a bad knee injury that caused pretty bad arthritis to this day, cut the top of one of my fingers off, ripped the nerve endings in another finger.... It killed my social life, my grades plummeted and I felt so exhausted 24/7 that I ended up falling asleep in class. The snowball of that ended up leading me to fall into a long depression into my 20's into my early 30's. I had no friends, worked 40+ hours a week on minimum wage ($8 at the time) at jobs that would not let me sit or take a lunch with bosses that were basically cartoon villains and never had any money to my name as buying a car, insurance for said car and rent was all I could afford. I wouldn't wish this on any child. I'm in a better place now but working as a child really messed up my life for near two decades. It's insane that people want their kids to work.

It really was never about "Protecting kids"

Those kids are getting an education, all right. A master class in naked corporate greed.

I can't stop thinking about this. If you're working hard to change a law, but you're unwilling to talk on camera about that new law--who it benefits and how-- then you know that what you're doing is wrong. You know that your motivations are wrong. You know that your values and/or priorities are wrong. You just don't care, because your pocket is your priority and besides this will only impact "those people" or "that part of town".

Hearing the Meatpacking Industry wanting to bring back and take advantage of child labor instantly reminded me of the Upton Sinclair novel The Jungle. These corporations are a blight on the working class.

These secret meetings lobbyists have with politicians need to be VERY advertised and public forum. -Normal people- "non job creator parasites" should get to attend these meetings to know how they're about to be screwed, to at least have a CHANCE of doing something about it or dealing with it.

My cousin kid plays literally eight hours of PlayStation after school. I can’t imagine him working being a bad thing.

When I was 15 I worked at a McDonald's and they had me unknowingly breaking federal laws by using people's receipts to make false good reviews for the restaurant. They'd hand me a wad of receipts and have me do it in the back

My husband worked construction for years. One day, he witnessed a co worker fall off a roof. The co worker lived, but due to his legs telescoping, suffered through several surgery procedures and was in a body cast for months. His ankles had visible metal screws sticking out of them and it was very disconcerting to be around him, knowing how much pain he was experiencing. This was a grown man. He fell because a foothold broke off the roof. Teenagers are notorious for not having the maturity or the ability to make logical choices and I can think of many types of jobs and scenarios where a kid might make the wrong decision on a construction site and not live to see the end of the day. But, hey- a company doesn’t have to pay for insurance coverage for part-timers or invest in a whole lot of time consuming instruction (time is money), so it’s a big win for them.

Yeah, I see nothing wrong with that. Kid should have a right to work! 👍 You got my vote on that! 🗳

Bruh, we really do live in a dystopia...

Knowing what I went thru as a waitress and bartender, I really hate the thought of a child having to work in that environment.

I started working in the United States around 9 years old cutting spray foam insulation. I took a few years off for school and eventually got into trouble so back to the labor force I went. Fulltime at 14 on. By 15 I had a compromised disk in my back I received no help for. By 18 I had 2 bad disks, chronic hip problems, almost lost a few fingers, severe stress and anxiety. At 27 I've found that I wake up in extreme pain some days and others I wake up KNOWING it's going to be a bad week. Rain and snow make it worse as well as the cold because EVERYTHING hurts. To top it all off I have an agregiously aggressive take on work ethic and often times "work myself out of a job" because I have incredibly high expectations most people can't meet. This coupled with poor compensation packages sees to it that I don't make it very far very often all while these companies profit off my blood sweat and tears. I'm fed up. My daughter will NOT work until 18 unless it I'd for herself under my supervision. End of discussion. Child labor ruins lives in the long run. I live with pain on a day to day basis that responsible parties don't even have to think about. For the rest of my life I will suffer because I was pushed to work like a mule because I'm a "stout" man.

Thank you for bringing this to light.

I babysat in neighborhood from 11-13, started working part time at 14, I believe it helps teens maneuver, build and understand unwritten work ethic and etiquette before they’re adults thrown into the workforce . I believe hours should be limited, time of night limits and regulations on dangerous situations. Working 3-7 a few days a week or 8 hours on weekends at a Mcd’s is perfectly acceptable. Not everyone does extracurricular activities at school. In a trade high school during shop week, if you prove responsible and good grades, we could go to work at a participating job of that shop during shop week. Hands on learning, earning a pay check in senior year.

“There’s your tease” !?!? He seems almost giddy about putting kids in danger. If you’re from a poor family, your mind and body just doesn’t matter.

They just want to keep pay low. They've been arguing for ages that jobs like McD's shouldn't be higher, because it's meant to be a kids job, for spending money, not a living wage job for staying housed and fed, and raising a family. Making more jobs available to kids, means fewer jobs for adults aka fewer living wage jobs.

Child labor & enslaved child labor never left no matter the law. Glad it's getting the press attention of how screwed up it is.

Parents, DO NOT allow your children to work for these GREEDY corporations!!! MAKE THEM PAY A FAIR WAGE!!!!!!

I worked on a farm during the summer every year as a kid. During harvest, we had to work from 7 am to 9-11 pm. The was not a family farm. We were denied breaks because it was too busy. When I collected my check at the end of the season, they deducted an hour for each day for “lunch.” My response was that we never had a lunch break. The response was along the lines of, “if you add up the time you had off throughout the day, such as between trucks, it adds up to an hour.”

The wild shit to me is that there are probably old-heads on the lines at some of these factories who lived through: Having a union Having the union slowly eroded by right to work laws Having no union but decent pay and benefits Having that pay stop being decent while they stopped getting raises Having their benefits disappear multiple times in stock market bubbles And they may soon have to work with literal middle schoolers.

I loved doing more work than my older colleagues but being paid 1.5x less.

We Must protect the Children.

The fun part is how there is *no democratic or legal recourse* to fight this back at all Like, what are you gonna do when the corporations can simply pay the laws into existence?

Concerned about the number of children who will be forced and coerced into working by their own families. When you're 14 and you parents want your checks there not much, if anything you can do to say no.

Adults know their self worth (most of the time) and therefore, don't want to work for a pittance anymore. Children think 7,25 an hour sounds pretty good when they love with mom and dad

I mean, I worked under the table for some furniture stores. This just means they will have more tax revenue. Just don't make it mandatory and I am fine with it.

I turned 18 last year, I didn't work during my high school years because I wanted to focus on education. I'm glad I did. But now that I actually have a part time job and I am now pursuing more education. 20+ hr work weeks plus classes have been kicking my a** I find it despicable that businesses are pushing even more to find cheap labor to overwork. Using the free-time that children have as an excuse to raise the clock out limit to 11pm in the summer. Disgusting. I wouldn't wish that kind of punishment on anyone, especially children.

People are quick to go “no! We can’t increase minimum wage! It will raise prices!” I don’t hear many people going “no! We can’t enable child labor! It will decrease my pay!” Replace workers with cheap robots: OH NO! Replace workers with cheap immigrants: OH NO! Replace workers with cheap children: we sleep…

Very impressed with your reporting

THANK-YOU for this video! I had no idea this was going on! It's TIME TO PROTECT the young HUMANS from corporate greed.

Wow…they would rather gut the child labor laws than pay adults a fair wage. Furthermore, they don’t want kids educated on the reality of the system because that runs the risk of these children growing up to become adults who might change things. I’m absolutely ducking fisgusted.

Paying current candidates a dignified wage is completely out of the question. They instantly skip that step and aim that itchy boot at the throats of our children.

You guys in the US need more unions...

You can just hear the fervent conversations behind closed doors and at parties, "I mean, I'm losing money here", "You've gotta come through for us", "We've donated tons of money to you", " We've been friends for a long time", etc etc etc.

We sink lower everyday.

I worked at a Taco Bell where there were giant fry-vats in the middle of the kitchen. You were supposed to put on a splatter vest, eye-goggles, thick rubber gloves, and wear slip-resistant shoes. Since we were nearly always short-staffed, we had to jump from job to job constantly and rarely had time to don the required gear. I wouldn't be suprised if one of those kids ends up with horrific grease burns one day, and the company will say it was their fault for not wearing the safety gear even though they get reprimanded for moving too slow if they take the time to put the PPE on.

I'm a retired teacher. I saw firsthand that part-time work for underage kids is never part-time. I has one student who kept falling asleep in class because they'd promoted her to shift manager at Chipotle. She regularly worked until 1 a.m. on school nights. She was 16! Her family needed the money, so she worked at least 40+ hrs. a week. So sad that these people put profits above the futures of these young people.

16 year old just DIED at a Mississippi poultry plant. It was the 3rd death in 3 years. Something is wrong guys...very wrong.

There is nothing wrong _in general_ with getting young people into jobs. European countries have centuries of experience with "apprenticeships", and having young people learning a job practically instead of just in theory or a santized form in schools does have advantages. But then... these educations are highly regulated and supervised... and given what I have learned about the "conservative" American approach to regulations, making sure teens get good vocational training is not the goal here. It is, as always, making more money for rich corporations.

I will say this, me working on a farm at 14 was a valuable life experience. It taught me the value of difficult labor, it helped me understand where I food comes from and how fucked up the current food industry is in the U.S., it motivated me to get good grades so that way I wouldn't have to end up always doing farm work, and it made me money. However, HOWEVER, school and safety always came first, both from myself and my employer. This roll back on hour limits and workplace safety is a blatant attempt to take advantage of individuals who are less capable of defending themselves from being taken advantage of.

I wonder how much longer Americans are gonna take this bs. This is absolutely insane

These corporations need to be shut down IMMEDIATELY.

How do we get lobbying by corporations out of politics? It's at the point where business have more rights than the people working for them

Thank you for exposing him and the efforts.

WE DID IT BOYS🗣💯🔥 CHILD LABOR🔛🔝💯💯🔥🔥🗣🗣💪💪

Even KZfaq ignores child labor laws with all the families put their kids on display for family income.