Sign, sign, everywhere a sign... as the refrain from the 1970’s song by the Five Man Electric Band went. Where back in the day the signs related to how people looked, today they relate to how few people are working. When it gets to the point that, when on a family vacation, my kiddos were asking why there were Help Wanted signs in other parts of the country as well as at home, the gravity of the situation is that evident.

There has been no shortage of talk about the shortage of workers, and I don’t mean just after the lockdowns last year – in my little corner of the world in northeast Wisconsin, going back to 2019 and earlier there was low unemployment and many employers then were struggling to hire people. With all that has gone on since, it has been even worse.

With all of the talk, it seems like it is just that – talk. Sure, there are some “standard” approaches to hiring people, such as higher wages, sign-on bonuses and increased benefits. However I haven’t seen much along the line of new, creative thinking to find the right people to augment short-staffed businesses. I have heard of what could be considered desperation, where an employer was hiring people whom they have fired in the past, but that seems like the least optimal situation.

Allow me to put an idea out there that is outside of the standard practices I have seen – lower the minimum age to work.

Where I am sure I am not the first person ever to think of it, and it was not an idea I came up with alone. I have my oldest kiddo to thank for helping me come up with this. Over the summer she was talking about how when she gets old enough she can’t wait to work for her favorite Mexican inspired fast-casual franchise restaurant named after a type of pepper. As an avid consumer of their tasty products, she can picture herself working there in various capacities while earning money and getting employee discounts on said tasty products. But alas, she has to wait, as that business and others have to abide by rules and regulations on minimum age requirements.

That’s when it struck me – could a change in minimum ages to work help alleviate the strain on businesses by making a larger potential pool of available people to work?

Doing My Homework

As I set out to see if my idea was completely off-the-wall or had some merit, the first place I looked was the State of Wisconsin’s Web page on employment of minors. My assumption that every state has information like this, and it may have local overrides – I am not a lawyer, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

At first glance, there are categories where someone under 16 can work and they include everything from agriculture (e.g. bean pickers) to public exhibition (e.g. being Shrek in a play). Searching specifically for “food” and “restaurants” I found only the former, where it is prohibited from being a food slicer as this is considered hazardous. Does this mean my kiddo’s burrito wrapping dreams may have to wait? It’s not completely clear. Recently it was suggested to her by a donut shop owner she met as part of a school program that she could work at the age of 14. Perhaps not making the donuts but selling them?

I further sought to validate my idea, and get the “take” on this from others. To that end I shared this idea with Josh Dukelow, the host of a local radio show Fresh Take on WHBY in Appleton, WI. Not only was he intrigued by it, he included it in a segment of his show where he interviewed a labor attorney about the labor shortage. You can hear the whole segment at the 38 minute mark, and specific mention of my inquiry about lowering the minimum age to work at the 48 minute mark. Of course I would never say an attorney endorsed my idea; she didn’t completely dismiss it but cautioned about the long-term impact of lowering the age.

Labor Still a Hot Topic

As the summer went on and school started, I didn’t think much more about this until last week. That was when I saw the Wisconsin State Senate passed a bill to extend the working hours for 14 and 15 year olds between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This bill is likely to help tourism in the state and take advantage of kids idle time in the summer months. Of course this needs to be passed by the other legislative house and signed by the governor, but I feel this is further validation to the need and a creative idea to solve it.

What do you think – is this a good idea to lower the minimum age to work, or should we just let kiddos be kiddos as they have the rest of their lives to work? I welcome your thoughts in the comments to this post.

Deconstructing Lowering the Minimum Age To Work

Labor laws were put into place and continuously revised to protect workers from poor working conditions. Over time, they also need to take into consideration the realities of the world, including the growth and demand of business and the need for labor to fulfill it. As a kid I delivered the local town newspaper and later worked after school all through high school. Not only was I fulfilling a need of my employer, but I was earning money and gaining a work ethic that has helped make me the man I am. In my desire to explore the change to laws for those under 18, I also wish for them to have the same experience and gains as I to help them through their lives.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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