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Rural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores

Arbo

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Child Labor Laws | Farming | Department of Labor | The Daily Caller

A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves.The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land.
Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.”
“Prohibited places of employment,” a Department press release read, “would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.”

More invasion into the private lives of families, in a manner that is more harmful than helpful.
 
This is a terrible idea. I worked summers on my uncles ranch. Good way to learn. I also thought this was absurb, "

"The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course.
Read more: Child Labor Laws | Farming | Department of Labor | The Daily Caller

More big govt.
 
This is silly. My father grew up on a farm for awhile during childhood. He got up at 5am, collected eggs, fed and watered the chickens and pigs, re-laid the hay in the pig pen, and then had breakfast and went to school. After school he milked the one cow on site, pruned a section of the fields, and then did homework. None of that is really any different than having your child do laundry, wash dishes, vacuum, etc...except the farm work is outside.

I understand coercing children from the "neighborhood" to come out and work on the farm, but agricultural states already have rules in place for that. In Michigan, the Sackriders (corn and cattle farmers) would employ school children during the summer to tassel the corn. You made $0.25 per stalk with an average of 100 stalks in a row. You could do a row in about 2 hours, so it came out to about $12.50 an hour. Michigan had rules in place for these positions. The children didn't have to pay taxes on the income, so no I-9 or W2 information was required, however a workers permit provided by the student's school had to be filled out and filed. We couldn't work more than 6 hours a day and had to have constant access to drinking water while on the job. You also had to be at least 12 years old.
 
The regulation is appears not to be aimed at at families or small farms.

The FLSA also provides a complete exemption for youths employed on farms owned by their parents.
WHD News Release: US Labor Department proposes updates to child labor regulations [08/31/2011]


Young workers employed on small farms, with parental consent, are also exempt from the child labor provisions of the FLSA.
elaws - Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor

Well, thanks for this. That puts it into perspective.
 
Just another pathetic example of our current liberal administration thinking they know what best for our citizens and being determined to implement their agenda by force of government.

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE!!!
 
The regulation is appears not to be aimed at at families or small farms.

If you read the whole article, you would see that yes, they reworded some parts, but it appears that may all just be a ruse.

History has shown what the government aims at, and what it hits, are often two different things.
 
Just another pathetic example of our current liberal administration thinking they know what best for our citizens and being determined to implement their agenda by force of government.

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE!!!


In 1970 Richard Nixon was president, he was considered by many to be a conservative republican.

"The agricultural hazardous occupations orders under the Fair Labor Standards Act that bar young workers from certain tasks have not been updated since they were promulgated in 1970."
WHD News Release: US Labor Department proposes updates to child labor regulations [08/31/2011]
 
Why don't ordinary child labor laws apply. Why do we need these laws?
 
"The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course.

Wonder how much the government thinks it's going to bring in charging for some special OSHA training, and how many 4-H and FFA chapters it's going to close due to such intervention.
 
as a former farm girl, I consider this ridiculous. on the other hand, i wonder if this law is designed to address issues in farm communities where there are likely temptations from both farmers and families to use the children of migrant families as hired labor? that's a little different. i think 14-year-old kids should be in school during the school year, not working 8-10 hours a day picking apples.
 
Well, good thing the Daily Caller is not above lying in it's headline. The rule does not, in any way, ban farm chores. It does not do that. It actually updates regulations for children employed in agriculture to make them closer to those in other lines of work.

WHD News Release: US Labor Department proposes updates to child labor regulations [08/31/2011]

The proposal would strengthen current child labor regulations prohibiting agricultural work with animals and in pesticide handling, timber operations, manure pits and storage bins. It would prohibit farmworkers under age 16 from participating in the cultivation, harvesting and curing of tobacco. And it would prohibit youth in both agricultural and nonagricultural employment from using electronic, including communication, devices while operating power-driven equipment.


The department also is proposing to create a new nonagricultural hazardous occupations order that would prevent children under 18 from being employed in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials. Prohibited places of employment would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.


Additionally, the proposal would prohibit farmworkers under 16 from operating almost all power-driven equipment. A similar prohibition has existed as part of the nonagricultural child labor provisions for more than 50 years. A limited exemption would permit some student learners to operate certain farm implements and tractors, when equipped with proper rollover protection structures and seat belts, under specified conditions.
 
so, this regulation would have zero impact on most farm kids, who are unpaid labor. right? (smile)

agricultural work, i think, is one of the most dangerous professions. my uncle was crushed when a tractor rolled on him, and was paralyzed for close to 20 years before he died. i am not sure the average kid should be using a tractor as part of his/her work responsibilities.
 
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Farm work or more precisely agribusiness is exempt from many pay check type rules. Minimum wage is a good example.

All the outrage over a child doing chores on the family farm is silly. Kids can do chores on the farm, pure and simple. What they couldn't do is work as part of agribusiness, whole different critter.

No way, no how, what are you crazy? Can any government agency enforce a no family member doing chores on the family farm. Hell the USDA can't inspect our food worth a flip, what makes you 'conservatives' think they can check on lil Billy at the crack of dawn to see if he is feeding the pigs or chickens? Sheeeet, I have NEVER had a gubment agent on my land I didn't spend a week or two TRYING to get out to see me.

Get a grip people...

BTW, I owe a small ranch, I know these things. City folk ought to stick to b*tchin about city stuff, crap like the EPA crackdown on herbicides on suburban lawns... :roll:
 
so, this regulation would have zero impact on most farm kids, who are unpaid labor. right? (smile)

agricultural work, i think, is one of the most dangerous professions. my uncle was crushed when a tractor rolled on him, and was paralyzed for close to 20 years before he died. i am not sure the average kid should be using a tractor as part of his/her work responsibilities.
I know tractors are dangerous, but when I first learned to drive a car, I wondered why it did not
have a left and right break.
 
Just another pathetic example of our current liberal administration thinking they know what best for our citizens and being determined to implement their agenda by force of government.

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE!!!


You know what the problem is with laws like this is, once they're on the books, there's no going aback because they'll stay on the books.
 
Well, good thing the Daily Caller is not above lying in it's headline. The rule does not, in any way, ban farm chores. It does not do that. It actually updates regulations for children employed in agriculture to make them closer to those in other lines of work.

Mmm.. how many times will people post the same link? That makes the 3rd time eh?

To those from the city, chores and farm work, for a farm kid, are different things, and it is farm work that they mostly do, to help out the family and learn. It is part of the farming business, thus business regulations would apply.

But of course, the government has NEVER overstepped it's bounds on any given regulation, and has never lied to us, eh?
 
Mmm.. how many times will people post the same link? That makes the 3rd time eh?

To those from the city, chores and farm work, for a farm kid, are different things, and it is farm work that they mostly do, to help out the family and learn. It is part of the farming business, thus business regulations would apply.

But of course, the government has NEVER overstepped it's bounds on any given regulation, and has never lied to us, eh?

Your kids can still work the family farm. This does not affect that. Kids can still get jobs in agriculture, this does not change that. That is why you should read instead of making paranoid rants.
 
Your kids can still work the family farm. This does not affect that. Kids can still get jobs in agriculture, this does not change that. That is why you should read instead of making paranoid rants.

Ah, paranoid rants? Yes, I see, from a supporter of 'government knows best'. Go figure.
 
Child Labor Laws | Farming | Department of Labor | The Daily Caller



More invasion into the private lives of families, in a manner that is more harmful than helpful.

God forbid we actually teach children discipline, self-reliance, money management or a work ethic. How utterly shameful of those rural bastards to teach their children something that would actually be useful to them throughout their lives, why, if they learn these traits, they will never become useful wards of a Liberal socialist state and might actually vote against Liberals. Terrible, I tell you, just terrible to indoctrinate children this way.

Doh, I mentioned God, guess that would invalidate my arguments in the eyes of Liberals.
 
Your kids can still work the family farm. This does not affect that. Kids can still get jobs in agriculture, this does not change that. That is why you should read instead of making paranoid rants.

I agree with you...I almost went on a rant about how ridiculous it is to restrict kids from working on a farm...until I read the entire thing...
 
So: aren't current child-labor laws efficient?
 
So: aren't current child-labor laws efficient?

Shrug, maybe, but then I think current child-labor laws are harmful to children. While I don't support slave like labor for children, it does them no harm to do things like pick berries or harvest local crops to earn spending money. It teaches them to associate work with earning money, also since they have to decide what they spend money on, it teaches them to be responsible with their money.

I got my first "real" job at 13, after that, I had to buy my own school clothes, my own shoes. When I got old enough, if I wanted a car, I had to buy it and pay the insurance and buy my own gas. While I have, on a few occasions had some finicial difficulties (usually due to banking problems), I still do not have a credit card, have only rarely used credit other than cars and or a house. My house and my car are the only things I currently have credit for, and hopefully, if I can get this vehicle to last awhile, I am going to get out of the credit business for cars. My younger brother is the same. Now compare us to the average credit debt that is part of what is destroying the American economy now and when they got their first jobs and when the first started to take some finicial responsiblity for themselves.

Current Labor laws actually prevent many teens from getting jobs. Here in Texas and in Oklahoma, you have to be 16 now to get a job (if I remember it right, that is) but people I have known from New York and some other states said their state wouldn't even let you work at McDonalds until your 18.
 
Current Labor laws actually prevent many teens from getting jobs. Here in Texas and in Oklahoma, you have to be 16 now to get a job (if I remember it right, that is) but people I have known from New York and some other states said their state wouldn't even let you work at McDonalds until your 18.

Which is all, in my opinion, absolutely ridiculous.
 
so, this regulation would have zero impact on most farm kids, who are unpaid labor. right? (smile)

agricultural work, i think, is one of the most dangerous professions. my uncle was crushed when a tractor rolled on him, and was paralyzed for close to 20 years before he died. i am not sure the average kid should be using a tractor as part of his/her work responsibilities.

Not sure how you define "average," but for country kids, especially boys, driving a tractor is "average," depending on the age. So's helping deliver calves and etc.

I surely didn't pay my kids for doing chores. Nobody ever paid me, not as a kid or as a mom. ;)

But country kids can make money (not talking about FFA projects that can pay for college). Some crops have to be picked by hand, tomatoes, for example. Kids can make terrific kid-money on a Saturday morning.

And there are also usually older neighbors, often widow ladies who need their backyards mowed--their backyards being 3-4 acres and all sorts of small repairs. Kids who learn how to fix fences make major money.
 
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