Ease Child-Labor Laws to Fill Jobs, Build Kids

Letter to Ephesians: Florida’s Gov De Santis sees teens as answer to state’s worker shortage as do some other states pushing to ease child-labor laws to help businesses struggling to fill jobs. Good for kids needing to save for college, too? Isn’t the turn-of-the century sweatshop history?

I still recall waking up every morning at 5 a.m. as a 9-year-old to fill my little red American Flyer wagon & start delivering 70 Chicago Sun-Times newspapers to my South Side of Chicago neighbors. The paper boy route paid an average of $7.50 per week. Yet, it was a wind fall that I sorely needed since my postal worker Dad was never going to be able to pay for my college education, one I sorely wanted, even at that young age. Know what? After 3 years or so I built up a $750 nest egg that would be supplemented in future teenage years & built up to reach $4K+ via various jobs as lawn cutter, janitor, retail clerk and factory worker. Yes, menial jobs to many folks’ way of thinking, BUT those hard-earned savings as a youth paid my tuition at U of I at Chicago (tuition was A LOT cheaper way back then).

Aren’t millions of kids today in a similar dilemma? Wouldn’t opening more such basic jobs for youths not only help them and their families navigate an increasingly expensive world, but educate them about commitment, patience, discipline, teamwork and even faith in their God-given ability to stand on their own two feet?

Davd Soul