Thankfully the U.S. Department of Labor has figured out that while a kid may work up a sweat bailing hay in the middle of August, farm families should have more leniency than other industries when it comes to putting kids to work.
Today the Department announced strong plans to re-propose the parental exemption portion of the child labor in an agriculture proposed rule to reflect more fully the needs of families in rural communities. Bottom line: for now it’s still OK to let your youngsters help out on the farm. And it looks like their ability to work for family members will be protected in the future.
From the Dept. of Labor’s news release:
The department recognizes the unique attributes of farm families and rural communities. The re-proposal process will seek comments and inputs as to how the department can comply with statutory requirements to protect children, while respecting rural traditions. The re-proposed portion of the rule is expected to be published for public comment by early summer. The department will continue to review the comments received regarding the remaining portions of the proposed rule for inclusion in a final rule.
An advantage of a rural life is that you start building a strong work ethic from the first day you enroll in a 4-H livestock project. I know many 5, 7 and 9 year-olds who take their responsibilities caring for livestock very seriously. It would be a crime to lose that because of strict regulations created a chilling environment for parents and grandparents.
We don’t have kids, but we have certainly benefited from having our friends and neighbor’s children help out working cattle, bailing hay, doing some basic chores. I believe that we’ve also shown a few of these kids that their moms and dads were:
1) not so mean
2) not so hard to work for
3) smarter than the kid gave them credit for
We think those are important lessons to learn before one graduates from high school. Hopefully the rules will allow us to help out in this manner in the future.
This is a great example of where farmers and ranchers can have success when they’re vocal about their way of life. We all still need to pay attention to how the final rule comes together, but the farm community can breathe a little easier today
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Where is the US Department of Labor coming from? It always makes me wonder where these politicians came from, what were their roots, when they come up with these types of proposals. Generations ago the farm life is what instilled the strong work ethic in people that built this country. Without that where would we be today, but then again I see how urbanization has made people lazy and all the new technology that has made life easier has also made people less likely to do something physical if they have an alternative that can do the job with less effort.
ReplyDeleteI am an untraditional AG person if you want to look at it that way, I grew up most of my life in the city but my parents came from farm backgrounds growing up in the sand hills of western Nebraska. I feel that they passed down the spirit of the farm to us girls “I have two sisters” they were hard workers, moral and up standing. When I was in Jr. High we moved outside of Ft. Collins, CO to a dairy where my dad milked cows. That was my first experience living in that environment. We joined 4-H and bought some ewe’s to have lambs to show at the fair. It was a great time in my life. I now had a different set of chores to do getting up early in the morning to feed the lambs; my ewe had triplets the first year, four the next and five the third year. So, we had some bottle feeding to do. It taught me a greater appreciation for farm life and helped teach me responsibility, dedication to completing a project, and that hard work produces great results.
If it wasn’t for the FFA program that my children were able to be a part of in the small community we live in, in Missouri they wouldn’t have learned some of those same attributes that I learned the few years I lived on the farm. So, that is why I returned to school at the age of 49, three and a half years ago to get my degree in Agriculture Education so I could help instill these same qualities in others. With only two percent of Americans in Agriculture we need to be teaching the rest where the food they eat, and the clothes they wear come from. Bring back the values of hard work that helps to instill pride in oneself for a job well done. Getting back to the news release from the Dept. of Labor where they say “The department recognizes the unique attributes of farm families and rural communities. The re-proposal process will seek comments and inputs as to how the department can comply with statutory requirements to protect children, while respecting rural traditions”. Well I am glad that because of the outrage of the two percent who are in agriculture, have stood up and made their voice heard on the content of this proposal and how you can’t just put everything in a neat box for everyone. I understand that there may be circumstances where children are being used unfairly for labor but you can’t just put them into one big group with one solution.
Thank God sanity has returned. It just seems like whomever is in power, the regulations just grow and grow.
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