Recently there was a bill that the Senate worked on that had some heads turning.

Iowa Senator for District 12 Amy Sinclair says that the bill makes some changes to current child labor laws. She mentions that her youngest son told her he wanted to get a job when he was 14, and she fully supported the decision. He looked for some time before he was hired by the local grocery store where they live, but along the way several businesses didn’t hire him because he was so young.

Sinclair adds that some of the businesses stated that some of the paperwork that came with hiring 14-year olds was too much work, so they waited for older teens to apply. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio how the bill changes things to make it easier for teens to find a job.

“So what the bill does is actually extends the hours that 14 and 15 -year olds can work from 7(pm) to 9(pm) during the school year and from 9(pm) to 11(pm) during the summer hours. We increased, expanded, some work based and learning opportunities and apprenticeship opportunities for students who are involved in those school based or apprenticeship based experiences. And up until now, a person had to be 18-years old in order to carry a beer from the bar to the table at a restaurant.”

Sinclair advises that the bill makes it so that 16 and 17-year olds can carry alcoholic beverages to the tables they are serving, but to serve drinks at a bar employees would still need to be 21.