New Jersey teens may work longer hours during summer break under new law

Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com

Starting immediately, New Jersey teenagers may work more hours and later at night under a bill signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The law expands the hours 16- and 17-year-olds (up to when they turn 18) can work from 40 to 50 and the hours 14- and 15-year-olds can work to 40 during summer vacations when not in school.

It makes permanent the temporary COVID-era provision that allowed teens to work longer hours in the summer, but also adds new provisions, including one that allows 14- and 15-year-olds to be hired to work 8-hour shifts on holidays while school is in session, and without input from their schools. It also increases the hours from five to six before a teen must be given a 30-minute break.

The law removes authority from schools to issue working papers and gives this authority to the Department of Labor, which will create a centralized database to register employers and minors. This portion of the law will take effect in June 2023.

Coming during a critical labor shortage in the state, the bill, which was criticized by parent advocates and labor experts, was signed into law by Murphy on Tuesday after quickly clearing through the Legislature in less than a month.

An earlier version of the bill only gave parents the option to opt-out of having their children work expanded hours during summer break.

For subscribers:As debt soars, Rutgers athletics drops millions on credit cards for steaks, Disney, Broadway

Music in motion:This dancing teen gets nursing home residents moving in their seats

Lawmakers changed that language and rewrote the bill to restore parents’ rights and give their children permission to work. The changes were written into the bill just days before it passed the state Senate and was sent to the governor’s desk. This was done after an inquiry by The Record/NorthJersey.com and with input from experts who expressed outrage that parents were left out of the loop.

But this amendment does not do enough, say advocates who have also expressed outrage that the youth who will be hired to work long hours are not protected enough in a law that updates a 1940 statute. The law’s sponsors did not reach out to parent advocates said Diana Autin, of SPAN Parent Advocacy Network. Though lawmakers included parent consent in the bill's final language, this does not address the risks of requiring teens to work 50-hour weeks.

Teenagers should not be required to work long hours without being trained to be aware of their rights in the workplace, said Carmen Martino, a professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations. He said he hopes these requirements will be written into regulations that will eventually be created by the Department of Labor as it sets up and designs a database and online registration process.

However, teens who apply for jobs this summer under the new law are unlikely to be aware of their rights and state lawmakers have neglected to enshrine that requirement in the law, he said.

“The assumption here is that a 16- to 18-year-old knows what falls under the Fair Labor Standards Act and that they’re supposed to get overtime after 40 hours," Martino said. "It's in the law and that’s what employers are supposed to do. But we’re making many assumptions here.” Martino said many employers have good intentions, but many others in low-wage industries intentionally skirt the law and this will harm unsuspecting teenagers.

Small businesses such as restaurants and shops on the boardwalk are not well regulated, and this is where a lot of teenagers will end up working, he said.

“I think if they [the Legislature] had not fast-tracked it [ the bill] they would have got additional concerns raised by parents and unfortunately that wasn’t their interest,” said Autin.

The new law removes the opt-out option for parents, which would have only allowed them to opt their 16- and 17-year-olds from working 50-hour weeks during summer. That entire section has been replaced with language that states that parents or caregivers of minors who register with the database to be created by the state Department of Labor will be notified by email or regular mail within three days of the minor’s registration. Caregivers have to approve or reject the minor’s registration within two weeks of receipt of notification. Employers must enter that information into the database when a minor is moved to a new position and caregivers will be notified each time, mirroring the current paper process. However, if caregivers do not approve or reject the minor’s registration, the state will go ahead and issue a permit to work.

Seventeen major business lobbies, boardwalk and beach businesses and local chambers of commerce testified in support of the bill. No labor, education or parent advocates were included. The bill received bipartisan support and near-unanimous support in the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

The law was intended to streamline an antiquated paper process for teens and their potential employers, said its sponsor in the assembly, Deputy Majority Leader Roy Freiman, D-Somerset, in June.

Other changes in the law

  • The Department of Labor will receive a $1 million appropriation from the General Fund to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to set up the database and effectuate the law
  • The 50-hour work week for summer for 16- and 17-year-olds and the six-hour shift provisions for teens 14 through 17 will take effect immediately. The rest of the law takes effect on June 1, 2023.
  • Minors will not be able to begin working for an employer until that employer receives authorization confirmation from the state. They also have to update their registration each time they change a job.
  • The state will now consult with the Department of Education in creating a centralized database and process. This is in addition to the Advisory Council for Employment of Minors created by the law.