Study: Ohio One of Nine States with ‘Age-Based Pay Discrimination’ for Teen Workers

A national study of the pay for youth workers showed Ohio was among the states who allow “pay discrimination” when it comes to employment of young Ohioans.

The Economic Policy Institute’s study of “youth subminimum wages” showed 34 states and DC engaged in practices that paid young workers less than minimum wage and also kept them from protections inherent in minimum wage.

The EPI even found that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act “discriminates against young workers based on their age, student status or occupation.”

“Modern youth subminimum wagers are a persistent relic of employers’ past and present interest in children as (a) pool of exploitable, low-wage workers,” the EPI said in a blog post.

Ohio just raised its state minimum wage to $10.45 per hour, but the EPI lists its youth minimum wage as $7.25, and includes it as one of nine states where “age-based pay discrimination” is happening.

“In these places, employers can legally pay certain categories of young workers a subminimum wage on a permanent basis, solely by virtue of their age,” the EPI research stated.

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The analysis pointed to legislative proposals across the country “to weaken child labor protections” that would “allow employers to hire teens for more dangerous jobs or extend the hours young people can work on school nights,” along with the “long-standing system of pay discrimination.”

In March of last year, the Ohio Senate passed a Republican-sponsored bill along party lines, that would extend the hours 14 and 15-year-olds are allowed to work during the school year.

Senate Bill 30, which would move the hours the age group can work on week nights during the school year from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., was supported in committee hearings by groups like the Ohio Restaurant Association, the Pickerington Area Chamber of Commerce, and the conservative national group Americans for Prosperity.

Supporters say the bill would enhance a young person’s “critical life skills such as customer service, problem solving and time management,” according to the ORA’s testimony before the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee in February.

“While a limit is appropriate for younger workers, we believe that 9 p.m. is reasonable, and will open up more personal growth possibilities for Ohio teenagers,” wrote Tod Bowen, managing director of external affairs and government relations for the ORA.

The Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio spoke out against the bill, saying the extension of working hours “would set a dangerous precedent for the state of Ohio to move even further out of compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

“In effect, Sub S.B. 30 creates a slippery slope for child labor protections in Ohio, and in doing so, would ultimately use young people as a band-aid solution to workforce shortages that responsibility lies elsewhere to solve,” wrote CDF-Ohio senior policy associate Alison Paxson, in testimony before the House Commerce & Labor Committee.

The House has yet to put Senate Bill 30 to a full vote, but it came out of the Commerce & Labor Committee in May after four hearings. The chamber has until the end of this year to vote on the bill before the current General Assembly ends.

This story was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished here with permission.