Wage & Hour Division
lborkowski | May 10, 2012
by Kim Krisberg
Norma Flores Lopez knows what it's like to be a young farmworker. She grew up in south Texas, migrating north with her family every year to places like Michigan and Iowa to pick produce. At 8 years old, she was accompanying her parents into the fields, and by age 12 she was officially on the books as a farm employee.
She knows first-hand what better safety regulations would mean for children and young people working in agriculture -- the country's most dangerous industry according to the National Safety Council. And only a few weeks ago, better working conditions did seem…
cmonforton | May 4, 2012
This time last week, many of us in the public health and workers' rights community were still in shock by the Obama Administration's decision to withdraw its proposed regulation to protect children who work on farms. Others weren't really surprised and simply chalked it up to the Administration caving into energetic attacks by the American Farm Bureau, Republicans in Congress (and some Democrats, too) and anti-regulation spinmaster radio hosts. The proposal recommended that children aged 15 years and younger---who are being paid as employees----be prohibited from doing some of the MOST…