The 100 Deadly Days of Summer: New Iowa Law Increases Risks for Teen Drivers | News, Sports, Jobs

Summer time! Last day of school! Graduation parties! Meals in the kitchen! Camping! What a great time to be a young teenager enjoying the summer roller coaster.

Getting that first paid job is a summer rite of passage. It's an age-old ritual for many teenagers to look forward to working until they get a driver's license at age 16.

But don't worry, Iowa solves this problem. A new law allowing them to legally drive to work as young as 14 1/2 means they can do even more to solve Iowa's labor shortage. Governor Kim Reynolds signed it on May 17.

In 2022, a new law allowed 16 and 17 year olds to care for children in daycare centers without direct supervision. Last year, the governor signed a law allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to get an exemption to work in jobs such as excavation, demolition and roofing, through employer training or of a work-study program. Teenagers over the age of 16 would also be allowed to sell and serve alcohol as long as the restaurant kitchen remains open. Expanded work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds also allow them to work up to 11 p.m. in the summer, 21 hours during the school year and up to six hours per school day. (Iowa state law is inconsistent with federal law, creating a gray area for employers.)

But these laws were not enough. A new law was needed so Iowa's young teens could legally drive into these new areas of opportunity. Lawmakers justified their votes on the basis of helping miners develop their skills in the job market. The governor said “opportunities to earn and save to build a better life should be provided” to young adults.

Few would disagree on the importance of developing a good work ethic. My sister and I got up in the dark of morning (before daylight saving time) so Dad could drive us two miles to the nearest town, where we boarded a cattle truck with other teenage girls sitting on makeshift benches around the perimeter, huddling under blankets, in the cool morning air. Our destination? Hybrid seed corn hulling for Garst & Thomas. It didn't last all summer, so we had time to take swimming lessons and participate in the 4-H fair.

Our farm family wasn't well off, but my three siblings and I didn't need money for a cell phone or a car we weren't old enough to drive. A year later, my own children had plenty of time to swim, play 4-H, and softball. They found summer employment after they turned 16. Their work ethic has not suffered.

Make no mistake: Laws loosening established child labor protections allow employers to pay lower wages to their young employees. They also defeat the purpose of keeping kids focused on graduating from high school. How far are lawmakers willing to go to solve Iowa's labor shortage?

New distracting technology

Auto safety professionals call the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day the “100 Deadly Days of Summer” because of a significant increase in fatal crashes among teens. Iowa's new juvenile permit law will allow teens to travel up to 25 miles to their jobs or farm-related work.

About 20 years ago, Iowa teenagers as young as 14 and a half were issued high school permits allowing them to drive between home and school and engage in activities extracurriculars. According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Iowa is one of the few states that allows minors as young as 14.5 years old to drive unsupervised.

As a parent, this never seemed like a good idea. Motor vehicle accidents are already the leading cause of death among American teenagers. Teenagers are three times more likely to be killed in a car crash than drivers aged 20 and older, according to AAA. I wrote about the merits of graduated driver's licenses in a 2007 column in Successful Farming called “Just Dying to Drive.”

Several years later, two of my nieces skidded on the ice while driving to a school event early in the morning. Their vehicle overturned and they ended up upside down in a farm field. Although one was airlifted to Des Moines, both were fortunate not to be seriously injured.

Such accidents are not unusual. In Iowa, young drivers were involved in 16.3% of fatal car crashes in 2021, one of the highest rates in the nation. In 2023 alone, youth ages 14 to 17 in Iowa were involved in more than 4,000 car crashes, resulting in 17 deaths and 94 serious injuries.

Today, teens have access to a new toolbox of destruction when they drive: cell phones, texting, Instagram and Snapchat.

Protection against predatory employers

This relaxation of child labor laws in Iowa comes at a time when child labor violations in the industry are increasing. In 2023, more than 5,800 children in eight states were hired in violation of federal child labor laws. Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., of Wisconsin, paid more than $1.5 million in penalties for hiring children as young as 13 to clean meatpacking plants.

Earlier this month, Fayette Janitorial Service in Somerville, Tenn., paid $649,304 in penalties for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by employing children as young as 13 to clean equipment at a meatpacking plant in Sioux City. As many as 23 children worked overnight cleaning at the Seaboard Triumph factory. This is the first case of its kind in Iowa.

How many of these children who end up working long hours in dangerous jobs are single immigrant children in the United States?

If you saw the biographical drama “Cabrini” earlier this year, you know that it focused a close-up on the plight of orphaned Italian immigrant children left to fend for themselves in New York in the late 19th century. It features a scene where two young people took a job at a pumping station, where one of them was killed in an accident. Previous generations of Americans fought for better worker protections, but Congress couldn't get the Fair Work Act across the finish line until 1938.

Most children look forward to their first job and usually don't question their safety. It's hard not to suspect that the relaxation of child labor laws in Iowa and about 11 other states in recent years is not aimed at children whose parents are struggling to make ends meet.

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As Farm Management Editor of Successful Farming Magazine at Meredith Corp. in Des Moines, Cheryl was the first female editor in the magazine's history to write about business.