Indiana State Senator Seeks to Scrap Child Labor Laws
Sen. Chip Perfect, CEO of a ski resort that employs hundreds of minors, is getting noticed for his bill seeking to remove restrictions on the hours 16- and 17-year-old employees can work.
Chip Perfect, an Indiana state senator who is the CEO of a ski resort named Perfect North Slopes, has filed a bill to eliminate work permit requirements for minors and also remove all restrictions on what hours 16- and 17-year-old employees in Indiana can work. Perfect's resort employs hundreds of minors -- anywhere from 300 to 400 of them, he toldl IndyStar Statehouse Reporter Kaitlin Lange, who wrote a Jan. 28 article about Perfect and his Senate Bill 342.
Perfect, a Republican, and supporters of his bill argue the state's process of of having work permits approved by a school, employer, and student is outdated. "It [the bill] wouldn't affect me directly, because as I testified today, we have invested an incredible amount of money and we are currently adhering to the laws," Perfect said, according to Lange's article. "This is really more about small businesses who cannot afford the resources to adhere to these antiquated laws."
She reported that the Indiana School Boards Association and Indiana State AFL-CIO oppose the measure and contend that eliminating Indiana's child labor laws isn't the solution to problems with work permits.