A bill making some changes to labor laws is on Governor Kim Reynolds’s desk.

Iowa Senator for District 12 Amy Sinclair says the bill has two big parts, which are that working hours for 14 and 15-year olds will be extended, and 16 and 17-year olds working in restaurants can take alcoholic beverages to a customers table. Hours that teens could work would be changed from 7pm to 9pm during the school year, and from 9-11 during the summer. Sinclair tells Raccoon Valley Radio why that extension made sense to her and many others.

“Why would we do that? I can tell the story about my kid last Thursday night who had a track meet, and I don’t know if you’re with high school track meets. Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. He didn’t get home from the track meet until 11:30pm. He’s 16 years old. If that were a job, that wouldn’t be legal. And yet we’re expecting kids to be just fine doing that with extracurricular activities. But those kids who would rather learn a skill, learn a trade, earn some money, buy a car, save for college so they don’t have student loan debt, we’re telling them that work isn’t as important as going and running the 400 hurdles at a track meet on a Thursday night. Still a school night, still during the school year.”

Sinclair reminds constituents that these changes don’t force anyone to work if they don’t want to, just benefits those that do want to work, and those that would employ them. She adds that for 16 and 17-year olds being able to serve alcohol, the bill would require said teens to have parental consent before they can take alcohol to the tables, and that two adults would need to watch over the serving area to make sure that the teens weren’t doing anything they shouldn’t.