COLUMBUS – A bill in the Statehouse could help businesses struggling to find workers by expanding the hours young teens can work.
Due to the labor shortage in Ohio, many companies are employing teens, who are themselves looking to get into the workforce, to help keep their business going.
Employers say it can be difficult at times to schedule students with the needs and time constraints of their education, extracurricular activities and the number of hours they’re legally able to work.
Under current laws, 14- and 15-year-old workers are not permitted to work after 7:00 p.m. during the school year and 9:00 p.m. in the summer.
“It’s pretty hard to juggle when they can leave, what days they can actually work, because obviously everybody has different schedules. If they have any sports that they’re playing, we have to work around that. So, it’s definitely challenging,” Brandon Janis, co-owner of Gino’s Pizzeria in Medina, said.
“So, that’s not a secret. Everybody is struggling with that, but nobody had really said anything about expanding the hours that teenagers could work,” said Sen. Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster), whose bill would extend the time to 9:00 p.m. year-round, a practice already in place in 13 states.
Teens would still be limited to working no more than three hours a day and 18 hours in a week.
The measure had a third hearing in the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee in February but its eventual fate might hinge on federal action because the federal government still limits the hours teenagers can work.