As a pediatrician, I must speak out on Senate Bill 318. While it is touted as increasing work opportunities for teens, it is actually a thinly veiled bill aimed at exploiting our teen population to bolster the workforce of New Hampshire.

At present, our state seems to have a labor shortage. So rather than look at why young people are leaving to seek employment elsewhere and try to bring them back, our State House would like to encourage our teens to work more and thereby sacrifice their other activities in favor of helping employers.

Currently the labor law in New Hampshire limits teens to 30 hours of work a week. Most of my patients work 15 to 20 hours during the week, and even this amount of work cuts into their homework and socializing time, and limits or negates their participation in extra-curricular activities. I am not just making this up – this is what teens are telling me.

If this bill passes it will allow teens to work 40 hours in a week where they have four days of school (Monday holiday for example); 48 hours in a week where they have three days of school and 56 hours during summer vacation or holiday breaks. So, you say, what does that matter if the teen wants to work?

Let’s take another look at the numbers. The average teen is in school five days per week for seven hours per day, which equals 35 hours per week in school. School should be the “work” of youth so they are actually putting in almost a full week of “work” in their school week. Now add to that the hours above.

With a four-day week, that would be 28 hours of school plus 40 hours of work, which adds up to 68 hours of total “work.” For the three-day week, it’s 21 hours of school plus 48 hours of work, which equals 69 hours of total “work.” Would any adult work this many hours without overtime pay?

For one, that would be illegal, as any time more than 40 hours per week earns time and a half. Teens will be paid for regular time except when they exceed 48 hours at one job. I’m sure to get 40 or 48 hours of work the teen will be working more than one job, so no overtime. This is actually outrageous when you think about it.

Add to that the two to three additional hours of homework a teen needs to do each evening to do well in school. On top of that we expect them to get nine hours of sleep per night, which is what the American Academy of Pediatrics states is the amount of sleep needed to prevent depression in teens.

If you go to the American Academy of Pediatrics site, there are multiple articles on the cost and benefits of work. One is titled “Work Should Help Teens, Not Hurt Them.” To quote this article: “On the negative side, however, students who work long hours are likely to not advance as far in school, use illegal drugs or partake in other deviant behavior, get insufficient sleep and exercise, and may spend less time with family. Furthermore, when Labor Department injury rates per hour are adjusted for actual working time, they are almost twice as high for children and adolescents as for adult workers.”

So, who are we fooling with this idea? Parents of New Hampshire need to express their concerns. Do we want our children to lose out on their childhood and perhaps even their potential adult success to help department and grocery stores find enough workers? I challenge our legislators who proposed this bill to go to classes and then work more than a full work week without any overtime pay for hours above 40 per week.

Labor laws were created to protect citizens and yet we now want to strip these protections from our most vulnerable and precious resource – our children.

(Dr. Patricia Edwards of Bow is a pediatrician and president of Concord Pediatrics in Concord.)