New Hampshire’s 16- and 17-year-olds will have fewer restrictions on their weekly working limits if the governor signs a bill passed by the Legislature on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 318 raises hourly working caps for the age group during the school week.
Currently, 16- and 17-year-olds are limited to 30 hours a week and no more than six consecutive work days anytime school is in session.
The new bill would introduce a stratified system depending on how many days of school are in a particular week. For five-day school weeks, the limit would remain at 30 hours, but four-day weeks would allow for up to 40¼ hours of work and two- or three-day weeks would allow for up to 48 hours.
The bill, originally sponsored by Sen. Andy Sanborn, R-Bedford, would also lighten notice requirements for employers relating to hourly working laws and pare back some of the inspection powers over businesses by the Department of Labor.
The bill, which passed, 182-156, drew criticism that it could lead to labor abuses, and that keeping track of teen workers’ school schedule could create headaches for employers in calculating workweeks.
“This increases the burdens on business owners, not decreases,” said Rep. Doug Ley, D-Jaffrey.
But supporters said it would provide flexibility for teenagers looking to save up money and that reducing some of the department’s investigative powers would pare back overreach.
“What this did was to provide some legislative intent to the Department of Labor, hopefully to eliminate some of the ‘gotcha enforcement’ that was happening,” said Rep. Steve Schmidt, R-Wolfeboro, the chairman of the Labor committee.
The bill heads next to Gov. Chris Sununu’s desk.
(Ethan DeWitt can be reached at edewitt@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter at @edewittNH.)