Committee reviews bill to ease work permits for minors and expand flexible schedules; senators press on youth safety and enforcement

The Senate State Affairs Committee on March 25 in Juneau heard Senate Bill 68, “Employment of Minors,” sponsored by the Rules Committee at the governor’s request. Kathy Munoz, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and Tanya Keith, director of the Division of Labor Standards and Safety, outlined two main components: changes to child labor permit requirements and an expansion of voluntary flexible work-hour plans for adult employees.

Commissioner Kathy Munoz told the committee the bill would remove the requirement that 16-year-olds obtain an individual state work permit and would allow businesses that employ 14- and 15-year-olds to seek a single, blanket approval for a worksite instead of filing separate permits for every minor. The substitute would also expand the family-business exemption so that businesses owned by grandparents, aunts, or uncles could employ relatives without submitting individual permits. Section-by-section, staff said the draft raises the allowable combined hours of school plus work from 9 to 10 per day and would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work up to 40 hours per week when school is not in session.

Director Tanya Keith described a registration system under the bill by which employers would submit an application for approval at each location that intends to employ minors. Approved employers and supervisors would be required to attend mandatory department child-labor training; employers must provide parents with a detailed job description, obtain parental consent, and keep the consent in the minor’s personnel file for inspection. Keith said the change would let Wage and Hour investigators spend more time on site inspections rather than processing paperwork.

Department officials gave committee statistics to explain the proposal. The department currently processes more than 2,500 work permits per year for 16-year-olds and, across 2020–2024, processed nearly 30,000 work permits (about 5,900 annually). The department said 63% of work-permit filings arrive in May–August and that peak permit wait times range from four to five days. Keith said processing permits now requires the equivalent of about 3–4.5 investigators during the summer peak, leaving roughly 4.5 investigators for inspections; that workload produced about 402 onsite child-labor inspections over the same multi-year period.

Senators asked a range of implementation and safety questions. Senator Wilikowski pressed whether the bill imposes a 40-hour weekly cap during summer for minors and how a “work week” is defined; Director Keith said the bill would allow 14- and 15-year-olds up to 40 hours per week only when school is not in session, and that the start and end of a single work week are typically defined by the employer but may not be manipulated to avoid overtime. Keith said 14- and 15-year-olds currently are limited to 23 hours per week during school weeks and are not permitted overtime; that limit would remain in effect during the school year. Senators also asked about allowable hours of day for minors; Keith said minors may not be scheduled before 5 a.m. or after 9 p.m. during the school week.

Multiple senators asked whether the department had studied health and educational impacts of increasing hours for young workers. Keith acknowledged the importance of research and said the department would follow up with additional information. Senators also questioned staffing: Wage and Hour has nine investigators statewide and the department included an administration request for additional staff in its package, officials said.

On the flexible work-hours component, the department described a voluntary plan already available for adults — 4x10 (four 10-hour days) — and proposed extending the daily maximum under a voluntary plan from 10 to 12 hours. Keith emphasized that the flexible work-hour plan is voluntary, applies only to employees over 18, must be approved by the department, and cannot be mandated as a condition of employment; employers must offer a comparable weekly schedule that includes overtime pay for employees who decline the alternative schedule.

Public testimony included one online speaker, Shannon Davenport, a registered nurse who said she represents herself and cited the Alaska Nurses Association in opposition to the bill. Davenport warned about the health and safety risks associated with long workdays, cited studies on fatigue and increased errors among adults working long shifts, said minors in surgical or high-exposure health settings are generally not allowed under current practice, and asked the committee to request more data before advancing the bill.

The committee closed public testimony and set SB 68 aside for further hearings; no final committee vote occurred on March 25. Committee staff said written testimony may be submitted to senate.stateaffairs@akleg.gov and that the department will provide follow-up information requested by senators.