Gov. Reynolds challenges federal child labor law fines to Iowa businesses

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds issued an open letter about excessive fines on Iowa businesses for breaking child federal labor laws earlier this week.

State law was changed last year when the bill passed through the Iowa Legislature at the very end of the session. After the governor signed the bill, union members and lawmakers asked the U.S. Department of Labor about the violations of the new state law; asking how it violates child labor law.

Since the start of 2024, there have been seven restaurants in the state that were hit with fines relating to the new state law. The new law states that children ages 14 and 15 would be able to work until 9 p.m. when school is in session and 11 p.m. when school is out. Federal child labor laws only allow for 7 p.m. during the school year and 9 p.m. over the summer.

“We’re not running sweatshops in Iowa. Our kids are working in small town Subways, the local pizza place, or a family-owned restaurant. Small businesses that are the livelihoods of Iowa families and the lifeblood of our state’s economy,” said Gov. Reynolds in the letter. You can view the full letter here .

A half million dollars has been handed out to those seven businesses fined in total. One of them alone received a $180,000 penalty.

“That was one restaurant in one small Iowa town and it was based on how many teenagers this business was employing and that owner is so frightened about further retribution as they tried to negotiate down that fine, that that particular restaurant owner doesn’t want to speak publicly about it. So the thought that people are afraid to even come forward tells you the manner with which these folks were approached, talked to, handled and the demeanor of the investigators that came in,” said Jessica Dunker, the President & CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association.

Those opposed to the bill were warning about these fines for the last year. Dunker said that the fines were excessive in the state and some restaurants in the state had received fines that are higher than an entire year’s worth of fines for all of the businesses in the state with child labor violations. One Democrat lawmaker in the state thinks that the governor and groups like the Iowa Restaurant Association misled lawmakers and are misguiding businesses with state law.

“Small businesses are experiencing these excessive fines because the Iowa Restaurant Association, a special interest group, wrote a law and misled legislators and misled their members as to what that law did and what was allowed. That’s why we’re seeing these fines come in. It’s not because of any crazy conspiracy that the federal government is out for Iowa,” said State Representative Amy Nielsen, (D) District 85 from North Liberty.

A fact sheet outlines child labor law violations of what is permitted at the federal level and what is not.

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