This article was originally published in Nevada Current.
Teenagers could be protected from working late-night shifts before school days, thanks to a bipartisan trio of lawmakers and a group of high schoolers who say businesses are exploiting them.
Assembly Bill 215 would prohibit high school teenagers from working between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. before a school day. Teens aged 14 and 15 are already prohibited by federal law from working between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., but the Nevada proposed law would put in place restrictions for 16-, 17- and 18-year olds who are enrolled in public or private school.
Emancipated teenagers, lifeguards, arcade workers, farm workers, and theatrical performers would be exempt from the hourly restrictions. Additional exemptions could be granted on a case-by-base basis.
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The bill would also lower the maximum number of hours a child under 16 can work: from 48 to 40 hours per week.
“Every single day in my classes I have kids who are too tired to participate,” said Matt Nighswonger, a teacher at Shadow Ridge High School on the northern edge of the Las Vegas Valley. “When I wake them up and ask them why they’re so tired, they tell me they had to close, or had to work late last night. Many of them have to work until 1 or 2 in the morning.”
The business community, he said, is taking advantage of vulnerable teenagers.
“As a government teacher, I try to teach my students that the government is here to protect its citizens,” he added. “AB215 helps to protect our exploited high school workers.”
Karissa Murdoch was one of those teens. The Shadow Ridge senior began working at a local ice rink at 15. She started with a reasonable workload, then she asked for more hours because she wanted more money, then she was asked by her bosses to stay late after her official shift to do extra work.
That’s how she found herself regularly working until midnight Monday through Thursday. After the commute home, eating and showering, she was going to bed at 1 or 2 a.m. and sleeping a paltry few hours before school started up again at 7 a.m.
Her grades slipped. She says she went from being a student who “almost never turned in an assignment late” to a student who couldn’t stay awake in class and turned in everything late. Murdoch said she came to her senses on her own and now wants to advocate for her younger self.
“At 15, I was nowhere near mature enough to prioritize school over money,” she told Assembly members during the bill’s first hearing, which she traveled to Carson City for over spring break in March. “I wish the adults around me would have thought about more than just using me for business gain.”
Teagan Clark, another Shadow Ridge student, testified that working closing shift meant driving home late at night tired — a potentially dangerous scenario for anyone but especially an inexperienced driver. It also resulted in her skipping breakfast in order to get an extra few minutes of sleep, drinking too many caffeine-filled energy drinks, and feeling isolated socially.
Nighswonger said he surveyed working high school seniors at Shadow Ridge and found that 48% regularly work past 10 p.m. on school nights. Many of the students were worried they would lose their job if they shared their own stories, though a few hand-wrote letters for him to deliver to lawmakers.
“I work at a car wash and every night we close at 8 and I stay after hours to clean the vacuum trays and sewage out of the tunnel where the cars are washed,” read one. “It’s too much for a 17 year old kid, but I don’t want to lose my job.”
Equipo Academy Assistant Principal Erik Van Houten said a quarter of 16- and 17-year-olds at the East Las Vegas charter school have jobs, and 1 in 5 of them work over 40 hours a week.
“These students are ill equipped to advocate for themselves to leave work at reasonable hours,” he said. “Many are holding their very first job.”
AB215, he continued, would ”put guardrails in place to protect our kids and make clear that a high school education should be their number one priority.”
Nighswonger, Murdoch and other Shadow Ridge students pitched the proposed law to Democratic Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno and Republican Assemblymember Brian Hibbetts, whose districts cover the school’s enrollment area. Both signed on to sponsor a bill on the issue.
Independently, Democratic Assemblymember Cinthia Zermeño Moore was working on similar legislation inspired by concerns raised by Van Houten from Equipo, which is located in her district.The three Assembly members decided to combine their bills and work together.
Strong support, but some concerns raised
AB215 passed the Nevada State Assembly with unanimous bipartisan support earlier this month and is now making its way through the Senate. If passed, the bill will head to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s desk for final approval.
Hibbetts acknowledged that some might see the inclusion of protections for 18-year-olds as a problem because it means they are being considered adults in some legal contexts and not adults in others. But he said there is precedent.
High school students are not allowed to sign off on their own school paperwork just because they turn 18 during their senior year, he said. They still need parental signatures.
“This is, in my vision, just going along with that same type of mentality,” he said. “I think this is something that we need to offer them. Just because you’re 18, it doesn’t mean your employer can make you work until 2 a.m. because you have to be at school at 7 a.m.”
Monroe-Moreno added that the inclusion of 18-year-olds was specifically asked for by Shadow Ridge students who said their managers target them for late shifts because they are 18.
Several lawmakers in the bill’s two hearings raised concerns about the impact the legislation might have on lower income families whose teens contribute to essential household bills.
Moore said she understands that reality, adding that her first job was at age 14 selling CDs at the Indoor Swap Meet in East Las Vegas. But she argued the state needs to support students with their education because, without it, “they may not be able to seek the opportunities they may have” that could lift them, and their families, upward.
Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a former state lawmaker, spoke in personal support of the bill, saying she wished such restrictions were in place two decades ago when she was a teenage hostess whose paychecks helped support her single mom, who worked as a waitress, and her sister, who was a teen mom at 15. She said she fell behind her junior year and had to do credit recovery to get back on track.
“A low-wage job for a teenager is not going to solve poverty,” she said. “Education is what breaks the cycle of poverty. Education is absolutely what has to be prioritized.”
Groups in support of AB218 included the Vegas Chamber, Nevada Resorts Association, NAACP, City of North Las Vegas, and ACLU.
No groups publicly opposed AB218 during its two bill hearings, but the Nevada Restaurant Association testified in neutral.
“We support efforts to balance student well being and academics with valuable work experience,” the group’s lobbyist, Peter Saba, said. “Many restaurants rely on student workers, and we encourage ongoing discussions to ensure these small businesses can adapt smoothly.”
Monroe-Moreno acknowledged that concessions were made to appease business groups. The bill originally sought to prohibit teens from working past 10 p.m. on school nights but the time was amended to 11 p.m.
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: [email protected].
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