Meet your new bartender: a teen

At least nine states have introduced bills to lower the alcohol service age since 2021 (seven have been signed into law, much faster than the 18 years it took for five states to make similar changes beginning in 2003), according to an analysis from Nina Mast of left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI). While you must be at least 21 to bartend in over half of all states, and at least 18 (legally an adult) in many other states, more and more states are trying to lower that age. Iowa and West Virginia both enacted laws that bring the minimum age to 16, and Wisconsin introduced a law to lower it to 14—the same age as a freshman in high school. The service sector has struggled to retain and recruit workers over the past couple of years amid a severe labor shortage; instead of addressing the root cause of such issues, such as fairer wages, they’re tapping into a new workforce: teenagers. 

The efforts are a part of a larger agenda to weaken child labor laws, says Mast. “Recent changes represent an increasingly coordinated effort to roll back protections for young people in the restaurant industry, a trend that does not appear to be slowing,” she writes. It’s part of a larger Republican-backed plan to poke holes in the child labor protections, pushing laws that allow minors to work longer and in more hazardous conditions as their proposed solution to the worker shortage. Critics of this strategy have argued that it’s exploitative, a way to shirk the demands of the current labor movement and spur on greater inequality.

Beyond this push to hire minors that EPI speaks of, this is also likely a product of the changing labor market over the last couple of years. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics clearly shows that the pandemic accelerated trends already in place, as restaurant workers were laid off and looked for jobs with more stable pay, flexibility, and better working conditions. People are still drawn to these benefits three years later, as further enabled by the wave of pandemic retirees, points out the Wall Street Journal. 

The industry itself has changed as workers continue to shuffle into other sectors. So finds McKinsey in a recent report, which estimates that more than half of the 8 million-plus occupational changes from 2019 to 2022 were from workers came from workers in food services and consumer-facing positions. As the workforce uses more A.I., McKinsey projects that these roles will continue to decrease as people in these low-paying customer-oriented jobs change sectors. And the pandemic sped up this process as well, as the combination of safety protocol and a labor shortage led to a greater reliance on automation, digital orders, and robots. As adults continue to push for office jobs and other roles that meet their needs, America remains hungry for its fast-casual orders and alcoholic beverages. With the adults away in their office jobs, the teenage bartender comes in as a solution for companies who won’t or can’t entice those who have been in the workforce for some time. That doesn’t mean that this new hire doesn’t come with some drastic ramifications.

Putting young workers behind the bar leaves them in both a financially and mentally vulnerable spot. “The restaurant industry is notorious for low wages and benefits and exploitative working conditions, including systemic racial and gender discrimination and rates of sexual harassment that are dramatically higher than in other industries,” explains Mast, adding that it has the highest incidence of child labor law violations.

Adding alcohol to the mix doesn’t help; a 2021 survey from advocacy group One Fair Wage found that a whopping 70% of women who operate in the food service industry or as bartenders have been sexually harassed by bosses, co-workers, or customers. And tipping culture makes it so employees feel like they need to be amenable even if their boundaries are being crossed, researchers from University of Notre Dame, Penn State University, and the Emlyon Business School find. Tipping culture is especially important when it comes to service jobs, since many states pay tipped workers well below minimum wage expecting the tips to compensate for it. Such conditions have left many restaurant workers living in near-poverty, explaining why many of them left the industry over the past couple of years. 

The leisure and hospitality industries were hit especially hard during the Great Resignation as workers quit for jobs with better working conditions and pay, which became especially important during a time of high inflation. Although hiring increased at restaurants this year, in part due to decreased demand for workers in other industries like retail and bonuses offered to entice workers back, it’s still not back at pre-pandemic levels. Still, a labor shortage persists, especially in low-wage and blue collar manufacturing jobs as highly-educated Gen Z workers in both America and China hold out for those dream jobs that they were promised.

Instead of catering to their needs, the restaurant industry has decided to look to even younger Gen Zers. They’re easier to underpay after all, as EPI points out that federal law allows companies to pay workers under age 20 a subminimum wage as low as $4.25 for the first couple months, and indefinitely in some states. Those lobbying to loosen the age for service rally around the need to address the current labor shortage, Mast notes. But turning to a younger workforce isn’t the salve. “To the extent that jobs remain unfilled, it is a function of poor job quality and a problem with a clear solution: Raise wages and improve working conditions,” she writes.