In Tight Labor Market, Restaurants Look to 14-Year-Olds to Serve Booze

As some states look to claw back certain child labor restrictions, the food service industry has petitioned to allow children as young as 14 to serve alcohol in restaurants, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.

The Bureau of Labor Statistic reports that there are more than a million openings in the hospitality and leisure industry, a gap that industry leaders say could be filled by allowing younger workers to take up some responsibilities that are usually reserved for older servers.

Since 2021, seven states have lowered age requirements for serving alcohol: In Alabama, the age was recently lowered from 18 to 17. In West Virginia and Iowa, meanwhile, it was lowered to 16.

Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have proposed lowering the age to 14, although the bill has not yet made its way to the state legislature.

But serving drinks often involves more than just delivering them to a table: Waiters have to know when to stop serving drunk patrons, who may react aggressively. And veteran service industry workers say that sexual harassment from inebriated customers is all too common.

Jennifer Drobac, a law professor at Indiana University who focuses on sexual harassment law, told the Examiner that traumatic experiences can effect teens long after the initial incident.

“We do not want to prohibit teens from engaging in service and work opportunities that would be good for them, that would help them develop their skills and hone their work ethic,” Drobac said. “But we need to protect them while they’re engaging in these behaviors so that they don’t get psychologically or physically injured while they’re on the job.”

Although the legal drinking age is set at 21 nationally, there is no federal law that dictates how old someone must be to serve alcohol. But most states set the serving age between 18 and 21.

At least seven states have recently rolled back child labor protections amid continuing labor shortages, which in some cases allow minors to work longer hours on school nights, operate heavy machinery, or work in meat coolers and freezers.