Albany, N.Y. (AP) – For decades, a carving in New York Children’s Law has allowed children under the age of 11 to legally participate in a long tradition of paper routes.
Flip the paper into suburban hedges, ride a bike through the snow, avoid dogs and stiffen it becomes a ritual for generations of young people.
But the changes to the laws quietly enacted through the state budget this month clearly show that the work is not allowed for anyone under the age of 14. The move was first reported by Politico.
Even though the boys and girls on paper mostly walked in phone booths, mimicking machines and their city “Newsie” seniors, they shouted “Extra! Extra!” on the street corner.
Although many teenagers used to be after-school work, jobs decades ago became rare as more and more daily newspapers switched to early-morning delivery. According to industry observers, newspapers are now becoming more online and tend to rely on adults with cars to deliver homes.
“It’s just a thing of the past to need a kids to throw in the newspapers on Stops,” said Allan Bloom, an employment law expert at Proskauer.
Legislators made changes as part of a broader update to the Child Labor Law. As lawmakers simplify the process of hiring minors and increase fines for violating child labour laws, Bloom likens it to a “cleanup.”
Diane Kennedy, president of the New York Press Publishers Association, said she didn’t know there were any newspapers from Youth Airlines in New York.
Christopher Page recalls the first guitar he bought in the late 1970s in Clifton Park, a suburb in northern Albany.
“I just destroyed 10 speeds,” Page said. “It’s a real rainy day, and I’m riding a bike there. Even in winter, I’ll still ride my bike through all the potholes and ice in the snow.”
When the dog chases him on a bicycle, Page will drive them out with a shoulder bag filled with newspapers.
Jon Sorensen, at the age of 13, delivered the Syracuse Herald with his 11-year-old brother on Sunday with his 11-year-old brother behind his mother’s Chevrolet Station van.
“That was when the paper was a paper, a lot of parts and a lot of weight,” Sorenson recalled. “I remember trekking in the snow. …I think I once dropped one because if you do that, you have to go back to the car and pick up another copy.”
Sorensen stayed in the newspaper business as an adult, covering state and political newspapers, including the New York Daily News and the Buffalo News.
“The hardest part of the job is not publishing papers, it’s collecting,” Sorenson recalls. “It’s not always easy to get people to pay.”
