Unpacking Illinois’ new kid influencer labor law

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Aug 21, 2023 View in browser   By Olivia Olander QUICK FIX KIDFLUENCER COMPLIANCE: A new Illinois law intended to ensure child social influencers receive a payout received praise from advocates when it was signed just over a week ago. But clear compliance could be a challenge in this new frontier of child labor law. “There's a really tricky burden that's gonna get placed … on these content creators to either figure out whether or not this applies to them,” said Martin Kamenski, CEO of Chicago-based Revel CPA, which does accounting for creatives and influencers. The law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker will allow child influencers to sue if a portion of their earnings aren’t set aside in a trust account. It’s modeled after similar laws for other child entertainers, but it’s the first of its kind for social media influencers. According to the law’s text, it kicks in when at least 30 percent of monetized video “produced within a 30-day period included the likeness, name, or photograph” of the child. The amount that needs to be contributed to a fund increases with how much the child appears in a video. For example, “if a young person is in fifty percent of a video, then you have to set aside 25 percent of the money that’s received and put it into a trust fund,” Illinois state Sen. David Koehler said in an interview. Kamenski, who said he supports the law, said he could “almost not imagine how a content creator would comply with this” until there’s some kind of tool or model created to comb through video to determine the percentage that features a child. Some parents already set aside money for their kids, he said. Social media monetization can bring in as much as $15,000 for a single post in an extreme case, said Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor and expert on social media at the University of Alabama. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of people on the internet are using their children in some way, shape or form,” Maddox said, though it’s not clear how many of those people are in Illinois — the only place where the new law applies. Similar legislative efforts in recent years stalled in California and Washington. Maddox said she has heard from people in state legislatures outside those two states since the Illinois law was enacted, signaling possible interest. Koehler said he’s eyeing further Illinois protections for kids on social media. (This bill was amended to cut out a provision allowing kids to request deletion of content upon adulthood.) “The message should be to parents, if you’re going to do this, you need to pay attention to this,” Koehler said, because if a child feels taken advantage of, “and you haven’t done what’s required,” they could turn around and sue. GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, Aug. 21. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. It’s been 160 days since the Senate received Julie Su’s nomination. Let’s not network on Hinge. Send feedback, tips, and exclusives to NNiedzwiadek@politico.com and OOlander@politico.com. Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @nickniedz and @oliviaolanderr.   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO APP: Stay in the know with the POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.     Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. On the Hill BARISTA BACK-AND-FORTH: Starbucks Workers United sent a response to a House committee letter to which the committee previously said it didn’t receive an answer, both the union and a House Education and the Workforce Committee spokesperson confirmed. Rep. Virginia Foxx last week sent a letter pressing Workers United President Lynne Fox for answers about a Starbucks employee who testified before the House committee last year. In last week’s letter, Foxx said the union had failed to respond to a series of questions about the employee, Michelle Eisen, in a previous letter with a deadline last month. A Starbucks Workers United spokesperson this weekend said that wasn’t true. Fox mailed a response to the committee’s July letter three days before the deadline, the spokesperson said in an email, attaching photographs of what appeared to be the letter and an envelope addressed to Foxx’s office. A committee spokesperson acknowledged upon request for comment that Fox had sent a response. The letter went to Foxx’s personal office not the committee’s, the spokesperson said, leading to the second letter. Worth noting: In their response to the GOP-run committee, Starbucks Workers United acknowledged Eisen was on its payroll at the time she testified before Congress — the key question behind the original letter, which said Eisen misled the committee by referring to herself only as a barista. MUCH MORE ON FOXX: The GOP chair has devoted herself to shredding Democratic education and labor policies since 2017, our Eleanor Mueller and Bianca Quilantan report in a wide-ranging profile based on more than a dozen interviews. “She's just a bull, and she just charges in every day, nonstop, from sun up until way after the sun goes down,” former House Speaker John Boehner said. Foxx soon plans to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act — which funds most of the U.S.’ workforce development programs — after helping to shepherd its enactment almost a decade ago, Eleanor and Bianca report. “I can’t wait to get into it,” Foxx said. “WIOA was passed in exactly the same situation we're in right now: We had a Republican House, a Democrat Senate, and a Democrat president.” Unions FIRST IN SHIFT: A group of aviation labor groups including the SEIU, UNITE HERE, the Allied Pilots Association and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants on Friday pushed the CEOs of four major airlines for airport service worker protections and pay in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization. Specifically, the group called for setting a wage and benefit floor for those workers — legislation that stalled in the past. “Our request to you is simple: support the airport service workers who keep our airports safe, clean, and running,” the letter said. UPS WATCH: Teamsters’ deadline to ratify their agreement with UPS is Tuesday. It’s likely the agreement will pass, but if it doesn’t, labor leaders have said the union would strike, The Washington Post reports. More union news: “The tough-talking union leader guiding autoworkers to the brink of a strike,” from The Washington Post. In the Workplace ‘SUBDUE AND RESTRAIN’: Flight attendants are pushing for legally mandated self-defense training, prompted by a surge in air rage incidents during the pandemic, our Irie Sentner reports. A provision in the FAA reauthorization “would require airlines to train flight attendants to ‘subdue and restrain' an attacker and defend themselves against weapons,” Irie reports. Existing law already mandates some training, including on self defense, but some flight attendants say the current requirement allows too much room for interpretation, Irie notes. Airlines have argued the costs of federal security mandates should go to the government, rather than private businesses. The airlines didn’t comment on their positions on the current Senate language. More workplace news: “'It was a death trap.' These workers died in triple-digit heat. Now their loved ones demand change,” from CNN. Around the Agencies CONSERVATIVE PUSH ON CORPORATE DEI: A legal foundation led by former senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller recently sent letters to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asking it to investigate corporate diversity policies, potentially putting the agency in an uncomfortable position, Bloomberg Law reports. “The group over the past year has accused more than a dozen companies—including Morgan Stanley, PricewaterhouseCoopers, McDonald’s, and Starbucks—of having discriminatory DEI programs that aim to increase workplace representation of women and minorities at the expense of white, heterosexual men,” the outlet reports. The recent Supreme Court decision restricting affirmative action in college admissions doesn’t address employer diversity efforts; however, it’s prompted concerns of a chilling effect. More agency news: “EEOC Eyes Revival of Race-Gender Pay Reports, Tempting Lawsuits,” from Bloomberg Law.   Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.     IN THE STATES MINNEAPOLIS MINIMUMS: Uber and Lyft are threatening to cut service in Minneapolis if the city enacts a minimum wage for drivers, the Star Tribune reports. The Minneapolis City Council passed rules Thursday that “would make ride-share workers among the highest paid in the country,” the outlet reports. But Mayor Jacob Frey has expressed reservations about the rules and may veto it, according to the Star Tribune. Frey’s deadline to act is Wednesday. More state news: “America’s Fight Over Tipping at Restaurants Comes to Its Biggest Battleground Yet” in Chicago, from The Wall Street Journal. Even more: “Would a Texas law take away workers' water breaks? A closer look at House Bill 2127,” from The Associated Press. What We're Reading — “H&M will 'phase out' operations in Myanmar after more worker abuse allegations,” from CNN. — “How Los Angeles went from union foe to U.S. strike capital,” from The Washington Post. — “Retailers Are Fleeing Downtown San Francisco. IKEA Is Moving In,” from The Wall Street Journal. — Opinion: “The Hidden Risk of Getting Paid in Stock Options,” from The New York Times. THAT’S ALL FOR SHIFT!   Follow us on Twitter Nick Niedzwiadek @nickniedz Olivia Olander @oliviaolanderr   Follow us

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