Wisconsin Republicans now want to let children serve alcohol in restaurants

A bill proposed by Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin would lower the age required to serve alcohol in restaurants to just 14 years old, citing concerns about labor shortages in the hospitality industry.

Critics of the bill say that it’ll expand child labor and lead to more sexual harassment of children as they serve alcohol to the adults who drink it as they depend on those adults for tips.

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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, states required servers who serve alcohol to be at least 18 or 21 years old, but at least seven states have lowered those ages to as young as 16 since 2021 as the restaurant industry lobbied state legislatures in order to access more cheap labor.

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The lowering of the alcohol service age comes as conservatives across the country started calling LGBTQ+ people and allies “groomers” for supporting LGBTQ+ youth, some even arguing that people as old as 25 can’t possibly know their own gender and that people under the age of 21 should be banned from coming out as queer. They have been calling for and passing bans on discussing LGBTQ+ people in schools all the way up to 12th grade and saying that sex education for high school students is “pornographic” and “grooming.”

But while young people apparently need to be protected from even knowing that LGBTQ+ people exist, some Republicans think that they’re old enough to serve alcohol and deal with drunk customers.

Wisconsin state Rep. Chanz Green (R) is one of them. He owns a tavern and says that the bill he supports wouldn’t roll back child labor laws.

“The drinks are still being made by a licensed bartender,” he told The Guardian. “And there is still the responsibility of the bartender and the employer to supervise their employees. [The bill] would just allow servers, who are already working in a restaurant capacity, to bring alcoholic beverages to the table they are serving.”

Jeff Baker, who owns Buzz’s Pub and Grill in Freedom, Wisconsin, said that he “could use one more bartender, and probably two more cooks,” but he has been unable to find people to work for him in over a year. He said he supports allowing children to serve drinks.

“Not as many kids work as much as they used to,” he said. “Back in our day, more kids were needed, and more parents made their kids work.”

He said he’s not worried about giving children access to alcohol because “I’m a firm believer that if kids want to drink alcohol, they’re going to get a hold of it.” It’s a laissez-faire attitude that many on the right are not taking with, for example, drag, banning minors from seeing drag performers even though a teenager with access to the internet can easily watch drag videos on various online platforms.

In addition to minors having easier access to alcohol, servers experience higher rates of sexual harassment than workers in nearly any other industry. A 2014 study from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United found that servers experienced significantly more sexual harassment in states where they were paid less than the minimum wage and were more dependent on tips than in other states because tips were “creating an environment in which a majority female workforce must please and curry favor with customers to learn a living.”

“Depending on customers’ tips for wages discourages workers who might otherwise stand up for their rights and report unwanted sexual behaviors,” the report said. Wisconsin’s tipped minimum wage is $2.33 an hour.

“It’s bizarre. I can’t believe that we’re even having this conversation,” said Wisconsin state Rep. Ryan Clancy (D). He owns an entertainment center that serves alcohol, and he said that he has seen workers getting harassed by drunk customers.

“The idea that we would expose Wisconsin’s children to harassment through this is just unconscionable,” he said. “It’s not only an erosion of labor, but our willingness to protect our kids.”

Iowa state Rep. Shannon Lundgren (R) supports a new law in her state to allow 16-year-olds to serve alcohol so that they can “play a more active role” in family businesses. She said that the law has protections for young people, like requiring “parent-signed permission” and “on-site supervision.”

She didn’t think that sexual harassment would be a problem and, if it is a problem, it wouldn’t be the fault of the law.

“The environment isn’t the crime,” she said. “The person who sexually assaults a person has committed the crime.”

Iowa state Rep. Megan Srinivas (D) pointed out that Democrats in the chamber had to push for the weak guardrails in the bill since Republicans didn’t even want to require supervision of minor workers as they served alcohol.

“There’s a reason we’ve always said minors are at higher risk of assault in certain environments,” she said. “And that’s what [the new law is] opening the door to. When it comes to bars, we’ve seen the data show over and over again that the presence of alcohol does create risk of sexual assault for all people working in that environment.”

She said it was ridiculous for Republicans to ban books and target teachers who support LGBTQ+ students out of fear of “grooming” while wanting to allow minors to serve drunk people alcohol.

“This literally creates the perfect scenario for somebody to be groomed,” Srinivas said. “It’s underage person working in a setting with alcohol, often under-supervised.”