Sy Moskowitz

Professor of Law

Building protections for our most vulnerable citizens

Sy Moskowitz

If you’re a teenager or eligible for membership in AARP, Sy Moskowitz is worried about you. More specifically, for the past few years Moskowitz has spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about issues impacting our youngest and oldest citizens: inadequate child labor laws and the issue of elder abuse.

Moskowitz didn’t set out to work both ends of the spectrum. People arrived at his law school office with real-life legal cases and he found himself in the often-uncharted waters surrounding these folks who often get trampled by our nation’s legal system.

The tremendous problem of elder abuse has been on Moskowitz’ radar for years, though most Americans would likely shrug their shoulders if asked about the topic. Elder abuse is just what it sounds like: the abuse – physical, mental, and emotional – of older adults. Shockingly, research shows that between 1-2 million Americans are victims of moderate to severe abuse yearly.

But cases rarely make front page news and Moskowitz thinks this is because in more than half the time abuse comes at the hands of family members. “None of this is pleasant to talk about,” he says. “It takes America a long time to wake up to a problem. Domestic violence is a good example of a problem we’ve finally woken up to. I think this is one of the next great issues we need to confront as a society.”

His legal work on the topic has ranged from assistance on cases in which nursing homes were sued for abuse to law review articles aimed at colleagues and practitioners. “We need a lot more education about the scope and depth of the problem. I advocate intensive education of clergy, healthcare providers, social service providers – the folks on the frontlines dealing with our older family members,” Moskowitz says.

At the other end of the spectrum, Moskowitz is working to get a national dialog started about our child labor laws. He’s not talking about the historical misuse of children in mines or factories, but what he sees as serious contemporary issues connected to working minors.

“America has the highest percentage of adolescents working of any developed country in the world. And we’re not talking about mowing lawns!” he says. “We are talking about 4-5 million teenagers working 20 hours or more every week in retail, in fast food, and other low wage industries.” The upshot: 200,000-300,000 working teens injured every year with more than 77,000 of them making a trip to the ER because of a work-related injury. Between 70-100 working teens die on the job each year. “Teens face the same hazards that others on the job face but they are much less equipped to cope with those hazards,” Moskowitz says.

Perhaps even more alarming, studies reveal that working teens have higher dropout rates, lower GPAs, higher suspension rates, higher rates of substance abuse including alcohol and cigarettes, and greater frequency of car accidents than their non-working peers.

Moskowitz’s research has shown that there is no over-arching federal statute dealing with this topic except an inadequate Fair Labor Standards Act. “The Act does not require that parents give consent to children who are working and does not require employers to notify parents of their child’s employment. Think about this: a teen who can’t legally buy a pack of cigarettes has the right in half our states to withdraw from school without parental consent. They can decide how many hours to work and where they are working. In no other area do we give young people this degree of leeway.”

“We have an extraordinary problem with teen labor in the United States and we are talking about long-term consequences for life development,” he says. “We know all of this because countless studies articulate the correlations between work and negative outcomes but we’re still not paying attention.”

As with the volatile subject of elder abuse, Moskowitz is working to crank up public attention by writing articles that will be read by his peers (both legal educators and practicing attorneys) and professionals who interact with teenagers, and by educating the future lawyers in his classes. “I’m trying to light the fire, to be an instigator and a prodder,” he says. “I’m yelling, ‘hey look at this!’ I really consider that one of the roles of the law professor – to contribute something to the University and the wider world around the University. I hope this will be a part of what I’m able to contribute.”

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