A Labor Day Lesson Plan: Teach High-Schoolers About Workplace Rights

And a word for teachers, who might fret about adding one more topic to an already-packed curriculum: This content is perfectly suited for the end of the school year. Even antsy seniors will perk up when the subject is managers stealing their tips.

To be sure, a proposal to teach students about employment laws may seem modest in light of the country’s dire situation generally, and in light of attacks on labor more specifically. But people’s utter lack of knowledge about workplace rights is exactly what sets the stage for steamrolling them, at a moment when the federal government is already rolling out the red carpet for exploitation. Plus, workers’ rights education could foster greater skepticism and a heightened sense of agency in relation to mega-corporations that currently have far too much power—both in our political landscape and in people’s everyday lives as workers, consumers and small businesses. Wouldn’t it be just a little healing, too, if we had some positive movement somewhere?

Already one state is leading the way: California in 2003 passed a law designating Workforce Readiness Week, required in all public high schools, during which students learn about child labor, minimum wage, unionizing, workplace safety, and other workplace laws. Incorporating this kind of practical, life-skills content is nothing new; Illinois law, for example, requires basic consumer and financial literacy education, including about debt, banking, and installment purchasing.