Teenagers often work jobs after school on weekends and of course, in the summer.

Right now, state laws limit the number of hours they can work.

But some lawmakers in Frankfurt want to lift those state labor protections for 16 and 17 year olds.

Backers of House Bill 255 say doing away with those requirements means teenagers would have a chance to make more money and provide for themselves now and in the future.

But critics say without those protections, their bosses could exploit them.

Kentucky Edition's Jude Lefler has more.

As we began tonight's legislative update.

If the 60 or 70 year old wants to work, he or she should be free to do so.

To me, is no different than a student who wants to dedicate a long time to team sport or student club volunteer to the community.

We're not asking to do anything that federal standards don't already exist, which is bringing ourselves in line with that.

Federal law says 14 and 15 year olds can only work 3 hours on a school day.

But for older kids, there are no federal protections for 16 and 17 year old on hours restrictions.

Kentucky had a more stringent law than the federal on that issue.

Kentucky law says 16 and 17 year olds can only work 6 hours on a school day or 8 hours on a non-school day.

They can work 30 hours a week during the school year unless their grades and parents permit for more.

And they can work as late as 10:30 p.m. on a school night or 1 a.m. on a non-school night.

So as you can tell, these are very generous already protections and they are deleting wiping those out, repealing those completely.

And a repercussion from the that a an employer could work a minor three 4 hours a day, seven days a week if they choose to.

Even during school hours.

Unfortunately, there are employers that do exploit workers, especially those workers that don't have experience, such as high school or so.

We've talked to teachers, counselors, principals.

You know, we know for a fact that kids work long hours, their grades suffer.

We fear that there are going to be a number of kids that are going to be encouraged to work third shifts or work hours in excess of what's already a law.

I think you're going to see higher school dropouts.

The bill did advance with Republican support.

It's the generation that we're dealing with that are later and later into the workforce and are under developed.

And so anything that we can do as a society that promotes this cultural growing up and taking on responsibility is something I think we definitely need to consider.

And Representative Josh Calloway says this bill could also help teens who might already be supporting the family.

For Kentucky, edition of June Leffler.

Thank you, June.

The bill passed 14 to 3 with one pass vote that happened in the House Economic Development and Workforce Investment Committee yesterday.

Democrats opposed the measure.

It's now waiting for action by the full House.