ALBANY, N.Y. — For decades, a carveout in New York's child labor laws allowed kids as young as 11 to legally partake in the time-honored tradition of a paper route.
Flipping papers into suburban hedges, bicycling through snow squalls, dodging dogs and getting stiffed for tips became a rite of passage for generations of youths.
But a change to the law quietly made via the state budget this month makes clear the job is now not allowed for anyone under 14 years old. The move was first reported by Politico.
The change comes even though paper boys and girls have mostly gone the way of phone booths, mimeograph machines and their urban ''newsie'' forebears who shouted ''Extra! Extra!'' on street corners.
While many teens used to take on paper routes as after-school jobs, that became rarer decades ago as more daily newspapers switched to early morning deliveries. Newspapers are now increasingly online and tend to rely on adults with cars to make home deliveries, according to industry watchers.
''The need for a workforce of kids to go throwing newspapers on stoops is just a thing of the past,'' said attorney Allan Bloom, an employment law expert with the Proskauer firm.
Lawmakers made the change as part of a broader update of child labor laws. Bloom likened it to a ''cleanup'' as lawmakers streamlined the process for employing minors and increased penalties for violating child labor laws.
Diane Kennedy, president of the New York News Publishers Association, said she was not aware of any newspapers in New York using youth carriers.
