103.21 Street trades; definitions. As used in ss. 103.21 to 103.31:
(1) Every minor selling or distributing newspapers or magazines on the streets or other public place, or from house to house, is in an “employment" and an “employee," and each independent news agency or (in the absence of all such agencies) each selling agency of a publisher or (in the absence of all such agencies) each publisher, whose newspapers or magazines the minor sells or distributes, is an “employer" of the minor. Every minor engaged in any other street trade is in an “employment" and an “employee," and each person furnishing the minor articles for sale or distribution or regularly furnishing the minor material for blacking boots is the minor's “employer".
(1g) “House-to-house employer" means an employer who employs minors, either directly or through an agent who need not be an employee of the employer, to conduct street trades from house to house through personal contact with prospective customers.
(1r) “Municipality" means a city, village or town.
(2) “Nonprofit organization" means an organization described in section 501 (c) of the internal revenue code.
(3) “Permit officer" means any person designated by the department to issue street trade permits.
(4) “Private school" has the meaning given in s. 115.001 (3r).
(5) “Public school" has the meaning given in s. 115.01 (1).
(6) “Street trade" means the selling, offering for sale, soliciting for, collecting for, displaying or distributing any articles, goods, merchandise, commercial service, posters, circulars, newspapers or magazines, or the blacking of boots, on any street or other public place or from house to house.
(7) “Tribal school" has the meaning given in s. 115.001 (15m).
History: 1971 c. 271; 1983 a. 189; 1985 a. 1; 1989 a. 113; 1993 a. 492; 2009 a. 302.
There can be no employment under sub. (1) between a publisher and a minor distributing newspapers without the publisher having actual or implied knowledge of the minor's activities. Beard v. Lee Enterprises, Inc. 225 Wis. 2d 1, 591 N.W.2d 156 (1999), 96-3393.