Legislation introduced in at least 10 states could ease child labor laws to address worker shortages

Madison, Wes. – Lawmakers in several states are adopting legislation to allow children to work in more dangerous occupations, for more hours on school nights and in expanded roles, including serving alcohol in bars and restaurants until the age of 14.

Efforts to roll back labor rules in large part are being led by Republican lawmakers to address worker shortages and, in some cases, run counter to federal regulations.

Child welfare advocates worry the measures represent a concerted push to reduce hard-won protections for minors.

“The consequences could be catastrophic,” said Reed Mackey, director of the Child Labor Coalition, which campaigns against exploitative labor policies. “You can’t balance perceived labor shortages on the backs of teenage workers.”

Lawmakers have proposed relaxing child labor laws in at least 10 states over the past two years, according to a report published last month by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Some bills became laws, while others were withdrawn or rejected.

Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa are actively considering relaxing child labor laws to address worker shortages, which drive up wages and contribute to inflation. Employers have struggled to fill job vacancies after a sharp rise in retirements, deaths and illnesses caused by COVID-19, a drop in legal immigration and other factors.

The job market is one of the tightest since World War II, with an unemployment rate of 3.4% – the lowest in 54 years.

Bringing more children into the workforce is of course not the only way to solve the problem. Economists point to several other strategies that the state can use to mitigate the employment crisis without requiring children to work longer hours or in hazardous conditions.

The most obvious is allowing more legal immigration, which is politically divisive but has been a cornerstone of the country’s ability to grow for years in the face of an aging population. Other strategies could include incentivizing older workers to delay retirement, expanding opportunities for previously incarcerated people, and making childcare more affordable so parents have more flexibility at work.

In Wisconsin, lawmakers are supporting a proposal to allow 14-year-olds to serve alcohol in bars and restaurants. If passed, Wisconsin would have the lowest such limit nationwide, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The Ohio Legislature is on its way to passing a bill that would allow students ages 14 to 15 to work until 9 p.m. during the school year with permission from their parents. This is later than federal law allows, so an accompanying measure asks the US Congress to amend its own laws.

Under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, students this age can only work until 7 p.m. during the school year. Congress passed the Act in 1938 to prevent children from being exposed to dangerous conditions and abusive practices in mines, factories, farms, and street trading.

Republican Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law in March repealing permits that require employers to verify a child’s age and parental consent. Without work permit requirements, companies caught violating child labor laws can more easily feign ignorance.

Sanders later signed separate legislation that raises civil penalties and imposes criminal penalties for violations of child labor laws, but advocates worry that repealing the permit requirement makes it more difficult to investigate violations.

Other measures to ease child labor laws into law were passed in New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Iowa.

Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, signed a law last year that allows teens between the ages of 16 and 17 to work unsupervised in child care centers. The state legislature approved a bill this month to allow teens this age to serve alcohol in restaurants. It will also increase the working hours of minors. Reynolds, who said in April she supports more youth employment, has until June 3 to sign off or veto the measure.

Republicans have rescinded provisions from a version of the bill that would allow children ages 14 and 15 to work in hazardous fields including mining, logging and meatpacking. But it kept some provisions that the Labor Department says violate federal law, including allowing children under 14 to work briefly in freezers and meat coolers, and extending working hours on industrial laundries and assembly lines.

Teen workers are more likely to accept lower wages and less likely to join unions or lobby for better working conditions, said McKee, of the Child Labor Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy network.

“There are employers who benefit from having the kind of obedient teenage worker,” Mackey said, adding that teens are easy targets for industries that rely on vulnerable populations such as immigrants and formerly incarcerated people for dangerous jobs.

The Department of Labor reported in February that child labor violations had increased nearly 70% since 2018. The agency is working to increase enforcement and is asking Congress to allow higher fines for offenders.

One of the nation’s largest meatpacking sanitation contractors was fined $1.5 million in February after investigators found the company illegally used more than 100 children at locations in eight states. Child laborers cleaned bone saws and other dangerous equipment in meatpacking plants, often using dangerous chemicals.

National business lobbies, chambers of commerce and well-funded conservative groups support state bills to increase teen labor force participation, including Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political network, and the National Federation of Independent Business, which usually aligns with Republicans.

The Washington Post reports that the conservative Opportunity Solutions Project and its parent organization, the Florida-based Government Accountability Foundation, have helped lawmakers in Arkansas and Missouri craft bills to roll back child labor protections. The groups and allied lawmakers often say their efforts are about expanding parental rights and giving teens more work experience.

“There’s no reason anyone should have the government’s permission to get a job,” said Rebecca Burkes, R-Arkansas, who sponsored the child labor permit repeal bill, on the House floor. “This is simply about eliminating the required bureaucracy and eliminating the parents’ decision on whether their child can work.”

Margaret Worth, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and a member of the Child Labor Alliance, called bills like the one passed in Arkansas “attempts to undermine safe and important workplace protections and reduce worker power.”

Worth said existing laws fail to protect many child laborers.

She wants lawmakers to end exceptions for child labor in agriculture. Federal law allows children 12 and older to work on farms for any length of time outside of school hours, with parental permission. Farm workers over 16 can work at dangerous heights or operate heavy machinery, hazardous tasks reserved for adult workers in other industries.

24 children died from work-related injuries in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly half of fatal work-related accidents occurred on farms, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office covering child deaths between 2003 and 2016.

“More children die working in agriculture than in any other sector,” Worth said. “Enforcement won’t help much for children working on farms unless standards improve.”