Labor Department cracks down on child labor while states loosen laws

The Department of Labor is cracking down on child labor violations even as multiple states have taken steps to loosen regulations around teenagers in the workplace.  

At least 11 states have recently sought to make it easier to get minors in the workforce, including this year both Arkansas and Iowa, the latter of which moved to allow teenagers to work in meat packing facilities and for those as young as 16 to bartend. 

Proponents say the changes will help young workers acquire valuable life skills and that parents should be the ones to decide when their kids are ready for a particular job.

But child advocates fear putting teenagers into increasingly dangerous work environments that are difficult to regulate and vulnerable to exploitation. 

And on Thursday, the Department of Labor and its Interagency Task Force to Combat Child Labor Exploitation announced new actions it will take after it found that child labor violations have risen 69 percent between 2018 and last year.

“Child labor is an issue that gets to the heart of who we are as a country and who we want to be. Like the President, we believe that any child working in a dangerous or hazardous environment is one child too many,” acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said. 

State efforts to change child labor laws come amid a tight labor market and a workers shortage.

“A lot of the legislators are citing that as a reason for weakening protections against child labor,” said Reid Maki, director of child labor advocacy for the National Consumers League and coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition. “We don’t think that’s a valid reason. We really don’t understand why you would want to balance the labor shortage against the backs of our vulnerable teen workers.” 

In May, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed a bill to expand the number of hours and places a teenager can work, allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work in industrial areas such as meat coolers. 

“With this legislation, Iowa joins 20 other states in providing tailored, common sense labor provisions that allow young adults to develop their skills in the workforce,” Reynolds said after signing the law.

“In Iowa, we understand there is dignity in work and we pride ourselves on our strong work ethic. Instilling those values in the next generation and providing opportunities for young adults to earn and save to build a better life should be available,” she added.

In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) in March signed the Youth Hiring Act of 2023, doing away with the requirement that children under the of age 16 must get permission from the state government to work. 

Nick Stehle, vice president of communications for the Foundation for Government Accountability, a group that led the push for reform in Arkansas, stressed the importance working young can make on a person’s life.

“Keeping a schedule and having to collaborate with other people, having to work with other people and discovering your skills and shortcomings while you’re still you’re still very young, those are just all lessons that not only complement what you’re learning in the classroom, they add some real world context to it,” Stehle said. 

Stehle emphasized all the reforms his group supported were in line with federal child labor laws.

“There’s been allegations that this is about making it so that teenagers can work in dangerous jobs or that they can work really late at night, stuff like that. And none of that is true,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the Labor Department says it concluded 765 child labor cases between Oct. 1 and July 20. finding 4,474 children were employed in violation of federal standards. 

Federal investigators found one instance in which the owner of six Nevada Sonic locations had committed more than 170 child labor violations, including employing 14- and 15-year-olds to operate deep fryers, work more hours than allowed and work at hours not allowed under federal guidelines. 

In one tragic case that made national headlines earlier this month, a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala was killed in an on-the-job accident at a Mississippi poultry plant. Workers under the age of 18 are not allowed in such facilities for safety reasons, and the Labor Department said at the time that it is investigating.

The department plans to partner with other government offices such as the Office of Refugee Resettlement to give training on how to identify and report instances of child labor violations and update their guidelines.

It is also teaming up with the Department of Agriculture to demand that the country’s 18 largest meat and poultry processors take steps to find out if illegal child labor is used anywhere in their supply chain in order to combat exploitive practices.

One of the causes experts say is behind the increase in child labor violations is the uptick in unaccompanied minors coming into the U.S.

“These are very vulnerable young people that need money and they may — they may be sending money back to family and Central America and Mexico. So they have a desperate need for money,” said Maki of the Child Labor Coalition. 

A New York Times investigation earlier this year showed migrant children, some as young as 13, at the brunt of work that violates federal standards.

In response, the U.S. will be working with the embassies of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico to take steps to combat child labor and educate migrants on the problem.

The increase in child labor violations combined with the changes to state laws have concerned advocates who are afraid the problem will only get worse. 

“Our child labor laws are very common sense laws that really serve two purposes. They make sure children are not working in highly dangerous and hazardous jobs and that the work they do does not interfere with their development and their schooling,” said Laura Padin, director of work structures at the National Employment Law Project.

“These laws serve a really important purpose. It’s really disturbing to see this happening now,” Padin added.

Experts contend the new laws will harm poor children, children of color and undocumented children who would take these jobs out of necessity to survive. 

“They’re seeking to expand employment to workers that can be paid less in order to keep wages low and still maintain the same levels of employment,” said Nina Mast, a state economic analyst for the Economic Policy Institute. “At the same time, you also have our broken immigration system that has resulted in many unaccompanied migrant youth in this country without work authorization and sort of compelled by their economic circumstances to work. And that’s really a recipe for exploitation because they lack sort of the legal rights and support to demand safe and age-appropriate work.”