State governments across the US are taking steps to eliminate protections for minors as rates of child labor violations, injuries and chronic school absenteeism rise, according to a report released on Wednesday.
The report by Governing for Impact, the Economic Policy Institute, and Child Labor Coalition proposes actions the Biden-Harris administration can take in response to a recent surge in child labor violations around the country and a trend of some states passing legislation that rolls back state-level child labor protections.
Its authors also warn that moves to weaken child protections will probably escalate under a second Donald Trump presidency.
Injury rates among workers under the age of 18 nearly doubled from 2011 to 2020. All child labor violations almost increased by four times between 2015 and 2022, and hazard occupation violations more than doubled during the same period.
At the same time, legislators in more than 30 states have moved to weaken child labor protections since 2021, often citing claims of labor shortages and backed by industry groups in these pushes. The report noted these rollbacks at the state level have often either conflicted with federal law or sowed confusion among employers over which are applicable to them, leading to more child labor violations.
Project 2025, a conservative guide for a second Trump administration, which aligns closely with Trump’s policies and was authored and promoted by numerous former Trump officials and allies, advocates for rolling back child labor protections, the report cites.
“Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs,” Project 2025 claims. “With parental consent and proper training, certain young adults should be allowed to learn and work in more dangerous occupations.”
“If Trump wins, we know what to expect. He will try to weaken and loosen child labor protections. He did that in his first term,” said Reid Maki, director of child labor advocacy and coordinator at the Child Labor Coalition. “They’ll look for weak points, or use some false arguments to try to weaken protections.”
He noted the Trump administration attempted several rollbacks of child labor protections, including an effort to weaken hazardous occupation rules for child workers in nursing homes and rolling back a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos, despite its ties to childhood brain damage, and pushing to allow child workers to apply dangerous pesticides.
“We need to look for ways to make work safer for kids and not expose them to unnecessary hazards,” added Maki. “We’re particularly concerned about the idea that tobacco has never been added to the list of hazardous occupations, and we know that kids in the US are farming tobacco, are harvesting tobacco, and they’re getting sick while doing it.”
In light of these ongoing policy efforts to further roll back current child labor protections, the report argues the US Department of Labor should strengthen current child labor protections to address the recent increases in child labor violations across the US.
“Even with full-throated enforcement of these regulations, it’s not enough to sort of protect kids from what’s going on now in the economy,” said Reed Shaw, policy counsel at Governing for Impact and co-author of the report.
“In recent years, states have been dropping their protections below the federal minimum, which serves to confuse employers and employees about what their actual protections are, so a revised federal regulation that is more clear for loopholes and exemptions would just serve as more of a bright line rule for employers,” added Shaw. “The legal authority is there, the empirical data is there. And so it’s time for the Department of Labor to implement some of these changes to protect workers.”
The report argued the wage and hour division at the US labor department should expand the list of hazardous occupations, increase protections for child workers in hazardous agricultural jobs for the first time in nearly 60 years, and issue regulations prohibiting employers from scheduling certain child workers for overnight shifts and requiring rest breaks and one day off a week for others.
The report also argues the student-learner and apprenticeship exemptions should be closed and that additional funding and personnel need to be provided to the US Department of Labor to address these child labor issues.
The US Department of Labor declined to enact several recommendations from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in 2007 for administrative reasons, but the report argues the department should reassess and enact the rest of those recommendations.
These include creating new hazardous occupation orders, revising existing hazardous occupations, closing exemptions to certain hazardous occupations.
The report also noted regulations to protect child workers have not been updated substantially since 2010, while most are far older.
Work hours should also be revised to protect child workers given chronic school absenteeism and increases in injuries and child labor violations, it argues, recommending the US Department of Labor wage and hour division begin a notice and comment rule-making process to expand breaks for 14- and 15-year-old workers, prohibit overnight hours for 16- and 17-year-old workers, and issue a ban on overnight shifts for agricultural workers under the age of 16.
An effort to enact child labor restrictions in the agricultural sector was abandoned in 2012 after an aggressive industry lobby campaign against it.
Nina Mast, policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute and a co-author of the report, said: “At the time when we’re seeing violations on the rise, and we’re simultaneously seeing states go back on their commitment to raising standards to be above federal minimums, I think it’s really urgent that we address our federal standards and raise them for children across the country who may be working in hazardous environments or in an environment that is not appropriate for someone of their age.”
