Children at Work: An Emerging Struggle Over Child Labor Laws

The history of the United States is undeniably fraught with child labor. This was especially the case during the Industrial Revolution, as children worked long, unrestricted hours in dangerous conditions for minimal pay. According to U.S. Census data, “by 1911, more than two million American children under the age of 16 were working – many of them 12 hours or more, six days a week.” At the start of the 20th century, children worked labor-intensive jobs in cotton mills, mines, factories, and farms. Their wages were “miniscule,” and in any case, since children were seen as the “property” of their parents, their pay went towards supporting their families. Parents had a “long recognized” right to “take advantage of the productive capacity of their children to bring economic value to the family. However, the early 1900s also marked a time when resistance to child labor laws gained momentum, as child labor advocates like the National Child Labor Committee fought to protect children from harsh working conditions, and education gradually became a societal expectation for children and a public good. While the Supreme Court and congressional opponents stymied federal labor laws for much of the 1930s, Congress ultimately passed the landmark Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) which included regulations on child labor. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins had drafted the bill in consultation with a handful of legal advisers, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on introducing it to Congress in 1937, declared “A self-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor.” Under FLSA, some child labor provisions included a minimum employment age of 16, hour limitations, hazardous occupation restrictions, and wage standards—with a few exceptions for children aged 14-15 to work certain non-hazardous jobs outside school hours. Notably, children under the age of 16 were prohibited from working in manufacturing.

Recent rollbacks on child labor laws across several states have caused massive outrage from state legislators and labor rights experts. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 31 states have introduced legislation that have weakened child labor protections in the last 3 years, with 8 states having enacted such bills this year. Among these states are Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Alabama passed SB 53 in May, which eliminated the requirement for children under the age of 16 to submit an eligibility to work form, which is signed by a school official after verifying the student has satisfactory grades and attendance. Florida passed HB 49 and HB 917 in July, which increased the maximum number of hours and days minors can work, and decreased limitations on employment of minors on construction sites. Moreover, Kentucky passed SB 128 in April, which allowed nonprofit organizations to employ children as young as 12 years old. 

Arguably, the most notable state to weaken their child labor laws beyond the federal standard is Iowa. In a series of recent bills, the state and governor passed legislation that loosens workplace protections for children. In 2022, the state ratified HF 2198, which reduced the minimum age for children to work, unsupervised, at child care centers to only 16 years old. In 2023, they then passed SF 542, which allows children as young as 14 years old to work for up to six hours a day until 9pm on school nights. Even more, the bill allows 16 and 17-year-olds to work the same hours as adults; 16-year olds to serve alcohol; and, 14-years-olds to work in previously prohibited industries. And the weakening of restrictions wasn’t over: In 2024, SF 2109 was passed to allow children as young as 14 years old to drive up to 25 miles to work without supervision. In an open letter to Iowans, the Republican Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, justified the measures in terms of the social and economic benefits of children working longer hours, as it would teach them the importance of work ethic, personal finance, and responsibility. Gov. Reynolds called out the U.S. Department of Labor for being heavy-handed in their enforcement of federal child labor laws as she believed that jobs for children do more to help than harm them: “I believe the department’s attempt to single us out as an example of what not to do is misguided and likely to backfire … [A job] teaches [kids] a sense of responsibility and strengthens their work ethic.”

Furthermore, as employers have been found violating established workplace protections in recent years, the U.S. Department of Labor has stepped up its pushback. The Department of Labor has noted an 88 percent increase in illegal child employment across the nation from 2019 to 2023. The department has cracked down on such violations, reporting more than $8 million in penalties and fines in 2023, an 83% increase from the prior year, and 955 closed cases of child labor law violations with an additional 800 open cases. Employers across the country have faced hefty fines for the violation of child labor laws due to conflicting state and federal child labor laws. Governor Reynolds stated that Iowan businesses are facing federal fines of up to $180,000, which may result in some of these businesses to close or file for bankruptcy. While Reynolds spoke of the federal government singling the state out, Iowa is not the only state where businesses are being investigated and penalized for alleged violations of federal child employment legislation. For example, in Wisconsin, “one of the nation’s largest food safety sanitation services providers,” Packers Sanitation Services Inc. LTD was found employing over 100 children in hazardous conditions and fined $1.5 million in 2023. 

While there has been an undeniable incursion on child labor protections across the nation, there are some states introducing bills to strengthen their child labor laws. Anti-child labor advocates have stronger and more effective organizing efforts in 2024 than in the past few years. For example, the Campaign to End US Child Labor is a coalition of nonprofit organizations, trade unions, and academics with the shared mission to “stop state-level rollbacks of child labor laws and increase protections for all children working in the United States.” Seven states have passed bills to bolster child labor laws this year, including Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregan, Utah, and Virginia. Alabama passed SB 119, which increased the penalties for violating statewide restrictions on hazardous work for minors. Colorado passed HB 24-1095, which made child labor victims eligible to receive damages, increased penalties to use for wage theft enforcement, removed liability from parents, and allowed open record requests when found in violation of labor standards.

Almost 90 years after the Fair Labor Standards Act pushed its way through Congress, the debate on child labor in the United States continues, with discourse on both sides of the dispute gaining traction and attention. Many states are testing the boundaries of federal standards on child protections in the workplace, and the federal government has responded strictly and swiftly. However, the dispute is far from fully resolved, and points to a broader issue: how political polarization and diverging social and cultural views are shaping what is considered acceptable in the present day when it comes to child labor standards. Both sides advance arguments rooted in social welfare of children with opposite policy conclusions. As conservative lawmakers from states such as Iowa are passing bills to weaken child labor protections in order to answer the need for experienced workers and labor shortages, progressive child advocates are protesting to preserve the welfare of children. With both sides steadfast in their views, the outcome of this legal conflict is uncertain and could potentially redefine the future of youth for generations to come.

Lavleen Kaur Madahar is a junior concentrating in International and Public Affairs and Science, Technology, and Society. She is a blog writer for the Brown Undergraduate Law Review and can be reached at lavleen_madahar@brown.edu.

Cat Gao is a second-year student studying Philosophy and Literary Arts at Brown University. She is a blog editor for the Brown Undergraduate Law Review and can be reached at cat_gao@brown.edu.