As some states attack child labor protections, other states are strengthening standards

Amid increasing child labor violations and ongoing attempts to roll back protections for child labor in states across the country, bills to strengthen protections in multiple states and at the federal level are a welcome and long-overdue development. State lawmakers have especially important roles to play in addressing the urgent need to protect youth workers in dangerous jobs like agriculture, meatpacking, and construction.

In the past two years, seven states have introduced bills to strengthen protections for child labor and four have enacted them (Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, and California). In June 2023, Colorado enacted a law that allows a family to sue the employer of a child who was injured at work while employed in violation of the law. In September, Illinois passed a law mandating that child influencers and children who appear in their parents’ monetized digital content must be fairly compensated—the first of its kind in the nation. And in October, California’s governor signed into law a measure that will teach high school students about their workplace rights and right to join a union—also the first of its kind. Earlier this year, Arkansas passed a harmful bill eliminating youth work permits, which informed families of a child’s rights at work and provided documentation that can be used to aid compliance with the law. A week later—following a slew of negative press attention and alarm raised by child welfare advocates—Arkansas lawmakers passed a bill to increase penalties for child labor violations, though without adding any new enforcement funding or capacity.

Most of the state-level bills introduced to strengthen child labor protections deal with enforcement: increasing civil monetary or criminal penalties, establishing enhanced penalties for repeat and willful violations, or allowing victims to sue for damages. A smaller set of bills are related to work hours or protections for certain industries. In addition to Illinois, a Pennsylvania state lawmaker has proposed a bill to protect child influencers. And in Virginia, a bill to ban child labor in tobacco was introduced in 2022 but was not reintroduced in 2023 (see Table 1). Federal law does not prohibit youth under 18 from handling or harvesting tobacco despite the well-known risks of nicotine poisoning, pesticide exposure, and heat-related illnesses, which are particularly acute for youth.

Multiple bills have also been introduced at the federal level, including proposals to increase penalties for child labor violations, bar repeat violators from receiving federal contracts, and increase the age for farm work, among other proposals.1 However, federal bills face a difficult path to enactment in a divided Congress.

https://www.epi.org/blog/as-some-states-attack-child-labor-protections-other-states-are-strengthening-standards/