More states have strengthened child labor laws than weakened them in 2024
Early this year, we detailed the continued state legislative attacks on child labor protections as well as bills to strengthen child labor standards. Despite the recent rise of child labor violations and several high-profile child labor cases, the industry-backed effort to roll back child labor protections state by state continued, with state bills targeting youth work permits, work hours, and protections from hazardous work. At the same time, many state legislators have recognized the urgent need to strengthen standards and have instead proposed legislation to improve state child labor laws and their enforcement.
Now that most state legislative sessions have ended for the year, here is a look back at how these child labor proposals fared.
Six states have rolled back child labor protections in 2024
Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and West Virginia all enacted legislation to weaken child labor protections this year. The content of these bills spanned the issues of youth work permits, youth driving, minimum work ages, maximum work hours, rest break protections, and hazardous work protections for minors (see Table 1). In Louisiana, a bill to eliminate rest breaks for minor workers has been passed and awaits the governors signature. In many cases, the bills targeted areas of state law that were stronger than federal standards, or areas where there are no federal mandates (such as youth work permits). Like last year, supporters for these bills included the Florida-based, right-wing think tankFoundation for Government Accountability (FGA)as well as lobbying groups representing the restaurant, hospitality, grocery, and construction industries.
Florida and Indiana enacted two rollback bills each. Both states took aim at hours protections for 16- and 17-year-olds, an area of the law on which the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)the federal law which articulates most federal child labor protectionsis silent (the FLSA passed 86 years ago when fewer than half of students completed high school). Both states also weakened restrictions on hazardous work for teens. And, in both states, very extreme bills were heavily amended between introduction and final passage due to sustained advocacy by in-state groups, such as the Florida Policy Institute and Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute.
https://www.epi.org/blog/more-states-have-strengthened-child-labor-laws-than-weakened-them-in-2024-this-year-state-advocates-were-better-equipped-to-organize-in-opposition-to-harmful-bills/