Child labor law rollbacks disguised as “parental rights”
Back in the 1930s the federal government banned children from working in occupations deemed “particularly hazardous” for youth. But Truth Out reports that part of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership proposes removing that power, saying it’s up to parents to decide what is safe for their children. This follows an ongoing push across the U.S. to loosen federal and state restrictions on child labor. And at the same time violations of existing child labor laws just keep rising begging the question, is it parental rights that need protecting, or children?
A spoonful of “rights protection” helps the legislation go down
Between 2019 and 2023 the U.S. Department of Labor reported an 88 percent increase in child labor violations. And many of the cases involve unaccompanied, undocumented children found illegally working in construction, factories and slaughterhouses, with dangerous machinery and on all-night shifts. But by wrapping child labor protections in the language of “parental rights” conservative legislators and pro-business groups have found success. State by state they are rolling back these long-standing protections, putting children at even greater risk.
Researchers Naomi Cahn, Maxine Eichner and Mary Ziegler stated in their scholarly paper, Children at Work, Parental Rights and Rhetoric:
“…calls to weaken child labor laws in the name of parental rights often have little to do with parental autonomy, instead reflect the ambitions of well-funded campaigns by business interests.”
But wrapping the rollbacks in the language of “rights protection” seems to be working. From 2021 to 2023 the think tank Economic Policy Institute noted that at least 10 state legislatures moved to weaken child labor laws. In the same period rollbacks were enacted in Arkansas, Iowa, New Hampshire and New Jersey and more are in the works. Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Minnesota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Ohio have or will consider legislation loosening the types of work and the hours children can work.