Legislators in several states are embracing legislation to allow children as young as 14 to work in more dangerous occupations, longer hours on school nights and in extended positions including serving alcohol in bars and restaurants.

Efforts to significantly roll back labor regulations are largely led by Republican lawmakers to address labor shortages and, in some cases, violate federal regulations.

Child welfare advocates worry the measures are a coordinated effort to scale back hard-won protections for minors.

The consequences are potentially disastrous, says Reid Maki, director of the Child Labor Coalition, which advocates against exploitative labor policies. You can’t offset a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teenage workers.

According to a report released last month by the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute, lawmakers have proposed relaxing child labor laws in at least 10 states over the past two years. Some bills became law

;

others were withdrawn or vetoed.

Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa are actively considering relaxing child labor laws to address labor shortages, which are driving up wages and contributing to inflation. Employers are struggling to fill positions following a flurry of retirements, deaths and illnesses from COVID-19, declines in legal immigration and other factors.

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The labor market is one of the tightest since World War II, with the unemployment rate at 3.4%, the lowest in 54 years.

Of course, getting more children into the labor market is not the only way to solve the problem. Economists point to several other strategies the country can use to alleviate labor shortages without asking children to work longer hours or in hazardous environments.

The most obvious is

allowing more legal immigration

, opposed by many Republicans, but which has for years been a cornerstone of the country’s ability to grow in the face of an aging population. Other strategies could be

offer incentives

older workers to delay retirement, provide more opportunities for those previously incarcerated, and make childcare more affordable so parents have more flexibility to work.

In Wisconsin, lawmakers support a proposal to allow 14-year-olds to serve alcohol in bars and restaurants. If passed, Wisconsin would have the lowest limit nationwide, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The Ohio legislature is on track to pass a bill allowing students ages 14 and 15 to work until 9 p.m. during the school year with parental consent. That’s later than federal law allows, so a companion measure is asking Congress to change it.

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Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, students that age are allowed to work

only

until 7 p.m. during the school year. Congress passed the law in 1938 to prevent children from being exposed to dangerous conditions and abuse in mines, factories, farms and street trading.

Republican Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law in March a law that would remove permits requiring employers to verify a child’s age and their parents’ consent. With no work permit requirements, companies caught violating child labor laws can more easily claim ignorance.

Sanders later signed separate legislation imposing civil penalties and criminal penalties for violating child labor laws, but proponents worry that removing the permit requirement will make it significantly more difficult to investigate violations.

Other measures have been taken in New Jersey, New Hampshire and Iowa to relax child labor laws.

Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill last year allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work in daycare centers without supervision. The state legislature this month passed a bill to allow teens that age to serve alcohol in restaurants. The number of hours that minors can work would also be extended. Reynolds, who said in April she supports the expansion of child labor, has until June 3 to sign or veto the measure.

Republicans removed provisions from a version of the bill that would allow children ages 14 and 15 to work in hazardous jobs, including mining, logging and meatpacking. But it upheld some provisions the Labor Department said violated federal law, including allowing children as young as 14 to work briefly in freezers and meat coolers, and extending working hours in industrial laundries and assembly lines.

Teen workers are more likely to accept low wages and are less likely to join a union or push for better working conditions, said Maki of the Child Labor Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy network.

There are employers who benefit from having docile teen workers, Maki said, adding that teens are easy targets for industries that rely on vulnerable populations such as immigrants and people formerly incarcerated to perform dangerous jobs.

The Department of Labor reported in February that child labor violations have increased nearly 70% since 2018. The agency is stepping up enforcement and asking Congress to authorize higher fines for violators.

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It found one of the nation’s largest meatpack remediation contractors $1.5 million in February after investigators discovered the company was illegally employing more than 100 children at sites in eight states. The child workers cleaned bone saws and other hazardous equipment in meatpacking plants, often using hazardous chemicals.

National business lobbyists, chambers of commerce and well-funded conservative groups support state laws to increase teen participation in the workforce, including Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political network, and the National Federation of Independent Business, which is typically aligned with Republicans.

The conservative Opportunity Solutions Project and its parent organization, the Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability, helped legislators in Arkansas and Missouri draft bills to roll back child labor protections, the Washington Post reported. The groups and related legislators often say their efforts are aimed at expanding parental rights and giving teens more work experience.

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There’s no reason anyone should get government approval to get a job, Arkansas Republican Rep. Rebecca Burkes, who sponsored the bill to abolish child work permits, said on the House floor. This is simply about eliminating the bureaucracy that is necessary and taking away from the parent’s decision whether their child can work.

Margaret Wurth, a child rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, a member of the Child Labor Coalition, described bills like the one passed in Arkansas as attempts to undermine safe and important workplace protections and diminish workers’ power.

Current laws fail to protect many child workers, Wurth said.

She wants lawmakers to end exemptions for child labor in agriculture. Federal law allows children ages 12 and older to work on farms outside of school hours for a specified amount of time, with parental consent. Farm workers over the age of 16 may work at dangerous heights or operate heavy machinery, hazardous tasks reserved for adult workers in other industries.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24 children will die from work injuries in 2021. About half of fatal work incidents occurred on farms, according to a Government Accountability Office report on child mortality between 2003 and 2016.

More children working in agriculture than in any other sector, Wurth said. Enforcement won’t do much for petting zoo workers unless standards improve.

Harm Venhuizen is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

Report for America

is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues. Venhuizen follow

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