Reversing Child Labor Laws is Child Abuse

At the Child Rights Foundation, we support policies that help strengthen families, but only in cases where children are protected.

Increasingly, congressional leaders are working to change laws in several states, loosening child labor restrictions despite evidence that young children are already engaged in dangerous and exploitative labor nationwide.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently approved a bill to eliminate a requirement for children under 16. The bill no longer mandates that minor children obtain state documentation to work.

Sadly, this is nothing new. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa once argued that new child labor laws might help combat childhood obesity, and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah suggested child labor laws could be unconstitutional. In 2011, Newt Gingrich claimed that existing child labor laws were, as he put it, “truly stupid.”

The new Arkansas law approved by Saunders eliminates the requirement that 14 and 15-year-old children seeking a job acquire a document issued by the director of the Division of Labor. This document includes a description of their work duties, the child’s work schedule, proof of age, and parent or guardian consent.

Sanders signed the bill weeks after the Department of Labor released the results of an investigation that found 102 children aged 13 to 17 illegally working dangerous jobs. According to Vox News, “Ten of those children were working at facilities in Arkansas, according to the investigation, and 25 were working in Minnesota, another state considering looser child labor laws.”

Children have no place in electoral politics, no voice at the voting booth, and no capacity to lobby legislators. We believe those who espouse “family values” include the value of protecting our nation’s most innocent, our children.

Reversing child labor laws is child abuse.