Opinion | The Absurd Republican Argument for Rolling Back Child Labor Laws

Introduction

Last week, a law went into effect in Arkansas that allows 14- and 15-year-olds to work without a permit signed by their parents. Titled the “Youth Hiring Act of 2023,” it states that the purpose of removing the permit requirement is to “restore decision-making to parents concerning their children” and “streamline the hiring process for children under 16 years of age.”

The Argument for Parental Rights

Earlier this year, a spokeswoman for the state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, described the now defunct permit requirement as an “arbitrary burden on parents.” The Republican state representative Rebecca Burkes, a sponsor of the new law, said, “This is simply about eliminating the bureaucracy that is required and taking away the parent’s decision about whether their child can work.”

Come on.

There was nothing onerous about the old requirement: It involved a simple one-page form for parents and guardians to sign off on before younger teenagers went to work — a bare minimum of bureaucracy.

And: Wouldn’t parents have more of a decision-making role, not less, if their explicit permission were required before their 14- and 15-year-olds could work up to 48 hours a week, six days a week?

Child Labor Protections and Parental Rights

I thought “parents’ rights,” in the Republican framing, were supposed to be about keeping parents better informed about and more involved in what their children were learning about and doing. There are already carve-outs for children to work in certain circumstances, like family businesses, where, under federal law, “Children of any age are generally permitted to work for businesses entirely owned by their parents.” (Arkansas still says that for most other kinds of jobs, 14 is the minimum employment age.)

Local opponents of the law find the parents’ rights argument dubious, as Tess Vrbin reported in The Arkansas Advocate in March. She quoted Laura Kellams, the Northwest Arkansas director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, who argued that the permit is free and is processed quickly by the government. Vrbin’s report notes that Kellams isn’t against teenagers working, and that as a teenager she herself worked at a local chicken plant that has a history of violating child labor laws. “This is not red tape,” Kellams said of the permit requirement. “It’s a burden to companies who are illegally hiring minors beyond the allowable hours and in conditions that aren’t allowed.”

National Trend and Weakening of Child Labor Laws

Arkansas isn’t the only state trying to chip away at child labor protections. In the past few years, Iowa, New Hampshire, and New Jersey have enacted laws that roll back previous protections for child workers like extending allowable work hours and loosening restrictions on hazardous work, and several more states have introduced similar bills, according to analysis from the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute. Some of these laws, like Iowa’s, which allows 14- and 15-year-olds to work up to six hours a day during the school year, conflict with federal labor law.

According to Nina Mast, a state economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, the ultimate goal of the proponents of these state laws is to weaken federal child labor law. There is growing energy behind this movement, explained John Fliter, an associate professor of political science at Kansas State University and the author of “Child Labor in America: The Epic Legal Struggle to Protect Children.” He told me that when he started teaching constitutional law 30 years ago, child labor law was considered an area that had been fairly settled since 1941, when the Supreme Court upheld the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Though there were attempts to weaken child labor law after that, he says, they weren’t really mainstream for decades.

Arguments Against Child Labor Laws

In addition to the parents’ rights angle, the contemporary arguments against child labor laws include the ideas that they prevent children from earning money their families need to survive, that it’s good for teenagers to develop a strong work ethic, and that there’s a labor shortage. When Gov. Kim Reynolds, Republican of Iowa, signed her state’s rollback of child labor protections into law in May, she said: “In Iowa, we understand there is dignity in work and we pride ourselves on our strong work ethic. Instilling those values in the next generation and providing opportunities for young adults to earn and save to build a better life should be available.”

What was striking about reading Fliter’s book is that these arguments are similar to the arguments against regulating child labor that he cites from the early 20th century: Opponents of proposed laws in the era of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire disliked the expansion of federal power, he writes, and felt the “evils of child labor were greatly exaggerated” and that “it is good for kids to work.”

Exploitation and Violations of Child Labor Laws

In February, my newsroom colleague Hannah Dreier interviewed over 100 migrant children in 20 states, many from Central America. She found:

These workers are part of a new economy of exploitation: Migrant children, who have been coming into the United States without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs in the country, a New York Times investigation found. This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century. Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee. Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi, and North Carolina. Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota.

According to Catherine Fisk, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Law and Work, these violations are possible because so “much labor, especially in low wage labor, is provided through a network or a chain of contractors.” That was the case in the tragic death of Duvan Tomas Perez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who was killed in July “after becoming ensnared in a machine he was cleaning at the Mar-Jac Poultry processing plant in Hatties

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Analysis

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

The article discusses child labor laws and the efforts to roll back protections for child workers. This is connected to SDG 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all. Child labor can hinder children’s access to education and their ability to fully develop their potential. It is also connected to SDG 8, which focuses on promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. The article highlights the arguments that child labor is necessary due to labor shortages and the need for teenagers to develop a work ethic. Additionally, the article touches on issues of inequality and the exploitation of vulnerable children, which are relevant to SDG 10. Finally, the article mentions the importance of strong institutions in protecting children from exploitation, aligning with SDG 16.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.
• SDG 8.7: Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor.
• SDG 10.7: Facilitate orderly, safe, regular, and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.
• SDG 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against and torture of children.

Based on the article’s content, the targets mentioned above are relevant. Target 4.4 focuses on equipping youth with the necessary skills for employment, which is important in addressing child labor issues. Target 8.7 aims to eradicate child labor, which is directly related to the article’s discussion on rolling back child labor protections. Target 10.7 emphasizes safe and responsible migration, which is relevant to the exploitation of migrant children in the workforce. Lastly, target 16.2 highlights the need to end abuse and exploitation of children, which is a key concern in the article.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Indicator 4.4.1: Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill.
• Indicator 8.7.1: Proportion and number of children aged 5-17 years engaged in child labor, by sex and age group.
• Indicator 10.7.1: Recruitment cost borne by employee as a proportion of yearly income earned in country of destination.
• Indicator 16.2.2: Number of victims of human trafficking per 100,000 population, by sex, age group, and form of exploitation.

While the article does not explicitly mention these indicators, they can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets. Indicator 4.4.1 measures the proportion of youth and adults with relevant skills, which is important for ensuring decent employment opportunities and reducing the need for child labor. Indicator 8.7.1 focuses on measuring the prevalence of child labor, providing data on the extent of the issue. Indicator 10.7.1 measures the recruitment cost borne by employees, which can indicate exploitative labor practices. Indicator 16.2.2 measures the number of victims of human trafficking, which includes child trafficking and exploitation.

4. Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: nytimes.com

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