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Scholars debate making changes to child labor regulations to improve protection of youth.
Citing a 69 percent increase in child labor violations by companies since 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced in February the creation of an interagency task force to ramp up enforcement of child labor laws. This announcement came days after a report by The New York Times revealed that children, many of whom are immigrants, are being illegally employed in businesses across the country.
Meanwhile, some states have recently signaled interest in rolling back child labor protections by introducing bills that would lift restrictions on hazardous work, apply a subminimum wage to youth, and extend working hours.
These contradictory developments at the federal and state levels of government have ignited a debate about the extent to which child labor laws protect children or, alternatively, impede the right to work and obstruct parental choice.
At the federal level, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) and subsequent Labor Department regulations govern the permissible conditions for child labor. The Wage and Hour Division of the Labor Department enforces these requirements.
Under the FLSA, the minimum age for employment has been set at 16 years. This means that 16-year-olds can work unlimited hours in any occupation, except for those that the Secretary of Labor has declared hazardous. 14-...
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