Since America’s rise as a global industrial power, the nation’s use of child labor has only moved in one direction: less of it. Strict regulations and requirements around the jobs and hours minors can work have become the norm in a country where, a little more than a century ago, millions of children labored daily in fields and factories.

Led by state governments, a nation that saw children as necessary participants in the household economy shifted to a nation that saw children as valuable democratic citizens in need of education. And while child labor has never completely disappeared, it has diminished to a supplement of American childhood, not its defining feature.

But is that now beginning to change? For the first time in history, the United States is engaged in a nationwide discussion over relaxing rules around children’s work. States are again leading the way, with legislatures in red and blue states alike debating – and passing – laws expanding the hours and kinds of settings minors can work in. Similar bills have also been proposed in Congress.

• An Arkansas law, passed in March, eliminated age verification and governmental permission requirements for employers hiring minors.
• A New Jersey law, passed last year, extended the number of hours a minor can work per week to 50.
• In Iowa, a law enacted earlier this year permits children age 14 and older to use non-power-driven tools, and to work in kitchens and have “momentary work” in freezers and meat coolers.
• A Washington...

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