States are moving to relax child labor laws amid a tight labor market, setting off a fresh debate on the value of work and the protections for children that have existed since the Great Depression.
Lawmakers in several states are introducing bills to get rid of certain regulations for children to enter industries such as meatpacking and construction.
'CRISIS:' SMALL BUSINESSES STRUGGLE WITH INFLATION, LABOR MARKET
Opponents of the proposals have been quick to use imagery from the 1920s and 1930s, with pictures of small children covered in soot from a mine or working with dangerous machinery — the kinds of images that prompted the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to pursue the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which heavily regulated child labor.
Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow for budget and entitlements at the Heritage Foundation, told the Washington Examiner the comparisons are dishonest, saying "that is not a credible concern" due to all the labor laws that exist for both children and adults.
"We're not talking about, you know, sending 10-year-olds up skyscrapers in to do the heavy work and meatpacking," she said. "I think this is really more about reasonable jobs that young teenagers are capable of doing. And it's really a matter of where the line is going to be drawn between the hours of work and the types of jobs that they're able to do."
Lawmakers in states such as Arkansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota say they are helping businesses respond to a tight job market.
There are currently over 9.5 million job openings in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and millions of workers have not returned to jobs since before the pandemic.
"Employers are struggling to get the workers that they need, and so they're looking for alternative ways to kind of expand the workforce," Greszler said. "That is businesses', small businesses' primary concern. Thirty-four percent of them say that labor quality and labor costs are their single most important problem. That's second only to inflation."
With about 5.8 million teenagers from 16 to 19 years old in the workforce, but federal and state restrictions in place, expanding the types of industries and minimum age limits for teenagers to work is one way to help businesses.
The proposals have been met with mixed reactions, as some are concerned about loopholes being created to exploit child labor while others believe expanding the opportunity for teenagers to work will benefit their personal development.
Concern differs based on the model used by the state for relaxation.
In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) signed a law ending a requirement that 14- and 15-year-olds must obtain a government permit to get a job. The Natural State still retains many child labor regulations, including maximum hours, bans on certain dangerous jobs, and a now-14-year-old minimum age requirement.
"You just simply have the government getting out of the way of 14- to 15-year-olds who want to work, they don't need to run to the state to get permission," Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild told the Washington Examiner. "They want to get a job, their parents want them to have a job, and so be it."
However, greater concern surrounds moves to open meatpacking and construction industry jobs to minors under certain circumstances.
In Iowa, lawmakers passed a bill that allows children to work in currently prohibited industries as long as 14- to 17-year-olds are "participating in work-based learning or a school or employer-administered, work-related program." It includes supervision, training, health, and safety requirements.
The bill would also allow 16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol with parental consent, and teenagers as young as 14 1/2 who are involved in work programs to obtain special driver's licenses.
Democrats expressed concern over the alcohol provision in particular, with state Rep. Megan Srinivas saying, "it is pretty easy to be sexually assaulted as a woman in the service industry bringing drinks to people who’ve been drinking for hours."
Republicans introduced legislation in Wisconsin this month to allow children as young as 14 to serve alcohol in restaurants, down from the current age of 18.
Similarly, Minnesota is considering a bill that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work construction jobs. Proposals to relax the laws exist in Missouri, New Hampshire, and Ohio as well.
David Weil, professor of social policy and management at Brandeis University, told NBC News, "the legislators in Minnesota and Iowa are justifying it because we need more workers, and I think the underlying reason is cost control."
"Teenagers are not going to be as productive or as valuable as somebody in their 20s or 30s, for sure," Greszler pointed out. "It's not necessarily that they can just open up this new group of workers that you can pay less money and get the same thing out of them."
Greszler highlighted the value of work for teenagers.
"There are so many benefits to kids having small jobs at a young age," she said. "When you have to show up at a job on time in the proper attire, when you have to work well with your co-workers and be respectful and courteous to customers. That teaches kids lessons about commitment and responsibility and teamwork, and those are things they aren't necessarily learning in the classroom or even at home. There's also no better lesson in the value of money than actually earning a paycheck for yourself."
The issue is "not just how much economic value can we extract from a child before it's immoral, before we're putting them in an unsafe space or working them too hard, it's also what is the kid getting out of it from a life lessons standpoint and preparing them for a long career," Hild said.
While Hild shares concerns about the relaxation of the types of industries that are being considered for child labor and the potential for exploitation, he maintains that the issues are more nuanced.
Bills like the ones in Iowa and Minnesota attach access to the jobs to training programs, and getting more people learning trades "obviously could be a great thing," Hild said.
"That said, I worry that such a program could be abused, much like the H-1B visa program where basically, in unfortunate cases, [recipients] become an indentured servant because, obviously, if you lose your sponsor, you have to go back to your home country," he continued. "In this situation, it can be the kind of thing where you smuggle in child labor under this idea of a training program."
The meatpacking industry has been "notorious for years for using illegal and immigrant labor," Hild said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In February, a Department of Labor investigation found meat processing facilities in eight states illegally hired over 100 children to use "caustic chemicals to clean razor sharp saws" and do other dangerous jobs. The development came as the Labor Department has tracked a 69% increase in illegal child labor since 2018.
The Department of Labor did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.