Ten of the 50 states in the United States of America are exploring relaxing child labor restrictions, allowing minors to work longer hours on school nights and in expanded roles, such as selling alcohol in bars.
According to The Metro, a number of US states are exploring loosening child labor rules, including six that are considering allowing teens to sell alcohol in clubs. The most current wave of child labor legislation began in Arkansas, where Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation eliminating the necessity for children under the age of 16 to get work licenses from the state’s Division of Labor.
“The governor believes protecting teenagers is most important, but this permit was an arbitrary burden on parents to get permission from the government for their child to get a job,” a spokesperson for the Republican governor said.
Controversial Labor Legislation in Iowa
According to The Metro, the Republican-controlled Iowa House passed a law in April that would enable youngsters aged 14 and 15 to work in industrial laundries, meat freezers, and ‘light assembly work’ in some facilities. Minors aged 16 and 17 would be allowed to serve alcohol in restaurants and bars if the facilities also served meals.
“At a time when serious child labor violations are on the rise in hazardous meatpacking and manufacturing jobs, several state legislatures are weakening-or threatening to weaken-child labor protections,” according to research by the Economic Policy Institute of the United States.
“The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections, in pursuit of longer-term industry-backed goals to rewrite federal child labor laws and other worker protections for the whole country.”
“Children of families in poverty, and especially black, brown, and immigrant youth, stand to suffer the most harm from such changes.”
Root Causes of Child Labor
Meanwhile, according to a UNICEF assessment, around 160 million children were subjected to child labor at the start of 2020, with 9 million additional children at risk as a result of COVID-19‘s impact. This affects approximately one in every ten children worldwide. Almost half of them work in dangerous environments that risk their health and development.
Children may be compelled to work for a variety of reasons. Child labor is most common when families experience financial difficulties or uncertainty, whether as a result of poverty, the sudden illness of a caregiver, or the job loss of a key income earner.