Youth Work Permits Targeted in Broader Child Labor Law Rollbacks

The reinvigorated debate over child labor laws has led some states to eliminate work permits for minors and their employers despite advocates’ arguments that they’re important safeguards against abuse.

Alabama lawmakers this year followed their Arkansas and Iowa counterparts’ 2023 legislation to end work permit requirements for underage workers, as bill sponsors and supporters argued the mandates are government red tape infringing on the rights of teens and their parents. The Alabama legislation (SB 53) took effect June 1, in time for teens to take on summer jobs permit-free.

Similar legislative efforts fell short in Missouri, West Virginia, and Wisconsin this year, after advocates and policymakers argued for preserving the permits. The Missouri and West Virginia bills each won approval in their state’s House before stalling out in the Senate, and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed a measure passed by the Republican-majority legislature.

Youth work permit requirements are just one slice of broader efforts to ease states’ child labor laws, mostly driven by conservative lawmakers and complaints about labor shortages following the Covid-19 pandemic. More than two dozen state legislatures since 2021 have passed or considered proposals to ease child labor laws in areas such as work-hour restrictions, hazardous work bans for minors, and age limits for restaurant staff who serve alcohol.

Many of the state-level restrictions being targeted for rollback have no counterpart in federal law.

“There’s no federal standard to fall back on” related to youth work permits, said Nina Mast, policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute. “It kind of makes the work permits vulnerable to attack in some of these state legislatures that are susceptible to these arguments about bureaucracy or red tape.”

Advocates in West Virginia as well as Wisconsin’s state labor agency argued the permit process is more than just red tape: it’s an important part of how the state monitors youth employment and educates employers, teen workers, and their parents about child labor restrictions, with an eye toward preventing violations up front.

Whether it’s for a teenager’s first summer job or part-time work during the school year, 28 states and Washington, D.C., generally require underage workers and the businesses that hire them to get a special permit or certificate—about half of those states require permits for any worker under 18 and the other half only for under-16 workers.

A handful more states require them in special circumstances, such as for teens working during school hours, while others require employers to verify young workers’ ages or meet some less-strenuous duty.

While the processes vary, a minor typically gets the permit by asking a school official and a parent or guardian to sign a form that tells the kind of job and hours they’ll be working. Some of those states require that the signed forms be submitted for review by the state labor department.

Violation Levels

A new study published in June from the University of Maryland reinforces the claims about the permits’ benefits. Authors Fred (Jiacong) Bao and Ashish Kabra reported that states with youth work permit requirements showed significantly lower rates of child labor violations between 2008 and 2020, based on their review of US Department of Labor enforcement data.

States with permit laws had 16.9% fewer cases of violations cited and 43.4% fewer minors found working in violation of federal law, according to their report. The study reflected citations issued by the DOL, not state labor departments, where the degree of enforcement activity and availability of data vary widely.

“Our evidence robustly challenges the notion that loosening child labor laws could be benign, highlighting instead the critical protective layer these regulations offer against child exploitation,” Bao and Kabra wrote.

Some of the most egregious recent reports of child labor violations have involved undocumented immigrant minors working in dangerous facilities such as meatpacking plants, leading to DOL investigations into Perdue Farms Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc.

But the larger percentage of violations occurs in industries such as fast food and retail, where teens more often work their first jobs, the Maryland researchers wrote.

The authors acknowledged the relationship between permit laws and violation levels could be influenced by other factors, such as the DOL devoting more enforcement resources to some states than others. But even after accounting for those factors, they concluded there’s a strong connection between states requiring permits and lower violation rates.

Justin Bogie, senior director of fiscal policy at the Alabama Policy Institute, which supported repealing the state’s permit law, said he’s doubtful about the connection.

“I don’t really see how having a principal involved in signing off on whether a child can work is going to have an effect on whether these violations are happening,” he said.

The Alabama measure didn’t change any of the state’s limits on the types of work considered hazardous for minors or the limits on their work hours, Bogie said. It also still requires employers to get a certificate allowing them to employ minors, but the minors themselves are free to seek jobs without needing state permission.

Existing law in West Virginia requires 14- and 15-year-old workers to get permits that include employer descriptions of the tasks and equipment involved in the job, plus an intended work schedule and assurance the minor will receive breaks, according to the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy’s March 4 analysis of the bill.

“These sections ensure that all parties are aware of the law and the family’s rights and that any job will not interfere with a young person’s education,” Kelly Allen, executive director for the policy center, wrote in the analysis. “It also serves as a paper trail and can aid in investigations of possible child labor law violations.”

Broader Legislation

Beyond repealing youth work permits, states have rolled back a variety of child labor restrictions ranging from work-hour rules for 16- and 17-year-olds in Florida to hazardous work limits for minors in Iowa. Some of the changes in Iowa’s law conflict with federal protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, DOL officials told state lawmakers last year.

Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability is a leading backer of similar legislation around the country.

Those proposals have coincided with an increase in child labor violations nationwide, and several states have responded with legislation to raise the penalty amounts or otherwise strengthen enforcement efforts.

Colorado in particular passed a broad overhaul of child labor enforcement this year, following up on its 2023 law to ensure minors injured on the job can sue their employers for damages rather than being limited to workers’ compensation benefits.

More states passed laws in 2024 to strengthen child labor enforcement than laws to weaken protections, Mast wrote in an analysis for the Economic Policy Institute.

Illinois is one of those states strengthening enforcement. Lawmakers there passed a sweeping overhaul of the child labor law that includes stiffer penalties for violations and discretion for state labor department officials to reject work permit applications for jobs they deem unsafe, even if the type of work isn’t specifically barred by state law.

The bill is awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s (D) signature.

As some states loosen restrictions, “we’re doing the opposite,” said state Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D), a lead sponsor of the Illinois bill. “We want to make sure our children are safe. We want to make sure they still have the ability to get a job but in a safe environment.”