Child Labor: The State’s New After-School Program

Why 28 states are rolling back protections and what it means for America’s most vulnerable kids.

Teen Jobs Used to Be Fun

As a teenager, the summer job or the job over the weekend (some of us couldn’t work weekends because we had to go to church on Sundays) was a rite of passage or just a way to finance our hobbies: clothes, shoes, video games, music, etc. It was a way to earn extra spending money while at the same time learning responsibility—being on time, learning how to deal with people who were different or older—a glimpse of real life. You were exposed to people who gave you unsolicited advice, you had crushes on people, there were people you admired and looked up to. Ultimately, it wasn’t “real life” because real life only consisted of school and home… work was just the place you were at a few hours so you could make money.

Today, in a world of underemployment and employment uncertainty, some families are looking toward older children to get jobs to supplement household income just to stay afloat. This shift reflects a couple of things: the dismantling of the lower- and middle-class family system by local and state governments, and the reality that adult workers are not being paid a fair wage to meet basic needs for themselves and their families.

Erosion of Child Labor Laws Across the U.S.

Since 2021, 28 states have introduced bills aimed at weakening child labor protections. The majority of these states—Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia—lie in the mostly South where public schools are generally underperforming, funding for school systems is low, test scores for students are below the national averages, and poverty rates are higher.

According to the data (table at the end of the article), New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut lead in PreK–12 education rankings, supported by high per-pupil spending and relatively low poverty rates. Some states, like New York, have the highest per-pupil spending but do not rank in the top five, showing that higher spending doesn't always correlate with better outcomes if the money isn’t invested effectively. Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico have the highest poverty rates and rank lowest in education. These statistics scream hopelessness and make the people in these states—who have high poverty rates and minimal investment in education—ripe for being taken advantage of.

What the New Laws Aim to Do by State

In recent years, we’ve seen governors holding signing events to celebrate rolling back protections for children when it comes to working—while also doing things like cutting school funding and denying free lunch in private back rooms, absent the media and cameras. At the same time, federal funding for Pre-K and Head Start is under threat, and increasingly, state legislatures are using taxpayer money to subsidize private school education—often for wealthy families and political donors. We’ve seen Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kim Reynolds signing legislation to allow children to work more hours in hazardous conditions.  These laws are supposed to ease decades long restrictions and expand the type of work teens can do, when they can do it (on school nights) and the amount of hours that minors can work.  People who support these laws say that these laws address labor shortages and/or promote parental rights.  I personally think it total crap.  Sorry I got pissed just writing that. 

Here’s a breakdown of some of the rollbacks…

Category	State	Legislation / Details
1. Lowering the Minimum Working Age	Arkansas	HB 1410 (2023) – Removed requirement for work permits for youth under 16, eliminating age and parental consent checks.
	Iowa	SF 167 – Allows 14- and 15-year-olds to work in hazardous jobs like meatpacking and industrial laundries.
	New Hampshire	SB 345 – Permits 14-year-olds to work in businesses that serve alcohol.
2. Removing Key Protections for 16–17 y/o	Florida	HB 49 – Lets 16- and 17-year-olds work over 30 hours/week and more than 8 hours/day, even on school nights.
	Indiana	SB 146 – Removes work hour caps for minors; allows 18-year-olds to serve alcohol.
	Iowa	SF 167 – Extends legal work hours for minors; exempts certain hazardous job restrictions.
	Ohio	Law passed allowing teens to work longer evening hours during school terms.
3. Targeting Vulnerable Youth Groups	Arkansas & Iowa	Relaxed rules apply to: 1) Homeschooled youth 2) Virtual school students 3) Youth who graduated before 18.
4. Expanding Sectors for Youth Labor	New Hampshire, Indiana, Florida	Hospitality & Food Service – Legislation supports minors working in restaurants and similar venues.
	Broadly (e.g., Florida, Ohio)	Retail & Warehousing – Longer evening/weekend hours expand hiring pool for these industries.
	Iowa	Meatpacking & Agriculture – Explicit inclusion of hazardous sectors with historically high injury rates.

A few things to note: 

• Point #2 in the table shows states weakening rules that once ensured a balance between school and being employed.  These changes strip away critical guardrails—such as hour limits and mandatory breaks—that were created to protect teen workers from exploitation and academic disruption.

• Point #3 on the table:  These groups may have more flexible schedules, making them more attractive to employers—but potentially more vulnerable to overwork and disengagement from education.

• Point #4:  While the laws often frame themselves broadly, they disproportionately benefit specific industries, many of which are known for tough working conditions and high turnover.  Iowa has drawn great concerns over allowing teens to work in meat packing because of the dangerous nature of the work.  Take a look into “ The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. 

Advocates vs. Reality: “Parental Rights” or Systemic Risk?

A bill sponsor in Florida, Jay Collins, says these types of bills are a “parental rights issue.” After decades of protections for minors, why the shift to remove them? It’s more of the same rollback we’ve seen in recent years—affirmative action, women having agency over their bodies, and now this. Is this what is meant by "make America great again"?

Here’s the shift: parents are working 40–60 hours a week and still can’t cover their bills. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. Families are stressed. And when the stress rises, so does the pressure to prioritize the immediate over the long term.

Add inflation and a president who, as Warren Buffett puts it, is waging trade wars with our trading partners through tariffs—and the cost of living climbs even higher. In that environment, education starts to feel like a luxury, because food, rent, and gas come first.

But as Lyndon B. Johnson said when signing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act:

“As a son of a tenant farmer, I know that education is the only valid passport from poverty.”

Without quality K–12—and I’d add Pre-K—education, children stay trapped. These laws don’t empower. They exploit. They prey on families who feel like they don’t have another choice.

Long-Term Community Impacts

Laws like these ultimately undermine families and communities. When children work extended hours—especially during the school week—it means less time spent at home, less rest, and fewer opportunities to be together. And yet, policies like this are often supported by those elected to protect the well-being of their communities. It raises an important question: what exactly is being gained when a child is working late on a school night—and at what cost?

It reminds me of when retailers started to open on Thanksgiving Night, requiring people to work…pulling them away from rest and relaxation and time with their families.  And the people who didn’t have to work were also pulled away from their friends and families with the temptation of a tv, game system, headphones that were on sale.  Stuff and the expense of connection and stronger community.

The current wave of child labor deregulation mirrors a much older, more troubling chapter in American history—sharecropping. After slavery, many Black families and poor whites were forced into this exploitative system where survival depended on every member of the household—including children—working the fields. Education was seen as a luxury, not a necessity, because survival came first.

But even then, some parents understood the long game. They chose to send their children to school, believing education could be the key to breaking the cycle of generational poverty. That decision came at great short-term cost but offered long-term transformation. Today’s rollback of child labor protections feels like a regression, a nod to the same oppressive systems of the past. The only people who gained lasting wealth from sharecropping were the landowners—just as the only beneficiaries today are corporations profiting from cheap, vulnerable labor. Families remain in survival mode, still living paycheck to paycheck, harvest to harvest.

A Message to Young People

To the high school and college students who feel like they have to work full-time while juggling school, I say this—gently, but firmly: “Enjoy your freedom. You have the rest of your life to work.” The urgency to earn money now might feel real—and sometimes, it is. But sacrificing your education can cost you far more in the long run.

Working long hours while in school doesn’t just drain your energy—it chips away at your future. It robs you of the focus, time, and mental space you need to succeed. It keeps you from study groups, tutoring, mentorship, and the relationships that open doors later in life. The danger isn’t just burnout. It’s an entire generation missing out on the chance to build something better.

I know this from experience. I worked during college, and it absolutely affected my academic outcomes. Some days I was too exhausted to absorb anything. I missed study groups. I missed chances to connect with people who could’ve helped me—not just with classes, but with career moves and real-world advice. Looking back, the cost wasn’t just my GPA. It was missed moments that could’ve changed my trajectory.

Who Protects Vulnerable Youth?

And these new laws? They ignore the most vulnerable kids entirely. Kids in homes where education isn’t prioritized. Where parents see a paycheck as more urgent than a diploma. These are the kids most likely to fall through the cracks—pushed into adult responsibilities, but without adult rights or protections. And without oversight from schools or labor departments, they’re even more exposed to exploitation. The opportunity to escape poverty slips further away.

We must ask a hard but necessary question: Who benefits from these changes? Are the politicians pushing these laws allowing their own children to work 30-hour weeks while in school? Are corporate executives sending their kids to fast food shifts at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night? Likely not. These policy shifts are being crafted and passed by people who are insulated from the very consequences they’re creating for others. That’s not advocacy—it’s exploitation disguised as economic opportunity.

What States Should Be Doing

If states are truly committed to improving outcomes for young people, they should focus not on putting them to work earlier, but on making public education stronger, more equitable, and more engaging. Why aren’t we asking how well these same states are performing in terms of graduation rates, test scores, and student well-being? Instead of using minors to plug labor shortages—shortages that often stem from poor wages and worker mistreatment—we should be investing in schools, teachers, and student support systems.

Loosening child labor laws might solve a short-term labor problem, but it creates long-term social consequences. We can—and must—do better by our children.

A Tale of Two Students: Pearland vs. Spring

While writing this article, I happened upon two working students at Cracker Barrel—one in Pearland, TX and the other in Spring, TX. The contrast between them says a lot.

The student in Pearland was Hispanic, male, and only allowed to work on weekends. His mother told him, “this will not be your last job,” emphasizing that school came first. He was very involved in his academics. His father would’ve let him work as much as he wanted, but the boundaries his mother set made a difference. He was very curious (nosy), asking why I was eating alone and what I was writing about.

The student in Spring, a young African American male, worked both weekdays and weekends. He was saving for a car but expressed little interest in school, partly because, according to him, Spring ISD isn’t known for academic strength—he even noted they often have substitute teachers leading classrooms because they can't find permanent teachers.

Thinking about both students, their parents, and their schools made the difference clear: community. Pearland seemed to have a community culture that emphasized school, enforced boundaries around work, and supported long-term goals. Spring, however, lacked that reinforcement. The student there scoffed at school, likely because no one around him made it something to look forward to. His short-term goal—a car—makes perfect sense for someone his age. But it reminded me why community matters so much: to help young people dream beyond the immediate and invest in long-term visions for their lives.

State-by-State Comparison: Education Spending, Rankings & Poverty Rates

State	Per-Pupil Spending (2022)	Education Ranking (PreK–12)	Poverty Rate (%)
	Per-Pupil Spending: U.S. Census Bureau, Fiscal Year 2022	Education Rankings: U.S. News & World Report, 2025	Poverty Rates: Data Pandas, 2025
New Jersey	$25,099	1	10.2
Massachusetts	$21,906	2	9.4
Connecticut	$24,453	3	10.1
New Hampshire	$20,487	4	6.9
Vermont	$24,608	4	10
Illinois	$18,927	5	12.1
Iowa	$13,259	5	10
Pennsylvania	$19,186	6	11.8
Minnesota	$15,441	7	9
Rhode Island	$19,962	8	11.1
Indiana	$12,322	9	11.9
Utah	$9,552	9	8.3
Washington	$17,119	10	10.6
Wisconsin	$14,505	10	11.2
Maine	$17,885	11	10.9
New York	$29,873	12	13.9
Maryland	$17,753	13	8.6
Florida	$11,076	14	13.5
Nebraska	$14,285	15	9.5
North Dakota	$15,843	16	10.7
Michigan	$15,719	17	12.5
Virginia	$15,069	18	10.8
Ohio	$15,583	19	12.6
California	$17,049	20	13.1
Colorado	$13,422	21	10.2
Delaware	$19,357	22	11.3
Oregon	$15,754	23	11.5
Kansas	$14,408	24	11.4
Wyoming	$18,529	26	11
Hawaii	$17,420	28	10.5
Texas	$11,803	29	13.7
Georgia	$13,619	30	13.3
Missouri	$12,631	32	12.9
Kentucky	$13,549	33	15.9
Montana	$13,582	34	12
South Dakota	$11,564	35	11
South Carolina	$13,387	36	13.5
Tennessee	$11,317	37	13.5
North Carolina	$12,298	38	13.4
Alaska	$20,191	39	10.3
Idaho	$9,670	41	11.2
West Virginia	$13,858	42	17
Arkansas	$12,159	43	15.3
Oklahoma	$10,890	44	14.5
Alabama	$11,819	45	15
Louisiana	$14,928	46	18.6
Arizona	$10,315	47	13.5
Nevada	$11,677	48	12.7
New Mexico	$13,260	49	18.1
Mississippi	$10,984	50	19.3