State Policy Levers to Fight Child Labor

Oppressive child labor has made a resurgence in the United States. Media reports have revealed children as young as fourteen and fifteen working as roofers, in meatpacking facilities, in automobile manufacturing plants, and in other jobs that are hazardous and inappropriate for children. In the face of the current crisis, concerned commentators, advocates, and media have focused extensively on potential federal action and on problematic red-state rollbacks of child labor protections. Meanwhile, policy discussions often focus on the low-hanging fruit of increasing civil monetary penalties. This Article notes the importance of increasing penalties, as well as significantly increasing enforcement resources. Additionally, this Article focuses on the critical role states can play in addressing child labor. This Article intentionally offers a menu of options, rather than a roadmap, for two reasons. First, there are currently sharply divergent political realities among the states, and what is politically attainable varies considerably among jurisdictions. What is feasible in one may be a heavy or impossible lift elsewhere. A menu is more suitable than a roadmap for this reason. Second, the resurgence of child labor is a relatively new phenomenon. There are not yet naturally existing experiments or research papers assessing what policies will be most effective. Finally, with few exceptions, such as in relation to workers’ compensation law, the policies discussed in this Article could be enacted at the federal level as well.