Child labor protections in America are being challenged at the state level and, in some cases, reversed in ways we haven’t seen in decades. In 2022 and 2023, Arkansas, Iowa, New Hampshire, and New Jersey passed laws weakening protections for child workers. At least eight other states are considering similar laws. Most recently, Missouri is considering a bill to loosen restrictions for kids ages 14 and 15, and the Alabama Policy Institute is pushing for undoing child labor laws as a solution to Alabama's labor shortage.
Such state-level rollbacks threaten to undermine the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the basis of federal child labor protections. In response, many are now calling for strengthening FLSA enforcement by increasing federal funding for inspectors.
However, the history of this legislation points to critical weaknesses in its framework. An alternative proposal that was considered at the time but that failed to pass, the Child Labor Amendment, would have forged much greater protections.
Many assume that the movement to abolish child labor in America was a straightforward march toward progress that culminated in the 1938 passage of the FLSA. In reality, the history of U.S. child labor regulation was a contentious battle that began with industrialization efforts in the post-Civil War South. Every step of the way, opposition backed by big business thwarted reformers' efforts to limit or abolish child labor.
By 1900, more than 1.75 million American children under the age of 15 worked for wages in industrial jobs. Ten years later, the total surpassed 2 million. That was more than 1 in 5 children under the age of 15.
These were low estimates since they did not include children working in agriculture or children working for their own families. A 1922 study of seasonal demand for farm labor in Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey found that three-fifths of white children and nearly three-fourths of Black children were working before the age of 10.
The direness of the child labor situation prompted many individuals across the country to band together in support of a Child Labor Amendment. An amendment to the Constitution would empower Congress to "protect all children in all parts of the country alike."
In this effort, reformers gained the support of many new allies including teachers' federations, women's clubs, religious organizations, labor unions, and African American reformers. The movement to abolish child labor had been overwhelmingly led by white reformers since the 1870s, when the growing problem of poor white children working in Southern textile mills launched the issue onto the national stage.