By Veronica Goodman
This summer, a 17-year-old employee at Frontier Town Adventure Park on Maryland’s Eastern Shore was airlifted to shock trauma after falling off the tractor he was operating and getting run over by the equipment. A handful of local news outlets reported the incident, but there has been no follow-up coverage to confirm whether the minor survived his injuries. Meanwhile, earlier this year, a sushi restaurant in Aurora, Colorado, faced fines for letting a 17-year-old employee load a trash compactor—a federally prohibited task for minors—in addition to allowing 14- and 15-year-old employees to work more hours than the law permits.
Child labor violations tend to be underreported in the news, in part to preserve minors’ privacy. But the lack of public visibility betrays a disturbing trend: Between 2016 and 2025, the number of violations spiked by 54 percent.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) established a federal legal floor nearly a century ago to protect kids from hazardous working conditions and keep education their top priority. The same reasons for the law then—such as children being maimed or killed on the job—remain disturbingly relevant today. Recent tragedies highlight the high stakes: A 16-year-old boy was killed by a sawmill working in Wisconsin; a 15-year-old fell to his death on the first day of his roofing job in Florida; and children as young as 13 were found working overnight shifts at meat processing plants, cleaning heavy industrial equipment with toxic chemicals, with injuries reported.
Early work experience can help build the kind of skills and independence that make a real difference later when it’s time to enter the workforce. But gaining that experience should not mean exposing young workers to dangerous or exploitative working conditions.
Unfortunately, some state legislatures disagree. Caving to corporate lobbying for cheap labor, they are actively dismantling youth workplace protections. Indiana, Nebraska, and West Virginia have already weakened child labor protections this year. Indiana eliminated employer recordkeeping requirements for minors, building on 2024 rollbacks that extended nighttime work hours and loosened hazardous-work rules. Nebraska now allows employers to pay underage workers below the state’s minimum wage. And West Virginia allows minors to serve alcohol and stripped protections for dangerous work, including for youth apprentices.
This is a building, nationwide regression. In 2023, Iowa passed a law in direct violation of federal child labor laws to permit 14-year-olds to perform assembly line work in factories and meatpacking plants. These rollbacks are a direct result of lobbying by special interest groups—particularly in the restaurant and hospitality industries—which view children as low-cost labor solutions. Lawmakers who vote for these proposals often reframe deregulation in terms of promoting parental rights, cutting bureaucratic red tape, and fostering a strong work ethic. But those arguments ring hollow when they directly undermine children’s physical safety, which we protect with laws such as those that require a certain age for driving.
The trend is not surprising because states are responding to a climate of lax enforcement of child labor laws under the Trump administration. The administration cut funding to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which oversees these laws, hampering its ability to investigate violations even as cases involving minors employed in hazardous workplaces have surged by nearly 60 percent. That’s a sharp reversal from the Biden administration, which worked to counter this trend by establishing a dedicated enforcement task force. It also tracks with the policy framework of Project 2025, which explicitly called for eliminating youth worker protections to push more minors into factories and slaughterhouses.
Yet, some states are resisting this race to the bottom. Oregon stands out as a critical exception, having passed legislation this year to strengthen state child labor standards and avoid backsliding. Other states are advancing promising frameworks. New York proposed a bill ensuring underage workers explicitly know their workplace rights. Maryland introduced legislation to establish civil penalties for child labor violations and prevent waivers from the FLSA. New Jersey is moving to increase penalties for employers violating certain child labor laws. These are model examples for states looking to bolster their child labor laws.
Enforcement alone, however, can’t reverse the rise in child labor cases. Federal policymakers must modernize existing laws to address contemporary threats to underage workers. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) recently introduced the Children Harmed in Life-threatening or Dangerous (CHILD) Labor Act to do just that. If passed, their bill would raise the federal floor and grant the Department of Labor stronger enforcement authorities.
States interested in preparing students for the workforce do not need to exploit them. Lawmakers can instead expand career and technical education (CTE) programs. CTE combines classroom instruction with structured, hands-on experience that prepares students for high-demand careers in fields like healthcare, manufacturing, construction, and skilled trades. These programs provide a safe and constructive environment for young people to grow.
Children don’t belong in dangerous workplaces or need to be working late shifts on school nights. Early job experience can offer teenagers tangible long-term benefits, and creating these opportunities is critical. But policymakers must focus on raising workplace standards, not gutting them. We need to build opportunities that set America’s youth up for success, rather than sacrificing their safety for corporate profits.
Veronica Goodman is the senior director of Workforce Development Policy at the Center for American Progress.
