In February, the Department of Labor announced that it had discovered 102 teenagers

working in hazardous conditions for a company that cleans meatpacking equipment at

factories around the country, a violation of federal standards. The minors, ages 13
to 17, were working with dangerous chemicals and cleaning brisket saws and head
splitters; three of them suffered injuries, including one with caustic burns.

Ten of those children worked in Arkansas, including six at a factory owned by the
state’s second-largest private employer, Tyson Foods. Rather than taking immediate
action to tighten standards and prevent further exploitation of children, Arkansas
went the opposite direction. Earlier this month, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a
Republican, signed legislation that would actually make it easier for companies to
put children to work. The bill eliminated a requirement that children under 16 get
a state work permit before being employed, a process that required them to verify
their age and get the permission of a parent or guardian.

Arkansas is at the vanguard of a concerted effort by business lobbyists and

Republican legislators to roll back federal and state regulations that have been in
place for decades to protect children from abuse. Echoing that philosophy, bills
are moving through at least nine other state legislatures that would expand work
hours for children, lift restrictions on hazardous occupations, allow them to work
in locations that serve alcohol, or lower the state minimum wage for minors. The
Labor Department says there has been a 69 percent increase since 2018 in the
illegal employment of children.

The response in these states is not to protect those children from exploitation,
but instead to make it legal. Voters in these states may support deregulation, but
they may not know that businesses can use these bills to work children harder, cut
their wages and put them in danger. There is time for them to persuade lawmakers to
say no to these abuses.