Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a measure loosening child labor protections in the state. The move comes after media reports shed light on the employment of minors, sometimes in grueling and dangerous jobs.
Since 2018, there has been a 69 percent increase in the number of children employed illegally by companies, the Labor Department said.
Critics of the new Arkansas measure argue it would eliminate protections at a time when children are increasingly being exploited by companies. “It increases the likelihood that kids will end up in dangerous jobs," said Reid Maki, director of child labor advocacy at the National Consumers League. He added that the surge in reported child labor law violations makes it a "very odd time" for Arkansas to weaken protections.
Andrew Collins, a Democrat in the Arkansas House of Representatives, said the bill “increases the risk that there will be abuses and violations of other child labor laws” by removing the requirement for parental consent for a child to work. “It was presented as somehow prioritizing parents, but I think it removes parents from the process,” Collins told NBC News.advancing in the Iowa legislature would allow 14-year-olds to perform some work in freezers and meat coolers and would allow children under 16 to work up to six hours a day while school is in session. It would also exempt businesses from civil liability if a student in a work-based study program is sickened, injured or killed because of the company’s negligence.
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