AR Times: “Blue Arkansans are not the only ones marveling at how much harm the state’s citizens will suffer from new laws passed during the 2023 legislative session.
Two professors from Kansas State University and Bard College took aim at Arkansas’s mystifying rollback of child labor protections in an article published yesterday in The Conversation. John A. Fliter and Betsy Wood, two scholars who have studied the history of child labor in the U.S., seem genuinely flummoxed by supporters’ arguments that this is somehow empowering for parents:
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed her state’s Youth Hiring Act of 2023 in March. It eliminated work permits for 14- and 15-year-olds.
Previously, employers had to keep a work certificate on file that required proof of age, a description of the work and schedule – and the written consent of a parent or guardian.
Arkansas has scrapped those safeguards against child labor exploitation. We find it puzzling that supporters touted the bill as enhancing parental rights because the law removes any formal role for parents in balancing their kids’ education and employment.
Despite the embarrassing puffery in the Arkansas state Senate from well-to-do white men who suggested helping their dads at the office in their younger years is what launched them into success, I think we all know that nobody is rolling back child labor laws for the kids. The real beneficiaries are the businesses making hay with a new source of cheap or free labor, gifted to them by lawmakers.”