Think tank lists 10 strategies for countering rise in child labor violations

Washington — State and local governments can play a critical role in protecting teens from workplace injury and death amid a nationwide surge in child labor law violations, a recently published report states.

Citing data from the Department of Labor, the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute and New York University’s Wagner Labor Initiative say child labor violations rose 88% between 2019 and 2023.

The report’s authors lay out 10 strategies to deter and address the violations:

1. Increase enforcement funding.
2. Enhance civil and criminal penalties for violators as a deterrent.
3. Establish damages or restitution for victims of child labor violations.
4. Create readily attainable and clear accountability for lead corporations with child labor violations in their supply chain.
5. Modify workers’ compensation laws to allow lawsuits to be filed when victims of child labor violations are injured or killed on the job.
6. Ensure organizations with child labor violations (directly or in supply chains) don’t receive government contracts without fixing the issues.
7. Create a private-right-of-action or whistleblower statute for child labor violations to increase detection and expand potential enforcers.
8. Enact stop-work-order statutes or pass state-level “hot goods” or consumer notification provisions to halt the flow of illegally made goods in commerce and to alert the public.
9. Use public disclosure to inform consumers of company practices and as a child labor law violation deterrent.
10. Enact or enhance work permit/employment certification requirements for minors.

The report describes these policy approaches and notes already existing precedents for similar laws.

“Almost all of these policies could be enacted at the federal level as well,” the report’s executive summary states. “No one policy approach is likely to resolve the problem; a package of policies is therefore advisable.”