Child labor, an old problem in the United States, has popped up again

Hard as it is to believe, child labor is again on the rise in this country, as harsh and exploitative as ever. Employment of minors, of course, remains illegal with a few exceptions. But it is no longer possible to deny that more and more companies are employing them to work in conditions and occupations that violate U.S. labor law, sometimes brazenly.

An explosive and detailed New York Times investigation of child labor across the country found 14-year-old construction workers, 13-year-old day laborers, factories filled with minors laboring to manipulate hazardous machinery, and a 15-year-old girl sealing Cheerios cereal bags on the graveyard shift.

Americans have long had an uneasy relationship with the notion of child labor. It once was common to see even very young children, 10 and under, working in factories, mines and other hazardous occupations, where their small size and nimble fingers were much in demand.

It would not be until 1938 that Congress would pass the sweeping restrictions found in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The reasons driving reform were many. Children were getting injured, maimed and even killed. Working often kept them out of school, missing out on the education that could have propelled them to better jobs and higher wages.

Those same reasons are as valid today as they were in the 1930s.

That is not to say teens should not work if reasonable precautions are taken. Teens make up a veritable army that staff fastfood and retail workplaces. Those jobs are valuable for building a strong work ethic, the satisfaction of a job well done and monetary compensation. They learn how to handle the more stringent demands of a workplace and how to deal with expectations of bosses and co-workers.

But as a society, we should draw a firm line at the kind of violations that have begun to crop up all too frequently. Reprehensibly, some of the worse violations occur among the most vulnerable group possible: underage migrants.

The New York Times investigation found that such minors have become part of a “new economy of exploitation” and end up in “some of the most punishing jobs in the country.” Incredibly, reporters found 12-year-olds roofing in Florida and Tennessee, underage slaughterhouse workers in Mississippi and North Carolina, and children handling dangerous saws on graveyard shifts in South Dakota.

Many states have their own child labor laws, though they generally are weaker than federal laws. Too often, the penalties are not enough to act as any deterrent. For instance, in Minnesota, even repeated violations are only gross misdemeanors, with fines ranging from $250 to $1,000.

The Biden administration last week said it is creating a new task force to crack down on the rapid increase in child labor. The Labor Department has reported a 69% increase in the illegal employment of minors since 2018, with hundreds of companies large and small employing nearly 4,000 children in violation of labor laws.

The federal government is right to start cracking down on illegal child labor. States should do the same.