at a crucial time in childhood development. And of course it robs children of free social time they could be spending on extracurricular activities or just hanging out with friends and family before they enter a lifetime of work.
There’s also a big difference between a teen scooping ice cream over summer break or helping out at their parents’ restaurant and a 10-year-old working unpaid until 2 a.m. at McDonald’s. And while the latter is an obvious FLSA violation, as Rogers puts it, “the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets a floor, but then states are allowed to legislate more stringent standards.
The risks feel almost too obvious to point out. “A decent society doesn’t allow children to work in factories where they’re going to get their hands cut off,” says Rogers. ”This is something that happens repeatedly throughout the history of capitalism.
Mark is unequivocal when he speaks about the broader impacts of child labor on adult workers in the food industry and beyond. “More kids in the workforce will undermine efforts to improve working conditions and wages for adults,” he says. “We know that one of the best ways to reduce the overall number of child workers is to strengthen labor unions.
Mark is also concerned about the uptick that this increase in child labor will have on an already beleaguered education system, and research indicates thatare more likely than their counterparts to drop out of high school. “I think it’s going to normalize the idea that it’s okay to divest from education and just start working from an early age, because there’s no point in going to school,” he says. “School is more than just training for a job.