Do you remember your first job and why you got it?
I grew up in a mixed-status household in Chicago’s Little Village, a predominantly Mexican undocumented community. I got my first job when I was just 10 years old, working at a dry cleaners with my mom. I knew at an early age that I had to work to help out our family, just like my brother, cousins, and friends. It became normal for us kids to work alongside our parents while witnessing first-hand the unfair work environments that too often take advantage of immigrant communities. We were paid low wages, paychecks often came in late, and we were left to the mercy of our employers.
Unfortunately, our family story is not unique: The U.S. has a long history of exploitative labor practices that target the most vulnerable in our society — including children. And now we’re seeing a troubling new trend. Over the last two years alone, more than a dozen states have either introduced or enacted policies to undo child labor protections. The latest example comes out of Florida, where a pair of newly-enacted laws go beyond loosening labor protections for teenagers — they also perpetuate systems designed to exploit vulnerable populations for cheap labor, driven by greed and racial capitalism.
Rolling back child labor protections
On July 1, two very important laws went into effect in Florida. The enactment of House Bill 49 increased the number of hours a teen can work continuously without a break. Children may also work long hours into the evening, even on school nights. On top of that, House Bill 917 went into effect, targeting 16- and 17-year-olds by loosening restrictions that had previously prevented children from working on dangerous work sites. The law also allows parents or guardians to let their teens work longer hours, including in hazardous environments.
Florida school teachers are rightfully concerned that students will be exhausted from working longer hours and will struggle to keep up in school, affecting graduation rates, absenteeism, and school performance. In addition to the long hours, children will now have permission to work on construction sites, including roofing, all known to be inherently dangerous sites for anyone. This has the potential to lead to heightened work injuries, safety hazards, health risks, and more.
Florida is not alone. Last year, Iowa enacted similar provisions allowing teens as young as 14 to work longer hours on worksites that had been previously outlawed for children. This policy trend has many implications for all youth! Removing child labor protections could lead to a higher risk of workplace injuries and susceptibility to wage theft or other forms of exploitation. In recent years, we’ve already seen an increase in child labor law violations in Florida and nationwide. The Florida Policy Institute found that from 2021 to 2022, there was nearly a 60% rise in child labor law violations.
The uptick in labor abuses underscores the urgent need to protect the rights of children, especially for unaccompanied migrant minors, who advocacy organizations fear are being forced to work in dire conditions. Unaccompanied migrant children face additional risks due to their legal status, language barriers, and lack of social networks for support. According to the New York Times, high-demand sectors such as agriculture, hospitality, and construction exploit these children by subjecting them to long hours in harsh conditions with limited access to water and restrooms. Furthermore, many children often face physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
Entrenching racial capitalism
These efforts are deeply tied to the U.S.’s entrenched history of racial capitalism. When I joined Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), I was introduced to our new Theory of Change (ToC), which names racial capitalism as a process that inflicts harm on communities, specifically immigrant communities. At GCIR, we link racial capitalism as a system that historically and currently exploits racial differences to perpetuate economic injustice. We frequently dive into this topic within our Political Education Workgroup, where we read and discuss various perspectives to understand racial capitalism and its intersection with migration.
In 2023, Florida’s newly enacted anti-immigrant laws created hostile and unsafe environments for communities, sending immigrants to flee the state all together. This likely contributed to the worker shortage in Florida. Then a year later, the state retracted child labor protections.
State Rep. Linda Chaney, a Republican who first introduced Florida’s child labor bill, argues the worker shortage is hurting small businesses, and that children can help make up the difference while learning new skills. Though immigrants were already severely underpaid and were exploited, and businesses were caught employing children under violation of child labor laws.
Chaney’s own remarks highlight how much she and her fellow state conservatives are putting business interests ahead of a child's health and well-being. In fact, she believes that we should think of teenagers as "youth workers" and not children.
“These are not children. These are 16 and 17-year-olds,” Chaney said during a subcommittee hearing last year. “These are youth workers.”
This system will continue to disproportionately affect low-income, Black and Brown communities, and youth in immigrant families who feel they have no other option than to work. Lawmakers and businesses are giving themselves permission to exploit communities. Conservatives continue to push for a low-wage model to take advantage of children and families, perpetuating a racialized system of extraction.
This is happening throughout the U.S. Many states that have retracted child labor protections have also introduced a number of anti-immigrant laws.
How philanthropy can help
So, do you remember your first job? How old were you? Did you have to contend with unfair or dangerous working conditions? As I look back, it’s clear that children shouldn’t bear the burden of exploitative labor laws. This intergenerational economic pressure underscores the urgent need for holistic strategies that can empower and support not only children but families too.
The enactment of House Bills 49 and 917 in Florida reveals the troubling truth that our society prioritizes economic profit over children's welfare. This is an urgent matter and should be addressed by the government and society, including philanthropy. Within GCIR’s new Economic Justice Community of Practice, we seek to mobilize philanthropy to resource campaigns that advance policies that promote fair wages and safe working conditions, regardless of age or immigration status. Adults and children should not be used as political instruments to prioritize businesses.
Philanthropy must invest in worker and youth-led efforts at the local and state levels. They must push to repeal laws that have stripped away critical child labor protections and enforce policies that protect children’s rights, access to education and social protections, while building long-term power to secure comprehensive immigration reform at the national level.
There is no justification for passing down adversity to the next generation. Children, including immigrants, offer more than economic value.