Washington, D.C. — Federal laws have protected children from dangerous labor practices and workplaces for nearly 100 years—but the radical Project 2025 policy agenda aims to undermine those protections in the name of workforce development.
New analysis from the Center for American Progress outlines for the first time how this authoritarian playbook would affect children’s safety in the workplace. Project 2025 proposes eliminating key protections against hazardous work for minors. This would leave underage workers particularly vulnerable to exploitation given the recent documented increases in cases where children were found to be employed in violation of federal child labor laws, according to CAP’s analysis.
Key findings include:
- The Department of Labor assessed more than $8 million in penalties for child labor law violations in fiscal year 2023—an 83 percent increase from the previous year.
- Project 2025 cites labor shortages in hazardous occupations as justification for using child labor as a workforce development strategy.
- The playbook argues that teenagers’ interest in dangerous work is good enough reason to allow them to work in such settings.
“It should go without saying that children shouldn’t be working in hazardous factories or around toxic substances,” said Veronica Goodman, senior director for Workforce Development Policy at CAP and author of the column. “Project 2025 wants to roll the nation back a century, before dangerous child labor was recognized as a moral and societal failure.”
Read the column: “Project 2025 Would Exploit Child Labor by Allowing Minors To Work in Dangerous Conditions With Fewer Protections” by Veronica Goodman
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Mishka Espey at [email protected].