Earlier this month, a bill to roll back child labor protections was signed by Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Spun as a commonsensical instance of red-tape reduction, the innocuously titled “Youth Hiring Act of 2023” in fact eliminates existing protections enforced by the state’s Department of Labor for over a century and makes it possible for employers to hire children as young as fourteen without obtaining parental consent.

The irony here is difficult to miss. Across the country, GOP lawmakers are currently advancing a raft of dystopian laws targeting vulnerable groups, most often under the guise of protecting children and “parental rights.” Arkansas is far from the only place where Republicans apparently see no contradiction between these stated objectives and the rolling back of child labor protections. As a recent analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reveals, the much-publicized Youth Hiring Act of 2023 is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the weakening of child labor standards. Over the past two years, some ten states have either introduced or passed legislation in this vein, with eight of such bills appearing in the past few months alone.

One, recently introduced in Minnesota by Republican state senator Rich Draheim, would allow sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds to work on construction sites. Another, proposed in Iowa, aims to lift existing restrictions around hazardous work so that children as young as fourteen can work in some dangerous industrial facilities and would grant employers immunity from civil liability in cases of workplace-related injury, illness, or death. Another, in Nebraska, would make it legal for young workers to be paid less than the minimum wage.