Republican State Representative Susan Dubose has proposed removing the requirement for workers younger than the age of 16 to obtain an eligibility to work form before getting a job.

Alabama’s current child labor laws allow for 14 and 15 year-olds to work after they have been issued an eligibility to work form from their school or, if homeschooled, a parent or instructor. The form indicates a student has achieved satisfactory grades and attendance record.

Dubose’s bill follows the trend of state’s loosening child labor protections in an attempt to combat the ongoing labor shortage. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 28 states have introduced or enacted laws weakening child labor protections since 2021.

The conservative think tank Alabama Policy Institute has listed removing “barriers” for children to enter the workforce as part of its “2024 Blueprint for Alabama.”

“Learning new skills and building a strong work ethic from an early age is a benefit to not only Alabama’s children, but can also provide additional laborers to the state’s workforce,” API’s blueprint said.

The bill would leave other child labor regulations in place such as the requirement for employers to obtain a Class I Child Labor Certificate to employ anyone younger than the age of 16. Tara Hutchinson with the Alabama Department of Labor said the number of those certificates have more than doubled from pre-pandemic levels.

“There were 1,219 businesses in 2017 and 1,294 in 2018 that obtained the Class I Certificate. There were 2,667 businesses in 2022 and 2,789 in 2023. The vast majority of those certificates are in the food service industry,” Hutchinson said in an emailed response to The Times.

Concurrently, a meteoric rise in child labor violations have been reported in recent years. The U.S. Department of Labor closed 955 investigations in 2023 which found roughly 5,800 children illegally employed, an 88% increase from the previous year. In 2020, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported 26 workers under the age of 18 died from workplace related injuries, 14 of those were younger than the age of 16. Minors also accounted for 15,000 workplace related emergency room visits.

One day before Dubose filed the bill, the DOL fined Apex Roofing more than $100,000 for child labor violations which resulted in the death of a 15-year-old in 2019. The minor fell through an opening in the roof of Cullman Casting.

According to a Reuters report, in 2022 an Alabama Hyundai plant employed as many as 50 underage workers — some as young as 12 — many of whom were migrants from Central and South America.

Dubose originally agreed to be interviewed by The Times, but after missing the interview scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 22, she did not respond to rescheduling requests.

She recently noted the state’s low workforce participation rate to the Alabama Daily News, specifically among those ages 18 to 24.

“There’s 100,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 24 that don’t work at all, and they’re not students, so my question is, what are those 100,000 people doing?” Dubose said. “So the thinking behind this is to allow young people, should they and their parents choose, the opportunity to work on a limited basis.”

The LFP is calculated based on the percentage of the civilian population that is working, or actively looking for work, who are not in prison or the armed services.

In 2022 the LFP for 16-24 year olds was 55.6%. During the last 20 years, the rise and fall of youth labor has mirrored school enrollment. According to EPI’s analysis of Current Survey Population data, between 2001 and 2021 the number of young people who were not working because they were not able to, increased by less than 1%.

Policy and data analyst with the nonprofit VOICES for Alabama’s Children Apriell Hartsfield said there was plenty of value in children developing a strong work ethic, but that education should remain the top priority.

“First and foremost we want them educated, because with the right kind of education and the right skillset and having that strong foundation built, they can actually bring more to the workforce than just physical labor,” Hartsfield said.

The demographic reporting the lowest LFP rate is those older than 55 at 38%.

Patrick Camp can be reached at 256-734-2131 ext. 238