Project 2025’s policy agenda includes drastic proposals to minimize protections against hazardous working conditions for minors, which have been federal law for almost 100 years.
The plan, promoted by the Heritage Foundation and Trump allies, claims to reduce regulations in the name of workforce development. But a new analysis shows how Project 2025 would leave underage workers vulnerable to exploitation, especially considering recent cases that found employers in violation of child labor laws.
According to the analysis, there was an 83% increase in child labor law violations in fiscal year 2023 than the previous year. This resulted in more than $8 million in penalties for child labor law violations.
Project 2025 claims child labor laws should be relaxed as part of a workforce development strategy to address labor shortages in hazardous occupations, and argues that if an underage child shows interest in dangerous work, it should be allowed.
Critics of the proposal accuse Project 2025 of attempting to go back in time more than a century when child labor was commonplace and was not viewed as a societal failure, regardless of the hazardous factories, toxic substances, or risky conditions children were subjected to on a daily basis.
Learn more about the Fair Labor Standards Act and the child labor provisions that would be threatened by Project 2025.