Indiana Bill Would Allow Minors as Young as 14 to Quit School to Work on Corporate Farms

This week, Indiana House Rep Joanna King (R. 49) introduced a bill that would allow children who have completed 8th grade to leave school and work full time on farms during school hours.

The bill, which again would allow actual children to work instead of going to school (checks watch, confirms it’s indeed 2023 and not a dark time in the early 20th century when children worked without legal protections), carves out legal definitions for “exempted minors” to work as farm labor. From the bill synopsis (you can slog through the actual language of this horror show here):

“Work exceptions for minors. Defines “exempted minor” for purposes of the law concerning employment of minors. Permits certain exempted minors to work at farm labor during school hours on a school day. Permits certain exempted minors to work during school hours on a school day with limitations.”

An exempted minor as defined by the bill is a child who “has been excused from compulsory school attendance after completing grade 8” and whose parent “submits to the minor’s current or prospective employer (A) a signed statement from the parent declaring that the minor has been excused from school after completing grade 8.”

So as long as a child gets an ok from a parent to quit school and work all the time, then it’s fine? Sure. God knows when I was 14 years old, I was plenty equipped to enter the adult workforce and advocate for myself and my family. By the way, the age of consent in Indiana is 16. If a child isn’t mature enough to consent to sexual conduct at 13 or 14, how are they mature enough to consent to permanently abandoning their education?

The bill surgically inserts permission to employ kids as domestic help and (sorry I just threw up in my mouth a little) golf caddies. Yup.

“A minor less than (1) fourteen (14) years of age may not be employed or allowed to work in any gainful occupation except as a farm laborer, domestic service worker, caddie for persons playing the game of golf, newspaper carrier; and (2) twelve (12) years of age may not be permitted to work at farm labor except on a farm operated by the minor’s parent.”

Granted, this language is probably there to insinuate what constitutes “safe” work for children. But it’s telling that it includes benign work (presumably, “domestic service worker” equals babysitter) alongside farm labor. The GOP, let’s remember, are masters of the long game. Whether or not this becomes the law of the land, it’s a clear attempt to change norms around what we define as childhood and the safe work those children can perform in a civil, humane society.

This law follows a recent, disturbing trend of GOP lawmakers seeking to undermine child labor laws throughout the country. A similar bill introduced in Florida this week would allow 16-year-olds to drop out of school and work full time and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill into law that nullified work permit requirements for children as young as 14.

According to the Vox story (from last May), 10 states introduced “or enacted laws to change the rules governing teenage work requirements.”

If you know the history of the labor movement in this country, none of this, as galling and amoral as it is, is shocking. Corporations have always opposed labor laws, and are using recent labor shortages as a guise to gut those protections even more. From Vox, these laws are “rooted in longstanding conservative opposition to workplace regulation, and some labor advocates worry they’re just the opening salvo to a broader attack on government safety rules.”

Incidentally, Rep. King is so concerned about guardrails protecting those same children she thinks should work full time, she introduced (including a host of anti-trans legislation) a bill that would prohibit minors from using any social media platform without written consent of their parents.

Indiana residents? It may be time to take to the phones.