The Obama administration is proposing tougher child labor rules for farming and that has angered agricultural groups and their Republican supporters.

 

The regulations, developed by the Department of Labor, would restrict the ability of farm workers 16 and under to use certain equipment and machinery and to harvest certain crops, like tobacco, as well as performing “agricultural work with animals and in pesticide handling, timber operations, manure pits and storage bins.”

 

In particular, changes are needed, the Labor Department says, to address the dangers of working with tractors and other large farm machines.

 

But farming advocates say the rules go too far and will negatively impact family farms.

 

Representative Denny Rehberg (R-Montana) said the regulations have come out of an administration that’s not familiar with farming.

 

“You’ve got a president of the United States … from Chicago, you’ve got a director for secretary of Labor who’s pushing this from Los Angeles, and you have to think to yourself, do you have any idea what it’s like not just to run an agricultural business in a rural state … but to raise a family in one?” Rehberg told The Hill.

 

Supporters of the new child labor restrictions point out that the family farm argument ignores the fact that an estimated 400,000 children are used as laborers on non-family farms and that these children are not covered by current labor laws. According to the Labor Department, the fatality rate for children who work on farms is four times that of children who work elsewhere.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Child Labor Rules Rile Rural Lawmakers (by Rachel Leven, The Hill)

Farm Groups Protest DOL's Proposed Youth Labor Restrictions (American Agriculturist)

Farmers Contest Child-Labor Rules (by Ana Campoy, Wall Street Journal)