States Redraw the Rules on Child Labor

Quick Hits

• In California, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, and Virginia, child labor laws have changed this year.
• Some state laws limit the hours minors can work or the jobs they can do.
• The DOL recently has amped up enforcement of the child labor provisions of the FLSA.
• Federal and state labor agencies may certify U-visas and T-visas for qualifying workers—including minors—who are victims of workplace crimes or trafficking and who cooperate with investigations.

Child labor has drawn heightened attention lately with some states enacting stricter child labor rules and others relaxing their restrictions. State laws vary in how they limit the hours minors can work and the types of jobs minors can do. In some cases, the time limitations are different during the school year and outside of the school year.

California Law

California enacted a law, Assembly Bill (AB) 3234, requiring employers to disclose child labor findings from voluntary audits. It took effect on January 1, 2025. Employers must publish audit results on their website, including the timing of the audit, any child labor findings, and copies of child labor policies.

California limits the hours that minors can work, prohibits work in some hazardous occupations, and requires them to obtain a work permit.

Indiana Law

Indiana amended its statute to expand the hours that minors can work. Under the changes that took effect on January 1, 2025, sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds can work the same hours and days as an adult. Parental permission is no longer required for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds to work longer or later hours. In addition, fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds can work until 9 p.m. on any day from June 1 to Labor Day.

Michigan Law

Under a new Michigan law, a new registration system will allow minors to register for employment and allow employers to register to employ minors. Once the system is established, the state Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity will issue work permits for minors, and schools will not be asked to do so. The new rules will take effect on October 2, 2026.

Children under sixteen years of age can work a maximum of three hours per day during a week when school is in session. They can work between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on school days during the school year, or between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. from June 1 to Labor Day.

Nevada Law

A new law in Nevada, Assembly Bill 215, prohibit minors under age sixteen from working more than forty hours in any one week. It was previously limited to forty-eight hours. The law also prohibits minors younger than nineteen from working between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on any night preceding a school day. Certain exceptions apply to emancipated minors, lifeguards, arcade employees, stage or theatrical employees, and minors working on a farm.

The law requires the Nevada labor commissioner to prepare and distribute an abstract of child labor laws, which employers must post in a visible location at the workplace and online.

The law will take effect on October 1, 2025.

Virginia Law

Virginia legislators recently passed two laws related to minors involved in content creation or working in barber shops and beauty salons.

House Bill 2401 requires content creators, including parents, to put into a trust a certain portion of their earnings from video content that includes the name, likeness, or image of a child. The child can receive the funds after turning eighteen-years-old or being emancipated. The law took effect on July 1, 2025.

A child under the age of sixteen is considered to be engaged in the work of content creation when two criteria are met:

• during the previous twelve months at least 30 percent of the content creator’s compensated video content produced within a thirty-day period includes the likeness, name, or photograph of the child; and
• the number of views received per video segment on any online platform met the online platform’s threshold for the generation of compensation or the content creator received compensation for video content equal to or greater than $0.10 per view.

The law requires content creators whose content regularly features a child to maintain records with:

• the name and documented proof of age for the child engaged in content creation,
• the number of videos that generated compensation,
• the number of minutes of the video content that the content creator received compensation for during the reporting period,
• the number of minutes each child was featured in video content during the reporting period,
• the total compensation generated from video content featuring a child during the reporting period, and
• the amount of money deposited into the trust for the child during the reporting period.

Meanwhile, House Bill 1667 permits children aged sixteen years or older to work in licensed barbershops and cosmetology salons if they are employed under a valid work-training program or hold a cosmetology or barber license from the state Board for Barbers and Cosmetology. Previously, they could only do so if they were part of a registered apprenticeship. The law took effect on July 1, 2025.

Federal Enforcement

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally prohibits employers from having minors under age eighteen do certain types of dangerous jobs, including:

• driving a motor vehicle for work;
• operating or cleaning power-driven meat-processing machines;
• operating or cleaning power-driven bakery machines;
• operating circular saws, chainsaws, woodchippers, and forklifts;
• logging and forestry work;
• demolition tasks;
• roofing work; and
• mining work.

In addition, certain roles are off limits for fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds, including:

• most occupations involving transportation, construction, warehousing, and public utilities;
• work in freezers or meat coolers;
• any part of baking operations;
• sign-waving;
• door-to-door sales activities;
• work on ladders and scaffolds; and
• catching or cooping poultry.

Under the FLSA, fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds can work a maximum of three hours on a school day, eighteen hours during a school week, eight hours on a non-school day, and forty hours on a non-school week. The hours must be between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., except for June 1 through Labor Day, when it’s extended to 9 p.m. Children under fourteen years old cannot be employed in nonagricultural occupations covered by the FLSA.

In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) concluded 736 cases with child labor violations involving 4,030 children nationwide. It fined employers more than $15.1 million in civil money penalties, an 89 percent increase from the previous year. The agency had more than 1,000 open child labor investigations in January 2025.

In some of those cases, children allegedly were cleaning meatpacking plants during the middle of the night, and some of them were migrants who came to the United States alone from Mexico or Central America, according to the DOL.

Immigration Relief for Young Victims of Workplace Violations

Federal and state labor agencies are increasingly supporting young immigrant workers who experience serious workplace abuses. When a qualifying crime—such as trafficking, involuntary servitude, obstruction of justice, or other criminal activity—occurs in the workplace and violates a law the agency enforces, the agency may issue a U-visa certification.

A U-visa certification confirms that the worker is a victim of a qualifying crime and has cooperated, is cooperating, or is likely to cooperate with the investigation or prosecution. A U-visa can provide temporary lawful status and work authorization, ultimately creating a potential pathway to lawful permanent residence.

Similarly, minors and adults who are victims of severe forms of trafficking may be eligible for a T-visa. Labor agencies may provide a T-visa certification attesting to the individual’s victim status and cooperation with the agency’s anti-trafficking efforts. A T-visa offers lawful status for up to four years, employment authorization, and eventual eligibility for permanent residence. Requests for U- or T-visa certifications often arise in parallel with wage-and-hour or health-and-safety probes, and they can significantly influence an agency’s investigative timeline.

Next Steps

Employers may wish to adjust their staffing arrangements and job assignments to ensure that minors don’t exceed their time limits and don’t perform dangerous tasks that are impermissible under state or federal law.

Furthermore, employers may wish to carefully coordinate with staffing agencies and third-party vendors, such as cleaning services, to ensure they have accurate records on the age and immigration status of all workers. This diligence helps prevent child-labor violations and immigration violations, including scenarios in which immigrant children present false documents, such as a green card belonging to a similar-aged relative, to an employer or staffing agency.

When an investigation does arise, employers may want to prepare for the possibility that affected immigrant workers may seek U- or T-visa certifications. Cooperation with investigators, prompt remediation of any violations, and the implementation of robust compliance programs can mitigate enforcement risk.

Ogletree Deakins will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Employment Law, Immigration, State Developments, Wage and Hour, and Workplace Safety and Health blogs as new information becomes available.

The Ogletree Deakins Client Portal contains additional information and tracks developments on child labor laws, including those in California, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, and Virginia. Full law summaries are available for premium-level subscribers. Snapshots and updates are available for all registered client-users. For more information on the Client Portal or a Client Portal subscription, please reach out to clientportal@ogletree.com.

Leigh N. Ganchan is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ Houston office.

Christopher W. Olmsted is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ San Diego office.

This article was co-authored by Leah J. Shepherd, who is a writer in Ogletree Deakins’ Washington, D.C., office.

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