LANSING, Mich.—In a blatant move that puts corporate profits far ahead of children’s safety, Michigan House Republicans passed legislation last week that would gut the state’s youth work permit system before it even takes full effect.
House Bill 5727, sponsored by Rep. Mike Hoadley (R-Au Gres), would eliminate the requirement for minors to obtain work permits—both the current school-issued permits and the new state-issued system set to go into effect Oct. 2. Instead, the bosses would simply verify a child’s age themselves, essentially creating a system that child advocates warn amounts to little more than an honor system for greedy corporations with a documented history of exploiting young people.
The bill passed along party lines, with every House Democrat voting against it.
A hard-won victory under attack
Michigan’s Youth Employment Standards Act, originally passed in 1978 when union density was far higher, stood as a bulwark against child exploitation for nearly half a century. That changed in 2023 when the New York Times published a revealing investigation into the reality of child labor in America after decades of deregulation.
Many of the accounts detailed in that report came from Michigan. One particularly stark example was Jose Vasquez, a 13-year-old working 12-hour shifts who told the Times, “I’d like to go to school, but then how would I pay rent?”
The investigation exposed Michigan companies like Hearthside Foods, which hired underage workers through Forge Industrial Staffing. They had migrant children manufacturing products like Cheerios and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos on night shifts. Though both companies insisted they were conducting “internal reviews,” a former Forge employee told the Times that “Hearthside didn’t care.”
In response to the outcry, Michigan’s then-Democratic legislature passed Public Act 196 of 2024, which strengthened the Youth Employment Standards Act with new protections. The amendments included Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) issued work permits with varying requirements based on the minor’s age, official documentation verified through birth certificates or state IDs, restrictions on working hours, and a state registration system managed by LEO.
These reforms were set to phase in starting March 31, with the state-maintained database going live Oct. 2.
‘Red tape’ or rollback?
Republicans, however, framed the new regulations as an “unnecessary burden.” Hoadley characterized the bill as one that “reduces administrative burdens on families, schools, and small businesses while preserving all core protections for minors.” He went further, dismissing the need for stronger oversight by arguing that “the employers highlighted in extreme cases were likely already ignoring existing state and federal laws.”
Yet the bill’s true backers tell a different story. At the bottom of the House Fiscal Agency’s analysis, a who’s who of big business interests lined up in support of the repeal: the Home Builders Association of Michigan, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Michigan Farm Bureau, the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, and the National Federation of Independent Business. All of these entities have endorsed Hoadley and contributed to his campaigns through their political action committees.
The cost of deregulation
Trade unions and non-profits fought fiercely against the repeal. Anne Kuhnen, a policy director at the Michigan League for Public Policy, testified on the devastating consequences if the bill becomes law.
Kuhnen presented research showing that work permit systems actually do work. In states with such requirements, she said, there are “17% fewer child labor violations under the FLSA and 43% fewer children involved in those violations.”
She also noted that LEO has been actively enforcing existing protections. “From 2020 to 2025, the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity identified over 1,200 child labor violations and issued corrective action notices to these employers during investigations into YESA complaints,” Kuhnen testified.
The Republican passed bill would also strip LEO’s authority to revoke a work permit if a child is not in good standing at school due to their job. This would eliminate a crucial tool for addressing chronic absenteeism, failing grades, and disciplinary issues linked to overwork.
Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) tore into the legislation on the House floor, saying it “strips protections from child exploitation and trafficking and it actively reduces accountability for employers who do prey on a child’s vulnerability.”
Rep. Phil Skaggs (D-East Lansing), who sponsored the 2024 law strengthening protections, accused Republicans of leaving children’s safety to alleged “hope.”
“Hope is not oversight and blind trust is not accountability,” he said. “Our children deserve better.”
A national trend
Michigan is far from alone. Across the country, Republican-led states have been systematically dismantling child labor protections. In 2023, Arkansas’s Republican-controlled government rolled back its own child labor protections, including work permit requirements for minors. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, like Hoadley, dismissed the regulations as a “burden,” insisting that “all child labor laws that actually protect children still apply.”
The results were predictable. A report from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families found that child labor violations in the state skyrocketed by 266% between 2020 and 2024—from 460 to 1,685—with the majority of violations involving work certificates and hours.
Michigan is now one of at least 13 states that have introduced legislation weakening child labor protections this year alone.
Summer’s empty promise
With summer here, it can be argued that many children should be enjoying their youth among friends and family. But third spaces—places where young people can gather without spending money—have been steadily disappearing. Meanwhile, austerity measures and stagnant wages have squeezed working families, pushing more children into the workforce out of necessity rather than choice.
As Jose Vasquez’s story makes painfully clear, for too many young people, the choice isn’t between work and leisure but between work and survival.
The bill now heads to the Democratic-controlled Michigan Senate, where it is expected to face strong opposition. But the fight over Michigan’s children is far from over.
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