February 23 2024- Several states, including Florida, Arkansas, and Iowa, have been rolling back child labor laws, leading to instances of businesses illegally employing children. Alongside this, there is an additional, less visible child labor issue related to unpaid caregiving for seriously ill, aging, or disabled family members. Due to insufficient access to paid supports and the high cost of care, children are increasingly taking on the role of unpaid caregivers. This trend manifests in scenarios such as college students dropping out to care for a parent with Multiple Sclerosis, high school juniors unable to work due to caregiving responsibilities for a grandparent with Alzheimer’s, teenagers missing school to care for disabled siblings due to a lack of paid leave, or 18-year-olds staying home to support disabled family members in areas with a shortage of dire
Opinion: When debating child labor, there’s one group often left out: caregiving youth
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