Lafer attributed the passage of some of the laws to the dramatic changes in many state legislatures after the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans gained unprecedented control at the state level. In that election, 22 legislatures changed majority control, all to the GOP.

Soon after the 2010 midterms, the changes began. A Missouri elected official had called in 2011 for the elimination of funding for the state’s nine labor investigators, saying that he’d heard they were “harassing and picking on” non-union contractors. By 2014, the state had just six investigators.

The department received 19 child-labor complaints and found 467 child-labor violations in 2010, according to a state report; the next year, they found just 191 violations, on 26 complaints.

After the 2010 midterms, four states rolled back child-labor regulations, according to Lafer.

After a parent protested, an Idaho school district stopped a program that allowed children to work serving lunch in schools. Then the state passed a bill allowing students 12 and above to be employed by school districts for up to 10 hours per week.

“It teaches job skills, you have to be on time, you have to do what your supervisor tells you,” said district spokesman Eric Exline, defending the program to a local TV station, and adding that the program saved the school district from having to hire additional employees.

Soon after that, Wisconsin lifted restrictions on the number of hours 16 and 17-year-olds could work during a school week—previously they couldn’t work more than 26 hours, now they can work unlimited hours, as long as they go to school, too. Michigan also increased the number of hours students could work during the school week, to 24 from 15.

Maine also upped the number of hours a minor could work each week—to 24 from 20. The bill’s backers had wanted students to be able to work until 11 p.m. on school nights, but in a compromise, the legislation set the curfew at 10:15 p.m.

Republicans gained even more seats in the 2014 midterms, winning majorities in various chambers in Nevada, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, and Minnesota, indicating that rollbacks of labor standards could continue.

Maine Governor Paul LePage already said earlier this year that he wanted the state to go even further and allow 12-year-olds to work. He had previously proposed a subminimum wage for young workers of $5.25.

A law went into effect in August in Minnesota creating a youth wage of $6.50 an hour for workers under 18 (there had previously not been a separate youth wage).

To be sure, there are some benefits to allowing minors to have jobs and earn money. Newt Gingrich may have been excoriated for saying, during his 2012 presidential run, that child labor laws were "truly stupid," but data shows there are benefits to learning a work ethic at an early age. Young employees can learn to be on time, to respect supervisors, to work hard and to save money. After all, what kid hasn't gloated over the cash he's earned on a newspaper route, babysitting, watering the plants, or mowing a neighbor's lawn?