On April 26, the Obama administration announced plans to withdraw a child labor rule proposed by the Department of Labor applicable to agriculture. The proposed rule would have severely limited the ability of young people to work on farms and ranches.

“We are pleased the administration responded to the concerns of the agricultural community and decided against changing the current rules for young people working on farms and ranches. This was a poorly conceived rule, and they did the right thing by withdrawing it,” said American Horse Council President Jay Hickey.  

The proposed rule would’ve placed new limitations on the ability of young people to work for pay on farms or ranches not owned solely by their parents, including barring them from operating power machinery, working around commercial grain elevators, herding cattle by horseback and other restrictions. The laws were broadly enough written that the AHC said children under 16 would not be allowed to do simple tasks such as haltering a horse in a confined space or operating a lawn mower.

Although the proposed rule provided an exemption for children working on their parents’ farms, the AHC said the rule prevents them from working on any farm not solely owned by the parents. Therefore, partnerships and limited liability corporations would not be included in the exemption.

The AHC worked with a broad coalition of agricultural organizations to convince the government that these rules were ill-considered, would prevent young people from becoming involved in agriculture, and would negatively impact family farms and ranches.

“When the DOL proposed this rule, we don’t think they completely understood the impact it would have on young people who work in agriculture. Thousands of Americans from the agricultural community, including the horse community, submitted comments to the DOL explaining the problems with this rule and also contacted their Member of Congress to express their concerns,” said AHC Legislative Director Ben Pendergrass. “The administration listened and withdrew the rule. This is a good example of the way the system should work.”

The DOL won’t re-propose any new regulations on this issue. Instead it will “work with rural stakeholders to develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers and promote safer agricultural working practices.”