Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds reacts after signing a property tax cut bill, Thursday, May 4, 2023, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican-controlled states in the Midwest are slowly starting to roll back child labor regulations as violations are sharply rising throughout the country.

Earlier this month, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) confirmed that she will sign Senate Bill 542 when it reaches her desk. The legislation will remove restrictions that keep children as young as 14 from working in hazardous environments such as construction and demolition sites, as well as allow anyone over the age of 13 to work up to six hours a day during the school year.

In March, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed the Youth Hiring Act, a bill that allows employers to hire children under 16 years old without getting permission from the state’s Division of Labor. The state also no longer requires age verification for those under 16. These requirements were in place to stop employers from exploiting children, according to Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

“The Governor believes protecting kids is most important, but this permit was an arbitrary burden on partners to get permission from the government for their job,” Sanders’ communications director Alexa Henning told National Public Radio. “All child labor laws that actually protect children still apply and we expect businesses to comply just as they are required to do now.”

These two states are not the only places where labor law repeals are being looked at, as several Midwestern states have proposed similar legislation recently including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Ohio.

These rollbacks on restrictions are coming just as the U.S. Department of Labor is reporting the highest number of child labor violations in years, with a sharp rise of more than 200% since 2015. Late last year, a Department of Labor investigation found that several McDonald’s franchises were violating child labor laws by employing hundreds of children. Following these revelations, the Biden administration announced new measures to crack down on violations by creating a task force to investigate likely infraction locations and heavier punishments employers.

Child labor laws in the U.S. are in place to avoid harmful affects from exploiting children, including physical health deterioration and poor education performance.