Some jobs should never be done by kids. Project 2025 sees things differently

Working a minimum wage job scooping ice cream or lifeguarding at the local pool is a summer rite of passage for many American kids. A growing number of mostly conservative officials and activists, however, have a different idea about what constitutes age-appropriate employment for minors.

Across the country, some officials — overwhelmingly Republicans — are looking for ways to usher underage workers into potentially dangerous jobs like factory work, including having them take late-night shifts. The far-right playbook known as Project 2025 goes so far as to propose that the Department of Labor roll back regulations restricting underage workers from taking “regulated jobs” in “dangerous fields.”

On Tuesday, Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025 and a former top adviser in Trump’s administration stepped down amid intense criticism including from the former president, amid intense scrutiny from Democrats and their allies who are harshly critical of the program. Even though the president has publicly disavowed it, Democrats are convinced that elements of the conservative blueprint are likely to become policy in a future Trump administration, given the number of former members of his administration who played a role in drafting it.