"12-year-olds can't buy cigarettes — but they can work in tobacco fields," 17 Apr. 2023

... For children 12 and older in the United States, difficult, low-paying and dangerous work in tobacco fields for unlimited hours is legal, as long as it's outside school hours. Child labor laws are more lenient in agriculture than in other industries, and efforts to change that have repeatedly failed, leaving growers and companies to decide whether to set the bar higher than what's legally required of them.

... Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, kids 12 and up can work unlimited hours outside school hours in agriculture, and the rules are even more lenient for kids who work on their families' farms.

... Sixteen-year-olds and 17-year-olds working in agriculture can do tasks listed by the Labor Department as hazardous, versus 18 in other industries. Agriculture's hazardous occupation orders haven't been updated in 50 years, and they don't include tobacco, despite the known risks for workers of all ages.

... But efforts to tighten agricultural child labor laws have repeatedly failed because of opposition from Republicans in Congress and farm lobbying groups. They argue that such changes would hurt family farms and make it harder to teach kids about farming.

... Some major tobacco companies and growers announced policies in 2014 prohibiting their contract growers from hiring kids under age 16 and prohibiting workers under 18 from doing hazardous work — standards that exceed federal child labor laws.

... [Margaret] Wurth says Human Rights Watch was concerned that growers may be telling the companies they sell tobacco to that "'we don't have any kids in our fields,' but they might not even actually know."

... Reynolds told NPR in a statement that if GAP Connections found a minor under 16 working on a contracted farm, the worker would immediately be removed from the farm and "the contract could be terminated immediately, not renewed, or the grower could receive a probationary contract which would result in immediate termination if found not in 100% compliance with any GAP Connections Certification standard or Reynolds contract requirement."

... Altria said in a statement to NPR that all its contracts "meet and often exceed the law" with regard to child labor and that 97.6% of its contracted growers achieved certification. When asked what the consequences would be for growers if children under 16 were found working, Altria directed NPR to the GAP Connections compliance guide and said that "we evaluate why the grower was not certified and take appropriate actions, up to and including terminating our contract with the grower."