> This is the opposite of what you claimed. Can you find a single instance of a state where parental consent is not required? i.e. the child can consent for themselves as you claimed?
Very unluikely in the US, but it also varies by Industry; when I cooked and interviewed for dishwashers/prep/line cooks I often had more than one 18 year old kid from the rural US say they had 4+ years of experience.
I'd ask them to describe how that was possible and they'd cite having exemption that allowed them to begin working from 13 onward. They often had extreme poverty circumstances and were from states like Montana, Kentucky, Wyoming, Ohio or Missouri whose parent's had been disabled or injured (addiction was a big one) or something along those lines, so rather than just put them and their siblings into foster care this was the best possible solution were parent's kept custody and a child could work on school days before the age of 16 under a basic work permit.
In farming it's even younger than that, the youngest I've seen being pre-K, and yes this is in the EU and in even in Switzerland. They admittedly couldn't' do much but perhaps like feed the animals or attach the the suction to the utters of a cow or sheep (both of which could easily maim their small bodies) or put seeds in a starer plant or water the plants, wrap electrical posts, harvesting fruit/veg etc...
I still laugh thinking about being in a convoy of tractors heading into the the citys city center in Bern that had cows in-tow headed to the Swiss Alps and was behind a few 12 year old kids with a coupe of seasons under their belts.
I come from a family of restaurateurs in CA, where it was typical to see the kids help out in the kitchen peeling/cutting vegetables, carrying products, manning a register or simply washing dishes or bussing tables at very young ages (think 10 onward) but this was high contentious and likely illegal, practice.
But every time I went to my grantparents home their were hardly any pictures of my grandparents, aunts or uncles and cousins where they, even as children, weren't doing the aforementioned in at least half of their pictures.
Also, it's worth noting that all of these pearl-clutching FAANG workers like to pretend their aren't minors working at Foxxcon making the iphones, or sweatshops in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc... making name brand clothing items that they wear.
The sad truth is child labour laws are only applicable to those who can't afford the legal team to make it anything more than just a fine.
This isn't whataboutism, but it goes to show that their is a heterodoxy when it comes to exploiting the poor and young alike in both the East and West. Sadly, I fear this will remain the norm and will likely increase in my lifetime before it gets better since things like labour laws and unions mean less as Megacorps consolidate and acquire more small businesses and increase market share.