Child labor laws in the United States

The main law regulating child labor in the United States is the Fair Labor Standards Act. For non-agricultural jobs, children under 14 may not be employed, children between 14 and 16 may be employed in allowed occupations during limited hours, and children between 16 and 17 may be employed for unlimited hours in non-hazardous occupations.[1] A number of exceptions to these rules exist, such as for employment by parents, newspaper delivery, and child actors.[1] The regulations for agricultural employment are generally less strict.

States have varying laws covering youth employment. Each state has minimum requirements such as, earliest age a child may begin working, number of hours a child is allowed to be working during the day, number of hours a child is allowed to be worked during the week. The United States Department of Labor lists the minimum requirements for agricultural work in each state.[2] Where state law differs from federal law on child labor, the law with the more rigorous standard applies.[1]

Individual states have a wide range of restrictions on labor by minors, often requiring work permits for minors who are still enrolled in high school, limiting the times and hours that minors can work by age and imposing additional safety regulations.[3]

"Addie Card, 12 years. Spinner in North Pormal [i.e., Pownal] Cotton Mill. Vt." by Lewis Hine, 1912 - 1913

Children working with mules in a coal mine

As the United States industrialized, factory owners hired young workers for a variety of tasks. Especially in textile mills, children were often hired together with their parents. Children had a special disposition to working in factories and mines as their small statures were useful to fixing machinery and navigating the small areas that fully grown adults could not.[4] Many families in mill towns depended on the children's labor to make enough money for necessities.[5][6]

The National Child Labor Committee, an organization dedicated to the abolition of all child labor, was formed in 1904. By publishing information on the lives and working conditions of young workers, it helped to mobilize popular support for state-level child labor laws. These laws were often paired with compulsory education laws which were designed to keep children in school and out of the paid labor market until a specified age (usually 12, 14, or 16 years.)

In 1916, under pressure from the NCLC and the National Consumers League, the United States Congress passed the Keating–Owen Act, regulating interstate commerce involving goods produced by employees under the ages of 14,15 or 16, depending on the type of work, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. It was the first federal child labor law. However, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law two years later in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), declaring that the law violated the Commerce Clause by regulating intrastate commerce. Later that year, Congress attempted to levy a tax on businesses with employees under the ages of 14 or 16 (again depending on the type of work), which was struck down by the Supreme Court in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (1923).

In response to these setbacks, Congress, on June 2, 1924, approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would authorize Congress to regulate "labor of persons under eighteen years of age", and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification.[7] Only five states ratified the amendment in the 1920s. However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration supported it, and another 14 states signed on in 1933 (his first year in office); 28 states in all had given their approval by 1937. An additional 10 states were needed at the time to ratify the proposed amendment.[8]

The common legal opinion on federal child labor regulation reversed in the 1930s. Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 regulating the employment of those under 16 or 18 years of age, and the Supreme Court upheld the law.[8] After this shift, the amendment has been described as "moot"[9] and effectively part of the Constitution.[10]

However, while the 1938 labor law placed limits on many forms of child labor, agricultural labor was excluded. As a result, approximately 500,000 children pick almost a quarter of the food currently produced in the United States.[11]

Human rights organizations have documented child labor in USA. According to a 2009-2010 petition by Human Rights Watch: "Hundreds of thousands of children are employed as farm workers in the United States, often working 10 or more hours a day. They are often exposed to dangerous pesticides, experience high rates of injury, and suffer fatalities at five times the rate of other working youth. Their long hours contribute to alarming drop-out rates. Government statistics show that barely half ever finish high school. According to the National Safety Council, agriculture is the second most dangerous occupation in the United States. However, current US child labor laws allow child farm workers to work longer hours, at younger ages, and under more hazardous conditions than other working youths. While children in other sectors must be 12 to be employed and cannot work more than 3 hours on a school day, in agriculture, children can work at age 12 for unlimited hours before and after school."[12][13] Each state may have their own child labor laws but according to the US Dept of Labor's OSHA regulations, federal labor laws apply to any youth under 16. The only way a child of any age can work any job at any time in an agricultural field is if the farm is owned by the child's parent or legal guardian. Youths of 12 and 13 must have written consent for working only non-hazardous jobs around their school hours. Youths of the ages 14 and 15 have these same restrictions, except they don't need to have written consent of their parents, as long as they're working around school hours and non-hazardous jobs. As for 16 and up, they do not need written consent and can work any agricultural job at any given time, however, they must receive at least minimum wage for any work performed. They must also be trained to handle any sort of machinery, chemicals and pesticide they would be using on the job.[14]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Child labor in the United States.

• Marie Moentmann (1900-1974), child survivor of industrial accident
• Carmela Teoli (1897 – ca. 1970), child survivor of industrial accident
• Timeline of children's rights in the United States
• United States labor law