12.2.2: Child Labor Laws

After the emancipation of slaves and the emergence of the industrial revolution at the turn of the 20th century, children had become a common source of low-wage or unpaid labor in the U.S.. In 1910, about 18% of American children between the ages of 10-15 were employed in some way (Schuman, 2017b). Families had long had their own children working on farms, but now more children worked as couriers, selling newspapers as “newsies” in large cities, or special jobs in cotton mills in the south and coal mines in the north. As soon as a child had the size and skill enough to work, they became an economic benefit to the family. Thus, children of low-income parents were the most often employed, and it was believed that this benefitted them by reducing idleness, or keeping them out of trouble (Schuman, 2017a). After several tragic accidents, many states passed age limits for employment, and set limits on the number of hours children could work. Initial child labor laws were primarily aimed at educational requirements rather than safety. Yet many of these restrictions were resisted by the parents and children themselves. It wasn’t until 1938 that the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, which made 16 years the age limit for employment, and 18 the limit for employment in certain hazardous jobs. This law also established the first federal minimum wage and limited the workweek to 44 hours (Schuman, 2017b). Notably, child labor law violations have increased over the last several years. Both meatpacking plants and auto manufacturers have been found to be hiring immigrant children between 13 and 17 years old and exposing them to hazardous jobs and chemicals. Several states have also recently proposed rollbacks to child labor laws, pushed by industry. Several of these recent bills would extend working hours for teens, lower age limits, and allow younger teens to work in more hazardous conditions. Yet research shows that not only are teens at higher risk of getting injured in the workplace, but also that long work hours and lack of sleep harms health and academic performance, as well as affecting their future economic opportunities (Sherer & Mast, 2023).

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): "Glassworks. Midnight. Location: Indiana." From a series of photographs of child labor at glass and bottle factories in the United States by Lewis W. Hine, for the National Child Labor Committee, New York. (Lewis Wickes Hine. Restored by Michel Vuijlsteke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.)