BUSINESS LAW I APPLIED RESEARCH

Child Labor Laws

Shane T. Martin

Doctor Aaron Bazzoli

Park University Internet Campus

A course paper presented to the School of Arts and Sciences and Distance Learning

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Baccalaureate

Business Law I

Park University

December 2012
Outline
- Introduction - Early America o Placed children were employed o Agricultural jobs o Lack of safety standards o Lost educational opportunities - Opposition o 1900 Census report opened America’s eyes o National Consumers League started campaigning for children’s rights o National Child Labor Committee formed in 1904 - Laws Regarding o Problem too pervasive to “law down” o Federal regulation needed to prevent employers from taking business across state lines o Beveridge and Parsons introduce legislation in 1906 ▪ Debated but not put into law o Many tries by Congress but no laws that stuck o Roosevelt elected ▪ National Industrial Recovery Act passed in 1933. • Banned industrial homework and eliminated child labor • Ruled unconstitutional in 1935 ▪ Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 • Ruled unconstituational ▪ Walsh-Healey Act required government restrict their purchases to companies that did not utilize child labor ▪ Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938 • Established ages and hours in which a child can legally work • Enforcement of law difficult - Conclusion

Child labor is defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” (ILO, 2012) Throughout American history child labor has existed for many different occupations. Children have been utilized for everything from agricultural work to the most hazardous factory jobs available. Traditionally, most children, except for a privileged few, worked. The practice was not only accepted, it was, at times, necessary. Over time, our countries’ attitudes about the practice changed and the labor of children was no longer acceptable. In order to best appreciate where we are now, we have to investigate where we came from. Before the twentieth century, whether or not a child was working was a matter of his families’ economic position in life. If you were born into a working-class family, it was assumed that you would be working, starting when you were very young. Children performed various jobs depending on their age. Some were engaged in the street trades: delivering newspapers and telegrams, shining boots and shoes, running errands in various (possibly unwholesome) sections of the city at whatever hours the task demanded. Others were engaged in industrial homework: work often reserved for the very young who worked, usually alongside a parent or another adult, in a tenement flat in segments of garment production or other types of work that could be performed, sometimes on a piece rate basis, in one’s place of residence. Still others worked in mines or factories: most infamously, perhaps, the breaker boys in the coal mines, the child workers in the textile mills, and the helpers in the glass factories. Agricultural labor by children is a special category all its own. Before the early twentieth century, farm work was done on the family farm or on a nearby field. Typically the work was done near the youth’s place of residence. While it may seem like agricultural work would be less hazardous than working on the streets or in a mine, it was often more dangerous. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, child workers were viewed as a source of low-wage labor and often competed with their parents and other adults for jobs. Often times these jobs were taken without regard to their health or lost educational opportunities. Long hours working didn’t leave much time for education. This lack of education made the children ill-prepared for employment as adults, which impacted the means available for support of their own children. This just extended the poverty cycle. Children were working in dangerous, often deadly jobs. They were also taking jobs from adults who wanted to work. The census of 1900 showed that there were approximately 2 million children working in jobs across the United States. (US Census Bureau) This census report opened the countries’ eyes and opposition to child labor began to organize. In the beginning, this opposition came from many sources. The trade union voiced early disapproval to the practice. Worker’s advocate Mary Harris “Mother” Jones brought visibility to the plight of child workers and their parents. The National Consumers League, in 1899, started campaigning for eliminating child labor. This drew much attention to the issue which mobilized social workers, clergy, and many concerned individuals. These forces were all brought together in 1904 with the creation of the National Child Labor Committee, whose goal was the abolition of child labor. (National Archives) This committee was a significant force in the efforts to end the utilization of children in the workplace. Restricting child labor proved to be difficult because each type of work performed by children, mining, factory, farm, streets, had its own challenges for the reformers. The children doing industrial homework were the hardest to regulate. The children were often not actually employed by the factories, they were working alongside their parents making clothing, processing food, and performing any work that could be accomplished in the home. Reformers believed that even if the other types of child labor were banned, the children performing industrial homework would continue. They felt that a complete ban on child labor was needed. While banning child labor from the state level would be marginally effective, true reform would have to be federal. If it stayed at the state level, an employer faced with regulation of child labor would simply move to another state and continue the practice. Also, some states were more against the practice than others. Without federal law mandating a complete ban, some states would become a haven for child exploitation. In 1906, Senator Albert Beveridge (R-Ind) and Representative Herbert Parsons (R-N.Y.) introduced legislation to eliminate children working in factories and mines. This legislation was debated, but failed to become law. It did, however, raise the visibility of child labor as a public policy concern. Congress drafted various propositions over many decades, but these were either deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court or, in the case of the Child Labor Amendment of 1924, were not ratified by the States. Congress understood that there was a problem, but they could not agree on the best way to fix it. In 1933, soon after President Roosevelt was inaugurated, Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). This act encouraged industries to compete fairly, ban industrial homework, and eliminate child labor. Unfortunately, in May 1935, this Act was ruled unconstitutional. A similar fate befell the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) of 1933. Because of these defeats, reformers were forced to come up with a new plan of attack. They started with the Walsh-Healey Act. This act required the government to only purchase items that were made without child labor and in that were produced in clean, safe environments. This was followed in 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Enforcement of this act began in the early 1940s and problems were identified immediately. As was predicted many decades prior, industrial homework was the most difficult form of child labor to stamp out. In the end, the Department of Labor had to outright ban the practice in garment related fields. This, while not eliminating the problem, dramatically reduced it. The FLSA protects children by setting conditions under which they may be employed and, for certain types of work, prohibiting their employment altogether. The Department of Labor set these rules for children working in nonagricultural jobs: minors 14 and 15 years old may work outside school hours in various nonmanufacturing, nonmining, nonhazardous jobs for a limited number of hours per day and per week; minors 16 and 17 years old may perform any nonhazardous job, for unlimited hours; youths 18 years or older may perform any job, whether hazardous or not, for unlimited hours. (US DOL) These rules worked for children in nonagricultural jobs, but the rules were different down on the farm. Children employed on the farm are permitted to start working much earlier in their lives. Per the DOL: Minors under 12 years old may perform jobs on farms owned or operated by parent(s), or with a parent’s written consent, outside of school hours in nonhazardous jobs on farms not covered by minimum wage requirements; minors 12 and 13 years old may work outside of school hours in nonhazardous jobs, either with a parent’s written consent or on the same farm as the parent(s); minors 14 and 15 years old may perform any nonhazardous farm job outside of school hours; minors 16 years and older may perform any job, whether hazardous or not, for unlimited hours. (US DOL) Because the FLSA is based on the provision in the commerce clause of the Constitution, children who are performing activities that do not affect interstate commerce are not protected, but state statutes may cover them. Parents employing their children are also exempt. This includes assisting in mom-and-pop stores and performing chores around the house. Also, the street trades are exempt and have been deemed appropriate for children. Child actors are allowed to work, but their hours are limited. Hazardous, unscrupulous child labor in America has been eradicated. There are always special cases that pop up from time to time, but they are few and far between. What started with a few activist reformers in the early twentieth century has transformed into the labor laws for the country. While the country has come a long way, there are still problems. According to the National Consumers League, 34 workers under age 18 died in the workplace in 2010. (NCL) The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health estimates over 146 thousand youth sustain work related injuries every year, approximately 400 per day. (NIOSH) Congress is drafting legislation that aims to lower these numbers. Even though safety is still a concern, children are much better off now than they were in the past. They are not required to work all day and can, instead, focus on their education. This helps the country in the long run because these are the people who will be leading it in the future. We should do all we can to make sure they are as educated as possible.
References
International Labor Organization (ILO). (2012). What is child labour. Retrieved November 28, 2012, from http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang--en/index.htm
Mary Field Parton (ed.). (1980). The Autobiography of Mother Jones (pp. 71-83, 118-131). Chicago, IL: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company.
National Archives. Teaching with Documents: Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor. Retrieved November 29, 2012, from http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos.
National Consumers League (NCL). (2012). NCL’s Five Most Dangerous Jobs 2012 Report Helps Teens Stay Safe at Work. Retrieved November 29, 2012, from http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=2699.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2010). Young Worker Safety and Health. Retrieved November 30, 2012, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/youth.
United States Census Bureau. (1900). Census of Population and Housing, 1900 Census. Retrieved November 30, 2012, from http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1900.html.
United States Department of Labor. (2010). Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Retrieved November 29, 2012, from http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/hrg.htm#.ULwY-IYy6g0

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Some workers in the Farrand Packing Co. Baltimore, Maryland

Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty bobbins.

Mary Harris “Mother” Jones