by chycho

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While reviewing the following information about child labour, let’s take a look at some photographs of what child labour looked like in the United States at the turn of the last century, and what it looks like in some parts of the world at present. Regarding the photographs, to the left are photos of child labour in the United States from 1908 to 1912 by Lewis W. Hine, and to the right, photographs of present day child labour in Bangladesh by G.M.B. Akash.

“More than 200 million children in the world today are involved in child labour, doing work that is damaging to his or her mental, physical and emotional development. Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it. Child labour persists even where it has been declared illegal, and is frequently surrounded by a wall of silence, indifference, and apathy. But that wall is beginning to crumble. While the total elimination of child labour is a long-term goal in many countries, certain forms of child labour must be confronted immediately. Nearly three-quarters of working children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour, including trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work. The effective abolition of child labour is one of the most urgent challenges of our time.”

“In most of the industrialized nations, child labor is outlawed or at least severely restricted and tightly regulated. In many developing countries, by contrast, it remains a way of life, especially among the poor. As a result, efforts to standardize child labor laws and limit employment opportunities for children are ongoing.”

In the United States, “at age 12, half of American youths engage in some type of work activity (pdf). The percentage of youths who work increases from age 14 to age 15, and young people tend to move from freelance work—such as babysitting and lawn mowing—into more formal, ongoing employment relationships. Work is very common during the school year and the majority of youths with employee jobs work during both the school year and the summer.”

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“The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides for certain exemptions. Minors under age 16 working in a business solely owned or operated by their parents or by persons standing in place of their parents, can work any time of day and for any number of hours. However, parents are prohibited from employing their child in manufacturing or mining or in any of the occupations declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor.”

This, however, did not use to be the case less than 100 years ago.

“Although child labor existed in varying degrees in many enterprises in different parts of the world during the 17th century and earlier, it did not really receive recognition as a social evil until the factory system was introduced in England in the late 18th century. There, in a relatively short time, child labor became a major factor in production, particularly—but not exclusively—in the cotton mills. Children as young as six were widely employed and were subjected to merciless exploitation under working conditions that amounted to virtual slavery in its most oppressive forms. They were not only worked to exhaustion, they were beaten, ill-fed and paid a pittance. Many were driven to early alcoholism and other degradations, and in not insignificant numbers even driven to early death.”

“It was in the post-Civil War period that child labor became a factor in American industry and was recognized as a growing social problem. By 1900, according to Roger Butterfield in his history, The American Past, there were over 1,752,000 children under the age of 16 employed in American industry. One-fourth of the ‘hands’ in southern cotton mills were children, 20,000 of whom were under the age of 12. And there were some girls six and seven years old who worked 13 hours a day.”

“There were growing demands for measures to regulate child labor. Politicians included promises in their campaign platforms to do something about it. Finally, in 1918, and again in 1922, Congress enacted laws intended to set up minimum age standards and regulate working conditions. These were not intended to eliminate child labor but to mitigate its most terrible aspects under which the health and education of those children employed in industry were not merely undermined but often destroyed. On both occasions the U.S. Supreme Court declared those laws unconstitutional.

“In 1924 Congress acted again in response to growing demands that something be done about child labor. This time it passed a constitutional amendment to regulate it. But the proposed amendment failed to receive the approval of enough states to become part of the U.S. Constitution.”

“In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed. It set specific requirements with which employers were to comply—i.e., a minimum age limit of 16 for children employed in the production of commodities for interstate or foreign commerce, the employment of 14- and 15-year-olds in occupations other than mining and manufacturing only if such employment did not interfere with their education or threaten their health, etc. In 1941 the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that the act was constitutional.”

“Most economic historians conclude that this legislation was not the primary reason for the reduction and virtual elimination of child labor between 1880 and 1940. Instead they point out that industrialization and economic growth brought rising incomes, which allowed parents the luxury of keeping their children out of the work force. In addition, child labor rates have been linked to the expansion of schooling, high rates of return from education, and a decrease in the demand for child labor due to technological changes which increased the skills required in some jobs and allowed machines to take jobs previously filled by children. Moehling (1999) finds that the employment rate of 13-year olds around the beginning of the twentieth century did decline in states that enacted age minimums of 14, but so did the rates for 13-year olds not covered by the restrictions. Overall she finds that state laws are linked to only a small fraction – if any – of the decline in child labor. It may be that states experiencing declines were therefore more likely to pass legislation, which was largely symbolic.”

“Despite all that, child labor and many of its evil aspects have not only remained a part of the American industrial scene, they are enjoying a resurgence. Fortune magazine noted that in a fairly lengthy article in its issue of April 5, 1993. Written by one of its associate editors, the article is entitled ‘Illegal Child Labor Comes Back.’ And it presents ample convincing evidence to justify the headline.”

“Like tuberculosis and measles, child labor is making a comeback in the U.S. From New York to California, employers are breaking the law by hiring children of 7 to 17 who put in long, hard hours and often work in dangerous conditions.”

“Among other things, it cites instances of children being ‘exploited,’ ‘exposed to danger,’ subjected to working long hours, paid less than the minimum wage and otherwise being abused in sweatshops, on farms, in fast-food outlets and in such new scam operations as door-to-door candy selling that sends young children out ‘late at night, unsupervised and in strange neighborhoods.’”

“All in all, the Fortune article paints a sordid picture of children across the country being victimized by unscrupulous employers who violate existing child labor laws with impunity. In 1992 the U.S. Department of Labor recorded 19,443 such violations, ‘about twice the 1980 level.’ Moreover, there is little reason to doubt that for every such recorded violation, there are many more that go unrecorded or are simply overlooked. As the article notes, ‘Child labor laws...are rarely enforced.’ That squares with the historic record, and there is every reason to expect that such will continue to be the case.”

http://www.chycho.com/?q=Child_Labour