Child Labor: The Situation
Child Labor in the U.S.
Early 1600s to mid- 1700s
Children are often sent away from home and "apprenticed out" to other families to
learn a trade. Farm, marketplace, and house chores are expected of Colonial
American children as young as 3.
1750
With the development of factories, the cotton mill, and steam power, as well as
urbanization, the Industrial Revolution brings economic prosperity to some, often
at the expense of children used as cheap labor. Slavery, now entrenched in
America, shatters families and forces adults and children to work in harsh
conditions for no pay.
1835
Children in New Jersey silk mills go on strike for an 11-hour day, 6-day week.
1863
The Emancipation Proclamation leaves many slave children, already torn from
their parents, completely abandoned and subject to abuse.
1850s to early 1900s
Children, especially immigrant and orphaned children, work in sweatshops up to
16 hours a day for only a few pennies an hour. Conditions are hazardous and
often disease-ridden. Employers prefer child laborers because they can be paid
less than adults.
1908
Social activist Lewis W. Hine begins his four-year project documenting child
labor in America. His photographs of young workers in cotton mills, selling
newspapers after midnight, in mines, and picking fruit result in the 1916
Keating-Owen Act restricting employment of children under 14 and barring
interstate shipping of products made by child labor. Two years later, the
Supreme Court finds the law unconstitutional.
1911
Some 147 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, mostly young girls,
die in a famous New York fire. The company's owners had blocked stairway
exits to prevent "interruption of work."
1914
In Ludlow, Massachusetts, guards commissioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
machinegun union tents during strike. Twelve children are killed in the "Ludlow
Massacre."
1924
A constitutional amendment on child labor is proposed; only 28 of the
necessary 36 states ratify it.
1938
President Roosevelt signs the Fair Labor Standards Act, limiting conditions
under which children may work and ensuring that work does not interfere with
their education. He also approves the 40-hour workweek.
1940s to 1960s
After WWII, sweatshops (defined by the Department of Labor as violating at
least two labor laws, including child labor laws) greatly diminish due to
increased government regulation of monopolies and the rise of trade unions.
1960s
With increased immigration, globalization, and retail-industry changes, sweatshops
begin to reappear.
1970s
Researchers report thousands of underage migrant farm workers, some as young as
4 or 5, employed in the fields during schools hours.
1980s
The United Farm Workers union estimates 800,000 underage children work
harvesting crops.
1996
More than 250,00 children, most younger than 15, work illegally, according to an
Associated Press series.
1997
A study by the U.S. General Accounting Office shows a 250% increase in child-labor
violations between 1983 and 1990.
1998
Congress lifts restrictions on occupational driving for minors after lobbying by
national car dealers' organizations. A Rutgers University study finds there are
148,000 illegally employed minors in an average week.