Child Labor

"Seated on the rough boards and coated with black dust, the breaker boys bent over their work in silence, banging away with their tiny mallets, gathering little piles of slate by their sides. Sean Flannery was a "breaker boy" who longed to join his older brother and father down in the mines. Breaker boys spent their time above ground pulling rocks and slate from coal cars as they rushed by. To accomplish this task these young boys would sit on boards that hung over the coal chutes. "Trapper Boys" opened the doors for speeding coal carts. Often young workers fell or were hit by rushing carts." (Child labor, 1) Child labor through out history has been proven to affect child. Many things have happened in the past, which ruined the lives of children when they became older. Through time society has done many thing to help prevent child labor. In the U.S. laws have been created to stop companies from underpaying their young employees, making sure they aren't hired too young, and to make sure their work is safe. Through time America has lowered the child labor rate, but in today's society it still remain.

Child labor has been around in America since the very beginning. "The rise of child labor in the united states began in the late 1700's and the early 1800's" (Child labor, 1) the employment of children in the United States varied from state to state. Child labor was less extensive in Massachusetts than it was in Rhode Island. Samuel Slater had established the plan of employing families in his mills. The village in Rhode Island was made of up families entirely dependent upon their labor in the mills, and the mill children lived at home with their parents. On the other hand, in towns like Lowell and Waltham in Massachusetts the workers were made up of farmers' daughters that were away from their own homes, and were cared for in boarding houses. The only problem was that the cost of caring for the girls out weighed the amount that the girls could make. Kirk Boott's estimate in 1827 that in six mills employing 1,200 people nine out of ten of the operatives were females and only twenty were as old twelve or fourteen years old. The children were often employed very young. These affect many of the children of from that era. Children couldn't or write. "Furman Owens, 12 years old can't read and doesn't know his ABC's. He said, "yes I want to learn, but can't when I work all the time" (The History place, 1)

When these children got old it made if very difficult for them to get a decent job because they were so unqualified that no one would accept them. For many other children, however, if it wasn't the fact that they couldn't read or they couldn't write, it was the facts that they couldn't perform the task do to some permanent injury. Children grew up an couldn't work because when they were young they lost a hand trying to get a gear un stuck from a machine, or they lost a leg because it got ran over by a coal cart.

In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was formed. Throughout the nineteen teens Congress and the Supreme Court went back and fourth about child labor regulation. "It was until 1938 when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed that children were freed from their bondage of dangerous work" (child labor, 1) This required the employers to pay child laborers the minimum wage. It also limits the age of child laborers to 16 and over, 18 if the occupation in hazardous. Children 14 and 15 are permitted to work in certain occupations after school hours.

In the United States today, child labor is still a problem. Over the last thirsty years estimation was taken which involved today's illegal working minors. The poll said: "156,000 in 1971-1975, 196,000 in 1976-1980, 100,000 in 1991-1994, and 114,000 in 1995-1997" (Child for Hire) the in the United States vary from state to state. Some of the major states are:

"Estimated number of injuries and illnesses among persons aged under 18 by state

State

California

Florida

New York

Texas

No. Of Injuries & illnesses

1,418

1,527

1,060

992

(Child For Hire, 80)

The issue is protested when U.S. companies buy products made by child laborers around the world. "NIKE founder Philip H. Knight pays his workers in Indonesia about 2.2 dollars a day" (Child Labor and Sweatshops) Threw out the world there are companies that still pay their workers very little. It has become a problem now that company's owners have their product made elsewhere in the world because over all it would cost less to have it made in china. They will still have to pay for shipping, but the labor is much cheaper.

One of the main problems in today's U.S. society is employers not follow the rules all the way. A survey that was taken in New York State by the New York state department of labor showed that about two hundred and twenty minors worked after midnight. The survey said that sixty people had done prohibited work. It also said over a hundred and twenty five minors had done prohibited machine work. Finally, around a hundred and five had some injury that was related to their job. The problem isn't that the teenage had to do this; it was that they weren't aware that they weren't supposing to. The biggest number of the survey said that two hundred and seventy-seven did not have their legal rights explained to them. "A survey of students, teachers, parents, employers, and labor union, conducted by the university of Louisville Labor Management Center, revealed that ninety percent of Kentucky teachers believe students employment interferes with education and most of them believe that state's child labor laws could bemire restrictive." (Child for Hire, 53)

The major problem of child labor consists of the work done in the industry or agriculture. One thing that is often over looked is door-to-door candy sales. This often, but should not be confused with fundraisers such as selling girl scouts cookies or Boy Scout popcorn. It is a requirement or more so a rule that the child is suppose to sell in their neighborhood, to people they know, and driven by an adult. This was an operation that was uncovered in states like California, Texas, and Washington. "Vans operated by a host of small, shady operators pick up children, some as young as seven, after school and