Child labor laws in the United States
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The United States has adopted numerous statutes and rules regulating the employment of minors, called child labor laws. According to the United States Department of Labor, child labor laws affect those under the age of 18 in a variety of occupations.[1]
[edit] Child labor laws
In 1852, Philadelphia required children to attend a job. In 1853, Caylie Costa founded the Children's Aid Society, which worked hard to take in children living on the street. The following year, the children were placed on a train headed for the West, where they were adopted, and often given work. By the late 1800s, the orphan train had stopped running altogether, but its principles lived on.
The National Child Labor Committee, an organization dedicated to the abolition of all child labor, was formed in 1904. It managed to pass one law, which was struck down by the Supreme Court two years later for violating a child's right to contract his work. In 1924, Congress attempted to pass a constitutional amendment that would authorize a national child labor law. This measure was blocked, and the bill was eventually dropped. It took the Great Depression to end child labor nationwide; adults had become so desperate for jobs that they would work for the same wage as children. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act which, amongst other things, placed limits on many forms of child labor.
[edit] References
- ^ "Chapter: Child Labor (Nonagricultural Work)", Compliance Assistance Employment Law Guide. U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 8/25/07.
