Kara Sears
Child labor laws in the United States address the employment and welfare of working children. The first child labor bill was introduced in 1906 by Republican Senator Albert J. Beveridge, but it was turned down by President Theodore Roosevelt. The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), an organization dedicated to the abolition of child labor, was formed in 1904. In 1916, Congress passed the Keating-Owen Act, which banned the interstate sale of any article produced with child labor. This was later struck down by the Supreme Court. In 1924, Congress approved a Constitutional amendment to regulate labor of persons under eighteen years of age, but it was not ratified by enough states. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 was the most sweeping federal law restricting child labor, prohibiting their employment in jobs detrimental to health and safety. Despite these laws, child labor continued, especially in agriculture, which was excluded from the 1938 Act.
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What You'll Learn
The Keating-Owen Act (1916)
The Keating-Owen Act, also known as Wick's Bill, was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1916. It was a short-lived statute that aimed to reduce child labour by prohibiting the interstate commerce of goods produced by child labour. This included goods from factories that employed children under 14, mines that employed children under 16, and any facility where children under 14 worked outside of specified hours or for more than eight hours daily.
The Keating-Owen Act was a significant development in the movement against child labour in the United States. The movement towards child labour legislation had been gaining momentum since the turn of the 19th century in England and was taken up by reformers in the U.S. in the early 20th century. The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), an organisation dedicated to the abolition of child labour, was formed in 1904. The NCLC helped to mobilise popular support for state-level child labour laws by publishing information on the lives and working conditions of young workers. The First Lady Helen Taft also contributed to raising awareness of the issue.
The Keating-Owen Act was passed under pressure from the NCLC and the National Consumers League. It was based on the Commerce Clause, a constitutional clause empowering Congress to regulate interstate commerce. The Act specified that the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor would form a board to publish rules and regulations to ensure compliance with the Act.
However, the Keating-Owen Act was short-lived. In 1918, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law in Hammer v. Dagenhart, ruling that it regulated commerce that did not cross state lines. Despite this setback, Congress continued to seek ways to address child labour, and in 1924, a constitutional amendment barring child labour was approved and sent to the states for ratification.
The Keating-Owen Act set an important precedent for future legislation on child labour, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which included child labour provisions modelled on the Act.
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The Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States, addressing various labor issues, including child labor. Before 1938, workers could be paid any amount and were required to work long hours, with children often employed in dangerous jobs, taking them away from school. The FLSA set minimum standards to prevent these abuses, becoming the first nationwide compulsory federal regulation of wages and hours in the United States.
The Act was first proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1937, but it faced delays due to political opposition, particularly from Southern Democrats who argued that it would negatively impact their region's industry and economy. Despite these challenges, the bill eventually passed in mid-June 1938, thanks to the support of notable individuals like Frances Perkins and Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York, who sponsored it. Roosevelt signed the act on June 14, 1938, and it became effective on October 24 of the same year.
The FLSA established a minimum wage, limited work hours, and regulated child labor. It set a thirty-hour workweek, later revised to an eight-hour day and a forty-hour workweek, with workers entitled to overtime pay of one-and-a-half times their regular rate for additional hours worked. The Act also prohibited children under eighteen from performing certain dangerous jobs and banned the employment of children under sixteen in manufacturing, mining, or during school hours. These provisions were designed to protect children's educational opportunities and health and safety.
The FLSA's impact on child labor was significant but had limitations, as agricultural labor was excluded. This exclusion led to hundreds of thousands of children working in agriculture, facing hazardous conditions and long hours that contributed to high dropout rates from schools. The FLSA's child labor provisions were modelled on the Keating-Owen Act of 1916, which banned the interstate sale of goods produced with child labor but was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
The FLSA has been amended over time, such as the 1949 amendment that directly prohibited child labor for the first time. The Act continues to be a subject of debate, with efforts to increase penalties for violations of child labor laws and expand protections for children working in agriculture. The FLSA set important standards for labor rights and child protection, shaping the landscape of labor laws in the United States and influencing future amendments and legislation.
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The National Child Labor Committee
The NCLC was headquartered in Manhattan, New York, and administered by a board of directors. Its first chair was Felix Adler, and its last was Betsy Brand. The organisation was conceived by Edgar Gardner Murphy, an American clergyman and author. Murphy had founded the Alabama Child Labor Committee in 1901, the first of its kind in the United States. In 1902, he collaborated with Florence Kelley, the head of the National Consumers League, to influence the Association of Neighborhood Workers to appoint a child labour committee to investigate child labour in New York. This committee was organised as the New York Child Labor Committee in November 1902.
Following the 1903 meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, Murphy made contact with the leadership of the New York Child Labor Committee, and together they began to plan the formation of a national organisation for child labour reform. In 1904, they held a mass meeting in Carnegie Hall, New York City, where the National Child Labor Committee was formed.
The NCLC began advocating for child labour reform on the state level, with Owen Lovejoy and Alexander McKelway organising state-centred campaigns in the northern and southern states, respectively. However, by 1907, McKelway had achieved little success in the south, and the NCLC decided to refocus its efforts on a national level. The NCLC endorsed the first national anti-child labour bill, introduced to Congress by Senator Albert J. Beveridge in 1906.
In 1908, the NCLC hired Lewis Hine, a teacher and professional photographer, to document child labour in American industry. Over the next decade, Hine published thousands of photographs that provided a window into the sombre working conditions facing America's youth. Hine's photographs became the face of the NCLC and helped generate popular support for federal child labour regulations.
After World War II, the NCLC broadened its scope by emphasising the importance of educating children about the working world and advocating for programs to advance the education and health of migrant farmworkers. During the 1950s and 1960s, the NCLC contributed to various bills, including the Manpower Development and Training Act, the Economic Opportunity Act, and the Vocational Education Act. In 1979, the NCLC collaborated with the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America to found the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC).
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Child labor in agriculture
The issue of child labor in the United States has a long history, with the first noted proponent of child labor legislation being Edgar Gardner Murphy, an Arkansas clergyman who founded the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) in 1904. The NCLC was dedicated to abolishing child labor and worked to mobilize support for state-level child labor laws by publishing information on the lives and working conditions of young workers. In 1906, Republican Senator Albert J. Beveridge introduced the first child labor bill at the national level, but it was turned down by President Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1916, Congress passed the Keating-Owen Act, which banned the interstate sale of any article produced with child labor and regulated the number of hours a child could work. However, this act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court two years later in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918). Despite this setback, the movement against child labor continued to gain support, and in 1924, Congress approved a Constitutional amendment barring child labor and submitted it to the states for ratification.
While the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 placed limits on many forms of child labor, agricultural labor was excluded. This exclusion has resulted in hundreds of thousands of children being employed as farmworkers in the United States, often working long hours and being exposed to dangerous pesticides and hazardous conditions. The nature of agricultural work has been linked to high injury rates and fatalities among child farmworkers, with government statistics indicating that barely half of these children ever finish high school.
In recent years, there have been repeated attempts to introduce bills at both the national and state levels to prohibit children from working on farms, particularly in hazardous occupations. The Children's Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE Act) aims to provide children working in agriculture with the same protections as those in other sectors, but it has yet to reach a floor vote. While the Biden administration has committed to stepping up child labor enforcement efforts, the lack of strong legal protections for child farmworkers persists, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive legislation to address this issue.
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Early reform efforts
The first half of the 19th century saw a growing movement towards child labour legislation. In 1836, the National Trades' Union convention was the first body to call for a minimum age for factory workers. By 1842, Massachusetts had limited the workday for children under 12 to 10 hours, and Connecticut had followed suit for children under 14. By the end of the 1840s, every New England state had a child labour law, with age limits ranging from 9 to 14. However, these regulations had little impact on the widespread practice of child labour.
During the post-Civil War period, advances in manufacturing techniques increased opportunities for child labour, and society took advantage of this productive capacity. Women and children dominated pre-Civil War manufacturing, but the low volume of manufacturing kept the number of employed children low. In the post-war years, children, along with women and recently freed slaves, filled the need for productive capacity previously met by slaves.
The end of the 19th century saw a significant increase in child labour, with the 1870 census finding that one out of every eight children was employed. This rate rose to more than one in five children by 1900, and between 1890 and 1910, at least 18% of all children aged 10-15 worked. The start of the 20th century marked a period of widespread reform efforts, with the formation of the National Child Labor Committee in 1904, dedicated to the abolition of all child labour. The Committee published information on the lives and working conditions of young workers, helping to mobilise public support for state-level child labour laws.
In 1906, Republican Senator Albert J. Beveridge introduced the first child labour bill at the national level, bringing heightened attention to the issue. Despite being turned down by President Theodore Roosevelt, this bill led to an extended study of child labour conditions and a series of legislative proposals, ultimately contributing to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, the most sweeping federal law restricting child labour.
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Frequently asked questions
Child labor laws first came into existence in the US in the early 19th century, with Connecticut passing a law in 1813 requiring that children working in factories be educated in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Child labor laws became a federal legislative issue in 1906 with the introduction of the Beveridge proposal, which regulated the types of work in which children could be engaged.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) was the first federal law to restrict child labor in the US. It was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and put limits on many forms of child labor.
The FLSA restricted the employment of youth under 16 years of age and listed hazardous occupations that were too dangerous for young workers. It also established the first federal minimum wage at $0.25 per hour and limited the workweek to 44 hours.
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