Unfinished Business: The Persistence of Child Labor in the US

Abstract

Among historians it has become customary to acknowledge that children have always worked. That is, before industrialization children worked, but their work was not deemed a social problem. With industrialization, however, child labor came to be condemned as morally repugnant, economically foolhardy, and socially destructive. Reform efforts were mobilized and, after protracted struggle, children were effectively dispelled from the mines, mills, and factories.

Re‐considering managerial use of child labor

“…Queensland is the low incidence rate in the rural sector, an outcome that runs contrary to both historical and contemporary research which indicates that child labor will invariably be much higher in agricultural and pastoral employment (Cunningham, 1990(Cunningham, , 2000Basu & Van, 1998;Hindman, 2006;Dumas, 2007;Aiken, 2009). In Queensland in 1891, however, children made up only 2.7 per cent of the pastoral workforce and 3.9 per cent of the agricultural workforce.…”

“…Nevertheless, the view that legislative restrictions are central to the campaign against child labor retains much support. Hindman (2006) contends that the persistence of child labor in the United States after 1900 partly reflected a failure to pursue the problem with sufficient regulatory vigor. Aiken (2009) attributes the large decline in the incidence of child employment in Turkey between 1994 and 2006 to a toughening of legal restrictions that were implemented as part of that country's campaign for European Union membership.…”

“…Yet, in 2009, it is estimated that 218 million children remain at work globally (Aiken, 2009, p. 53). The pervasive and apparently universal nature of the child labor phenomenon has caused even some of its harshest critics to assume that it is in many ways a necessary evil, whose effects can be mitigated but not avoided (Hindman, 2002;Hindman and Smith, 1999;Rahikainen, 2004). As Hindman and Smith (1999, p. 26) conclude, "Every advanced industrialized nation has gone through a period of heavy use of child labor".…”

Origins of child rights governance: The example of early child labour legislation in the United States and Brazil

“…It thus affected a mere 6% of the total contemporary child labour force under 16 years of age (Felt, 1970: 478). Only in 1974 was an amendment passed to set a minimum age of 14 years in agriculture, and even this could be lowered to 12 years if accompanied by a parent or with parental agreement (Hindman, 2006, 2009: 485).…”

Sweet Sweatshops - A Reflexion about the Impact of Sweatshops on Countries’ Competitiveness

“…Historians have become customary to acknowledge that children have always worked. But, until recently, their work has never been the social problem it is nowadays (Hindman, 2006, p. 125). However, Anker (2000 points out two facts: "fist that many children work willingly and with the support of their parents"; second that "in the good circumstances, it can be good for children to work.…”