Child Labor in America

Building a Great Nation on the Backs of its Youth

When is Child Labor Okay? When is child labor a useful and healthy

introduction to work?

How do you distinguish between freedom and idleness, which may be less wholesome than some other types of work?

Is some work suitable for young children? How do you distinguish “suitable?”

Factors for Child Labor

Reflected socio-economic class stratification

Immigration and tenement living

Availability of children and economic forces

The Facts

In 1870, the first U.S. census to report child labor numbers counted 750,000 workers under the age of 15, not including children who worked for their families in businesses or on farms.

By 1911, more than two million American children under the age of 16 were working

Types of Labor

Street Trades- newsies, delivery and errand boys, shoe shiners

Industrial factory workers Textiles, food preparation, garment/

piece goods Breaker Boys- coal miners Agriculture/Farm labor

Textiles

Textiles

Street Trades

Street Trades

Street Trades

Factory Work – Indiana Glass Works

Factory Work – Evansville, IN

Hosiery Mills – London, TN

Miners

Young Mine Driver, works 7 AM to 5:30 PM daily

Breaker Boys, PennsylvaniaWork at breaking up large chunks of coal

Agricultural Work

Six year old picking cotton in Oklahoma

Boy working in berry fields outside Baltimore.

Labor Conditions

68-72 hour work weeks From “Can till Cain’t”

Lived in company owned houses, towns

Paid in company script for overpriced goods at the company store

Labor Conditions

Tenement living in slums

Homework after shifts were over

Immigrant families targeted because some state laws did not apply to immigrants

“Homework” / Tenements

“Homework” / Tenements

Regulation

Started slowly at the state level banning employment of underage children

Motivations for regulation varied: Economic Humane Social

Children were viewed as a source of low-wage labor that was in competition with adults

Reasons for Regulation

Products of child labor competed against adult made products causing market pressures to force down wages and living standards

Health and safety hazards as well as exhaustion left children ill prepared for education

As adults they were ill-prepared for employment elsewhere, which led to cyclical poverty

Unions and Child Labor

AFL leader Samuel Gompers favored child labor laws

1904 the National Child Labor Committee was formed to end child exploitation in the workplace

State labor laws were loosely constructed and difficult to enforce

Opponents of Child Labor Regulation Arguments:

Unavoidable stage of development Necessary for survival Essential for regional competition Southern manufacturers viewed labor

restrictions as an “effort of northern agitators to kill the infant industries of the south”

Advocates for Child Labor “I believe there are just about as

many children spoiled by indulgence as there are by overwork.”

-Daniel A. Tompkins Carolina mill owner

“There is such a thing as too much education for working people sometimes.” -Charles Harding, Merchants Woolen Co.

Fair Labor Standards Act

Set a 40 hour work week

Minimum wage of 40 cents per hour

Prohibited child labor under 16 and restricted when and for how long children could work