Evolution Of Child Labor

Prohibition on child labor works well when adult wages increase at the same time, and this would most likely happen if “all regulators, importers, and consumers of products in the world would be able to effectively support such

Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.

Throughout the 1700’s and the early 1800’s child labor was a major issue in American society. Children have always worked for family businesses whether it was an agricultural farming situation or working out of a family business in some type of workplace. This was usually seen in families of middle or lower class because extra help was needed to support the family. Child labor dramatically changed when America went through the Industrial Revolution. When America’s industrial revolution came into play, it opened a new world to child labor. Children were now needed to work in factories, mills, and mines. These were not ordinary jobs for young children, these jobs required much time, effort, and hard work. “American

The practice of Child Labor in America in the early 1900s had a devastating impact on generations of children. This mainly impacted children of poor and disadvantaged families; these families tended to suffer from generations of debt or were new immigrants to America. These children worked long hours which they did not get paid nearly enough for. They worked hard, dangerous jobs daily. In the 1900s, children chose to support their families in times of need rather than furthering their education, for which they did not get paid nearly enough. These jobs affected their health poorly and had a negative impact on their childhood and development. Children of poor families in cities suffered the most during the Industrial Revolution, because they had to work long hours, did hard jobs, and often sacrificed their health and education to support their struggling families.

In 1900, children as young as nine years old were once expected to work sixteen hours a day in harsh conditions. They were useful because of their small size and the owners being able to pay low wages. Child labor laws exist because brave men, women, and children fought for these rights. The conditions of the children’s working environment caused Lewis Hine and the newsies to act upon it.

With the effect in mind, she continues with another example of state laws that are totally disagreeable towards the eyes of the members of NAWSA. Kelley concentrates on the state of New Jersey knowing that they have the worst child labor laws in the nation. She explains that New Jersey lawmakers repealed their previous child labor laws to allow children over the age of fourteen to work overnight. (Kelley 6) The author describes the law repealing as “pitiful” and “a privilege,” using a sarcastic tone. Without this, children would have been done at work at six o'clock every day, except Friday. Kelley adds a final problem with state’s child labor laws, this time impacting the northeast. She explained to her audience that the cause of Pennsylvania lawmakers changing their child labor laws was due to the effect a twelve hour work time had affected these children. (Kelley 7) The author uses an example to exemplify that the effect of the law changes affects thousands more than the girl mentioned in the paragraph. Finally, these law changes affect only the children themselves, without any violation of the Commonwealth.

In 1815, the British Parliament sent out researchers to interview child workers and learn more about factory conditions. Factory owners often preferred to hire women and children because men expected higher wages. Children were hire to work in Great Britain’s coalmines. There was soon some reforms for child workers and a proposed law to limit their workday to 10 hours. In the end, there were connections among child labor, factory conditions, and attitudes about capitalism, reactions to capitalism and the rise of labor movements.

Before the Progressive Era, many children drastically suffered. They worked long hours, in dangerous factories, for very low wages and missed out on important things, such as education. Child labor had been a long time problem and

By first showing that children, before the turn of the 19th century are “frail”, “lost”, and “horrif[ied]”, it shows one of the first ideas about the children. By not allowing the children to work, the author displays an ironic stance on how the children are unfulfilling in society, in reality he shows that children are simply just being children. However, once not having the opportunity to work, the author implies that children will not benefit from employment due to a lack of childhood. This is shown once, the author turns to the overly exuberant benefits of employment as “generous”, “steady”, “drastic”, an ideal situation for many working class families. This shows that many corporations/ factories using these appeals to draw the attention of the working children, thus limiting them from other important factors such as an education. However, the author transitions from implied connotative words with more notable hypothetical examples to dig deeper into the

Child labor has been an issue we Americans have tolerated with for an extended period of time; longer than we should have. At the time of Kelley presenting her speech, July 22 1905, she stated we had “two million children under the age of sixteen years” who were part of the working class. This statistic illustrates our dire need to decrease and stop the use of children as workers in dangerous places like factories. Kelley states these children are as young as “six and seven” to “sixteen;” which only helps emphasize her point that young children, our futures, do not need to be put in these situations. She helps proves this throughout ter speech by appealing to our emotional, and logical aspects and then also establishing and presenting her credibility.

The problem is enormous, but the trend, fortunately, is heading in the right direction. The overall growth of an economy is by no means the only factor, nor for that matter the most important factor, in the mitigation of child labor.

In the past 30 years, one of the most dynamic social changes in the history of the United States has taken place in the area of employment, specifically of women with children. Although, to some degree there have always been employed mothers, today a greater proportion of mothers are employed than ever before. Statistics show that in 1976, 48% of the population of women categorized as “married women with children” were employed and it increased to 62% in 1986 just 10 years later. What are the causes for this and how does it affect the children?

In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century of England, the Industrial Revolution occurred. It is marked as an important movement in history because it introduced steam-driven machinery, large factories, and a new working class. With new manufacturing, job opportunities opened up. As the demand for employees rose, that is when the working class also began to rise. However, it not only included adults but children as well. The main reason for children to work is because it benefits the employers and their families economically. Employers made profit by having children work for low wages, and the money the children made would go towards the family income and necessities to survive. The low adult wages would not suffice for a neutral family or extended, so children had no choice but to work and help support their family. Although in need of money, there were too many dangers involved when the children were working. As a result of this, the state legislation had Acts passed for the children’s safety. The Industrial Revolution had many upsides in modernizing England, but it also uncovered that children should not be seen as workers needing money, but as young human beings that need education and protection, and the only way to initiate this is with the involvement of the state.

(Laslett, 1970) Coupled with these innovations was the new concept of applying scientific methodology to industrial processes. (Laslett, 1970) All of these changes, while beneficial to businesses, did little to improve the lot of the industrial laborer. (Laslett, 1970) One of the key complaints of an entirely unregulated labor force in the late 1800s was the extensive use and abuse of child labor. In 1870, nearly three quarters of a million children between the ages of ten and fifteen worked in hazardous aspects of manufacturing, agriculture and street trade. (Laslett, 1970) By 1880, that number was over one point one million, or one in every six children in that age group. (Laslett, 1970) By 1900, that number doubled. The conditions under which children worked were very dangerous. They worked the same shifts as adults (about 12 hours a day, six days a week), denying them the opportunity for school and play. (Laslett, 1970) The factories, mills, mines and other work venues in which they labored were unsafe and unregulated. Children were also often used in the most dangerous aspects of industrial work, such as clearing jammed machines or working in confined spaces too small for adults. (Laslett, 1970) In 1881, only seven states had any kind of regulation laws for child laborer. Desperate for money to survive, immigrants and working-class Americans forged

Currently there are 168 million child laborers in the world. More than half of them, 85 million, employed at hazardous jobs, according to the International Labour Organization. In the article “In Praise of Cheap Labor Bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all”, Paul Krugman Professor of economics at MIT, explains that child labor cannot just be wiped away like so many other distasteful practices. That it takes a perfect storm of economic success and low child labor numbers for a full transition to labor laws that ban it. Employers will agree to follow the law; similar to what happened in the U.S. in the 1930’s when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This Act established standards for the basic minimum wage and overtime pay. It restricts the hours that children under age 16 can work and forbids the employment of children under age 18 in certain jobs deemed too dangerous. Krugman believes that many developing countries are not at a point where they can support a full ban on child labor. He gives the example of countries like “Indonesia [who are,] still so poor that progress is measured in terms of how much the average person gets to eat” (Krugman 4). Professor of economics at Yale university, Christopher Udry, in his article “Child Labor” provides a definition of child labor as “ the sacrifice of the future welfare of the child in exchange for additional income” (243). The causes of Child labor are not as simple as cultural or economic reasons, and a