President Obama's Child Farm Labor Bill

During the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s child labor was a social issue that developed in the United States. In the early 1900’s, so many children ages 16 and under were working in American mine and factories. Our kids should not be forced to work at such an early age, they need education and a good childhood that they will always remember. Some children that are as young as 4 years old are being forced to work in crammed, dangerous factories. These factories are full of poisonous fumes and diseases that can obviously kill. Kids as young as 13 are being forced to work around 13 hours a day. Working these 13 hours is exactly what most adults are working at the time. Kids are also earning a lower wage since they are minors, employers

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

To elaborate, the farmworkers have been laboring day and night, even when their bodies are in pain. As stated by a young girl, named Carmen, “‘She (mom) doesn’t want to see me work there (in the fields), … she says because it’s a lot of work, … She doesn’t want me to go through what she goes through (in the fields). She says it’s really painful, hard work. Every night I massage her back so that she can feel better in the morning.’” As migrant worker, children who work and go to school, never have the chance to have a full education or experiences with friends. We know this because NBC’s Child Labor: Young Hands Picking Our Food states, “Critics of current U.S. labor law say these childhood dreams are jeopardized by a relentless cycle where young workers drop out of school to follow their families and the crops for work and then remain stuck in the fields because the children never finish their high school education.” Also, the Braceros during WWII worked hard, however, their paychecks seem to always show signs of deduction. We know this from the article, The Realities of Life and Labor, in which a man stated, “‘Sometimes the check stubs indicate the deduction and sometimes they

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.

The progressive era was filled with many pros and many cons which consist of child labour, workplace safety and big business which happened to rule over many small business’. John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Leland Stanford were known as 3 of the wealthiest men alive as their business’ expanded widely throughout the progressive era. Child labour was common within factories as children would work for for long hours which either ranged from 10-12 hours or, would work until they got the job done. Child labour spread quickly as children would work in unhealthy conditions. Unsafe working conditions had not only been in the children’s jobs but had also ranged throughout many adults jobs. Windows were often fastened and darkened with paint, their would be very little light leaving employees with poor eyesight.

Farm labor can be one of the most difficult job to handle. From the low wages to the horrible weather and health conditions. Most of these farm labor workers are immigrants who are here in the United States seeking for a better job, and providing for their children’s. However, they do not have a good job and are struggling so bad for their children. The average pay for a field worker is ten dollars per hour. There must be a change to these wages since many workers are working in extremely hot weather conditions that no one can imagine or are willing to work like that. Not only that, but the farmers benefit from them dramatically. In the 1984 address by Cesar E. Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, to the Commonwealth Club of California, uses different appeals to present the unfairness a farm worker faces. His main point is to

Many laborers worked over sixty hours a week, without any breaks. Unions were formed and demanded terms that workers today often take for granted, “8 hours work, 8 hours rest, 8 hours recreation” (Document #5). Regulation was slowly introduced by the government after backlash over lack of intervention. In order for a child to work, the child had to complete “his or her ninth year” of school, work no more than “twelve hours in...one day,” and “attend some school” (Document 4). Although these rules were a step forward, the government still needed to reform the wage gap and ensure that workers would be able to work in conditions that would not risk the lives of any workers.

The article discusses child labor in tobacco fields. Children ages 7 to 17 suffer from chronic illnesses as a result of poisoning from nicotine and pesticides. Furthermore, the teens that work in the summer suffer from nausea, vomiting, headaches, skin rashes and irritated eyes. As shown in a study, most children are working in the fields to provide for their family who can barely put food on the table. In attempt to fix this poverty, some people to respond to this epidemic. Hilda Solis spoke out against this and said, “We simply cannot-and this administration will not-stand by while youngsters working on farms are robbed of their childhood.” The agribusiness lobby objected, and mobilized all its forces from the American Farm Bureau and Monsanto to the beef, pork, and poultry producers to stop the rules from taking effect. They campaigned claiming that family farms would be ruined. Again, this situation emphasizes how society shrouds reality in attempt to compensate for their failure. Also, as stated in the article, Michelle Obama is an advocate for endangered children in Nigeria. She is focusing on other countries’ welfare, but fails to realize that America has plenty of people in poverty. The media covers the aspects of other countries that are in poverty. However, media does not cover America because America is generally wealthy, and society covers up the people in need with society’s general wealth. The American

Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 18 are working in agriculture in the United States. According to The Daily Transcript, “Many young people ages 13 to 16 work 70 to 80 hours a week and risk pesticide poisoning, heat illness, injuries and lifelong disabilities.” With this going on, children are being exposed to harm that they may or may not even be aware of. Child labor is more common in the United States (and all over the world) than one might think. There are laws currently in place dealing with child labor, “…which prohibit 12 and 13-year-olds from working most jobs, except on farms, and also say that youths aged 14 and 15 may not work in hazardous jobs, including construction.” (The Daily Transcript). Although these laws are in place, in 2010, 467 child-labor violations were found and

According to The Associated Press, “many young people ages 13 to 16 work 70 to 80 hours a week and risk pesticide poisoning, heat illness, injuries and lifelong disabilities.” If these children worked everyday of the week, they would be doing over 10 hours per day. Consequently, this extreme labor can leave lifelong physical and mental scars. There are many safety precautions that are ignored when it comes to agricultural child labor. Louis Whitman, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division, states that “‘U.S. laws should be changed to protect the health, safety and education of all children’” because “The report said these abuses are possible because the laws governing child labor in agriculture are much less stringent than those for other types of work”(The Associated Press). Because agricultural child labor is not regulated, more children are able to be put in this dangerous field of

In 1919, Congress passed the Child Labor Tax law otherwise known as the Revenue Act of 1919. The law stated that if a company used employees under the age of 14, there would be a tax of 10% on annual net profits. After the Drexel Furniture Company was found in violation of the act, the company paid $6,000 in taxes as a sign of protest later on suing claiming the tax was unconstitutional.

Growing up on a small family wheat farm in southwestern Oklahoma, I have experienced the harsh conditions of farming firsthand. The job that used to employ the largest amount of people in the United States has lost the support and the respect of the American people. The Jeffersonian Ideal of a nation of farmers has been tossed aside to be replaced by a nation of white-collar workers. The family farm is under attack and it is not being protected. The family farm can help the United States economically by creating jobs in a time when many cannot afford the food in the stores. The family farm can help prevent the degradation of the environment by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the people producing the food and nature. The family farm is the answer to many of the tough questions facing the United States today, but these small farms are going bankrupt all too often. The government’s policy on farming is the largest factor in what farms succeed, but simple economics, large corporations, and society as a whole influence the decline in family farms; small changes in these areas will help break up the huge corporate farms, keeping the small family farm afloat.

This shows two things. First, a major portion of farm workers are being paid unfair wages for their labor. Secondly, these workers do not have a high level of security for their jobs. Given the importance of this work force, it seems as if the wages and level of security fail to match the level of reliance that the food system has on this portion of the food chain. The rate of illness and injury among workers within the food chain is dangerously heightened. Specifically, the rate of injury is twice as high as the national average among food-processing workers, and as much as ten times as high for rate of illness (Lo, 65). These workers are subjected to these negative conditions without much hope of implementing real change to this system. The reason behind this inability to institute change lies in the constraints revolving around unionization among this workforce. Within the distribution sector of the food chain, temporary workers make on average half as much as directly hired warehouse workers (Lo, 67). This can be accounted for by this lack of unionization. Due to a lack of job security, temporary workers have a hard time increasing their hourly wages and work conditions. This discrimination is having a more profound effect on minority races within the United States. According to Lo, “High numbers of of African American and Latinos work in the

Several gaps in US law and regulations allow child farmworkers to work at younger ages, for longer hours, and in more hazardous conditions than children working in any other sector. Child farmworkers often work in extreme heat, exposed to toxic pesticides and other dangers. On many of the tobacco farms, child workers are exposed to nicotine, and many report symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning. Many companies have banned children under the age 16 from working on tobacco farms, but these policies leave older children unprotected. The administration’s have failed to change US regulations, and Congress has not amended US labor law to protect child farmworkers. Tobacco companies have not taken adequate action to do away with hazardous child labor in their supply chains.

On the other hand Agriculture work has declined tremendously since the new administration took over, farm workers have been weakening, this affects our business because we depend on farm workers to properly run our company, The president of our company commented on the changes he has been seeing in the last few months in the central valley. He told us that in the past, a bus will pick up farm workers and take them to the field, but now farm workers prefer to drive themselves to