Child labor in the late 1900s
More than 20 percent of American children aged 10-14 were gainfully employed in the US in various industries in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Many families in America, during the onset of the industrial revolution, did not find the survival easy. Consequently, they had to find somewhere to work for their daily living. This is the time when Europe received a high influx of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. When the immigrants arrived in the US, they brought with them the idea that children should work because they were not schooling. This opinion subjected children to what today is termed as child abuse. Children started working. Many families moved to the urban areas, which were highly industrialized. The onset of child labor did not concern the existing authorities then. It went widespread, and many parents were not concerned because their children were not receiving a modest education. By 1900, close to 2 million children were working in the US at the expense of their families’ survival. The situation became worse due to more influx of immigrants who found a soft landing spot for their child labor ideas. The laws existed, but they seemed not to work as required. The impacts of child labor in the US led to the adjustments in the constitution by the introduction of the Fair Labor Standards Acts.
Impacts of child labor
Between 1880 and 1910, most states in the US implemented, and even made changes to child labor, and the compulsory schooling laws. These amendments changed the minimum working ages and the amount of education. Child labor was seen to be detrimental to children in the 19th century. The virtues of hard work in colonial America were extolled, and children were encouraged to become significant to their families by contributing to the family’s economy[1]. The industrial revolution which brought about the establishment of the early textile mills and factories ensured these premises were staffed with children and women. When such employments were occurring, children were employed far away from their parents. Additionally, the jobs they perused were presumably more dangerous to their health[2]. Children were mostly preferred as laborers because their sizes would enable them to maneuver the small spaces in the mines and the factories. They were easier to manage and control, and most importantly, they could be paid less than the adults. One of the most significant impacts of child labor was with regards to their health. As mentioned before, child labor was so detrimental. Most children who worked in these factories and mines away from their parents underwent emotional torture. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Children could operate the power-driven machines which were in use during the early 1800s. Initially, children had worked on the farms in the south. When the factories sprung up in the 1900s, children were absorbed due to the mentioned reasons. Children would work for 12 to 19 hours every day for six days a week to aearn dollar. Many began before the age of seven heavy hauling loads and spinning mills. The onset of 1868 had close to 1.9 million children working for up to 70 hours a week[3]. Some of these children were too small to operate the machines yet they received unprecedented abuse from the workers and the owners of these firms. Children would be abused verbally or physically. Those who received punishment would walk down the aisles with heavy loads hanging on their necks to send a chilling warning to the rest. Such punishment would cause severe injuries to their necks and backs. As if that was not enough, boys would sometimes be dragged out of bed to go for work naked so that they would not get to the jobs late[4]. Additionally, they were not given protective clothing, and the little children were hit continuously with straps, and heads dipped into a cistern of water so they wouldn’t be drowsy on the job.
Since no one cared about the safety of the children, most of them got hurt, and their bosses not held culpable[5]. In 1912, some hospitals in the US released statistics showing they had treated over 1000 children for mutilation and wounds from the vast and dangerous machines they operated. Their employers would not care for their medical expenses. Many were abandoned after such incidences occurred, and their wages stopped[6]. No compensation was offered regarding the extent of the injury. It is worth noting not these factories and mines were heavily polluted places. Most children suffered from cardiovascular diseases and other related infections. Many parents had to succumb to the situation lest they go hungry.
Child Labor in the Early 20th Century in America
The deliberation on the FLSA by the US Congress in 1938 provided a blueprint for the US authorities to curb child labor. Several states implemented the law. Nevertheless, up to the 20th century, some states in the South were still adamant. Even if they implemented the law, there were some leakages in the implementation of the overall framework to ensure its full-functionality. Unlike the South, by 1900 the North was more progressive and had passed stricter laws regarding child labor. As a result, many factories relocated to the South where cheap labor from children could still be allowed. Factories such as textile, coal mines, canneries, glass factories employed close to 1.7 million children even after the FLSA was passed by Congress[7]. The 1900 US census also provided similar accounts, mentioning that about 1.75 million children of ages 10-15 were working. The Census did not include children under ten years who had jobs in the mills, factories, and on the streets. If these numbers were to be included, then the percentage would rise to about two million. The average pay for children in the mills was 48 cents for working twelve hours a day. In 1909, a woman in Georgia confessed to having nine of her children working in the mills, and they would be paid $ 9 every week. The mundane treatments children received from their bosses prompted the call for a constitutional review in the US regarding child labor.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938
By 1900, child labor was predominant in the South more than the American North. The south was presumably occupied by the immigrants from the black African countries who would provide labor in the cotton plantations[8]. The growing outcry of the child mistreatments in the South invoked the attention of the authorities in America to rethink about the existing laws of child labor[9]. Some laws had been passed in the US as early as 1878, which shortened the working hours for children. Nevertheless, the central issues in the coveted child labor practice were not solved. There were essential calls for the American authorities to outlaw child labor and establish social equality free from racism, and ethnic profiling. The United States took long to outlaw child labor. By 1899, 30 states had passed the laws to outlaw child labor. Congress passed two laws in 1918 and 1922, which were later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court[10]. In 1924, a proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor was not ratified by the states. In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which fixed many issues regarding child abuse in the labor market.
First, the FLSA fixed a minimum age of 16 among the school going children, and 14 years for some jobs but only after school. The one years and above people would do the jobs, which seemed risky. The FLSA has cured some of the worst evils children faced in the factories. Nevertheless, FLSA does not provide legal protection for immigrant children because most of them were volunteers in the factories and firms. FLSA applies to those people engaged in the interstate commerce sectors or those employed by an enterprise which produces goods for commercial purposes[11]. The FLSA has undergone several amendments since 1938 and is currently designed to protect the educational opportunities for children. Moreover, FLSA prohibits the employment of children under conditions detrimental to their health. FLSA can only apply where there is an employment relationship between the employer and the employee. The FLSA set the standard capitals for commercial requirements for the law to apply. Business with at least $500,000 for annual gross sales would be considered under the FLSA, and the employees will be subjected to FLSA protection. The FLSA has some exemptions[12]. The law does not apply to individual entities or volunteers because they are not “employees” under FLSA.
Child labor in America had several detrimental effects, which shook the society and the federal government to the laws. The impacts paved the way for Congress to pass the FLSA, which regulate the working conditions for children and equally set the minimum age for work. Most importantly, the FLSA provided education opportunities for children even if they still to work in the factories. American society at the time of the exponential rise in child labor faced several challenges. The society could be associated with that of Carl Max, where those who matter oppressed the less fortunate. As mentioned before, child labor hit the maximum bars during the immigration and the industrial revolution era. Some of the proponents of child labor during this period wanted to make the US a hard landing spot for the illegal immigrants so that it could send ripple impulses of warning to their native lands. Today, American society may still record instances of child labor but with the least effect. Thanks to the amended labor laws. Child labor had been established as the leading cause of depression among children between 1800s and late 1900 up to early 2000. The right call for the congress salvaged the situation in some states, especially in the American North.
References
Bugni, Federico A. “Child labor legislation: effective, benign, both, or neither?.” Cliometrica 6, no. 3 (2012): 223-248.
Edmonds, Eric V., and Norbert Schady. “Poverty alleviation and child labor.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4, no. 4 (2012): 100-124.
Mayer, Gerald, Benjamin Collins, and David H. Bradley. “The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): An Overview.” (2013).
Mishra, Dina. “Child Labor as Involuntary Servitude: The Failure of Congress to Legislate Against Child Labor Pursuant to the Thirteenth Amendment in the Early Twentieth Century.” Rutgers L. Rev. 63 (2010): 59.
Perera, Frederica. “Science as an early driver of policy: Child labor reform in the early progressive era, 1870–1900.” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 10 (2014): 1862-1871.
Wilkins, Elizabeth. “Silent Workers, Disappearing Rights: Confidential Settlements and the Fair Labor Standards Act.” Berkeley J. Emp. & Lab. L. 34 (2013): 1
[1] Perera, Frederica. “Science as an early driver of policy: Child labor reform in the early progressive era, 1870–1900.” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 10 (2014): 1862-1871.
[2] Bugni, Federico A. “Child labor legislation: effective, benign, both, or neither?.” Cliometrica 6, no. 3 (2012): 223-248.
[3] Perera, Frederica. “Science as an early driver of policy: Child labor reform in the early progressive era, 1870–1900.” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 10 (2014): 1862-1871.
[4] Perera, Frederica. “Science as an early driver of policy: Child labor reform in the early progressive era, 1870–1900.” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 10 (2014): 1862-1871.
[5] Edmonds, Eric V., and Norbert Schady. “Poverty alleviation and child labor.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4, no. 4 (2012): 100-124.
[6] Mishra, Dina. “Child Labor as Involuntary Servitude: The Failure of Congress to Legislate Against Child Labor Pursuant to the Thirteenth Amendment in the Early Twentieth Century.” Rutgers L. Rev. 63 (2010): 59.
[7] Bugni, Federico A. “Child labor legislation: effective, benign, both, or neither?.” Cliometrica 6, no. 3 (2012): 223-248.
[8] Edmonds, Eric V., and Norbert Schady. “Poverty alleviation and child labor.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4, no. 4 (2012): 100-124.
[9] Mayer, Gerald, Benjamin Collins, and David H. Bradley. “The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): An Overview.” (2013).
[10] Mayer, Gerald, Benjamin Collins, and David H. Bradley. “The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): An Overview.” (2013).
[11] Mayer, Gerald, Benjamin Collins, and David H. Bradley. “The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): An Overview.” (2013).
[12] Mayer, Gerald, Benjamin Collins, and David H. Bradley. “The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): An Overview.” (2013).