| Although child labor has been around for ages and was integral to the survival of farms before mechanization, it became a serious problem in the United States during the Industrial Revolution. Children as young as four were working long hours in hard and dangerous jobs, and spending little to no time in school as a result. Kids who didn’t know their ABCs were being paid less than adults for full-time jobs (often more than 40 hours per week) in factories and coal mines. Children were often considered preferable to adults because they were easier to control and could fit in tight spaces. In 1910, a stunning 18.4% of the American workforce was under 15. The Great Depression put the brakes on child labor to a degree, since Americans on the whole wanted all available jobs to go to adults. But it took the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 to really change the landscape of the workforce. Since the passage of the FLSA, and many state laws that go even further to restrict child labor, the number of hours minors work per day and per week is heavily regulated, their wages are allowed to be only marginally lower, if at all, and children are prohibited from working with dangerous equipment or in particular positions. |
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