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Of the products we use, wear, or consume every day, how many are made with child labor? Perhaps quite a few. A new report from the US Department of Labor identifies 148 different consumer goods produced with child or forced labor around the world. The list includes clothing, beef, sugar, bricks, coffee, and other products originating from 76 countries.

Gold tops the list. The report found that in at least 21 countries, children help mine gold, climbing into unstable shafts, carrying and crushing heavy loads of ore, and often using toxic mercury to process the gold. My colleagues and I have seen how dangerous this work can be, documenting the risks child miners face in Ghana, Philippines, Tanzania, and Mali.

Tobacco produced with child labor originates from at least 16 countries, placing it in the report's top five. Child tobacco workers often labor in extreme heat, are exposed to dangerous pesticides, and risk nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco plants. In our investigations, children in the United States, Indonesia, and Zimbabwe have described nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness while working in tobacco fields.

Governments, companies, and consumers share responsibility to end child labor. Governments should monitor and enforce their labor laws and provide children with good-quality, free education.

For children old enough to work, both governments and companies should ensure their jobs do not risk anyone's health or safety. Companies should also monitor their supply chains, report on their efforts, and when child labor is found, transition these children to school or safe alternatives. Our report on the jewelry industry outlines steps companies should take.

Consumers can ask retailers and manufacturers about their child labor policies and practices.

Ending child labor is possible. Since 2000, the number of children involved in it has dropped by a third ‒ from 245 million to 152 million. In the last two years, the Department of Labor found that 17 governments have made "significant" advancement in ending child labor, and another 60 have made "moderate" advancements. It noted particular progress in ending child labor in Panama's sugar production, and cotton harvesting in Paraguay and Uzbekistan.

Still, we have a long way to go. Products that are part of our daily lives shouldn't come at the expense of children's health, safety, and education.

Your tax deductible gift can help stop human rights violations and save lives around the world.

Of the products we use, wear, or consume every day, how many are made with child labor? Perhaps quite a few. A new report from the US Department of Labor identifies 148 different consumer goods produced with child or forced labor around the world. The list includes clothing, beef, sugar, bricks, coffee, and other products originating from 76 countries.

Gold tops the list. The report found that in at least 21 countries, children help mine gold, climbing into unstable shafts, carrying and crushing heavy loads of ore, and often using toxic mercury to process the gold. My colleagues and I have seen how dangerous this work can be, documenting the risks child miners face in Ghana, Philippines, Tanzania, and Mali.

Tobacco produced with child labor originates from at least 16 countries, placing it in the report's top five. Child tobacco workers often labor in extreme heat, are exposed to dangerous pesticides, and risk nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco plants. In our investigations, children in the United States, Indonesia, and Zimbabwe have described nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness while working in tobacco fields.

Governments, companies, and consumers share responsibility to end child labor. Governments should monitor and enforce their labor laws and provide children with good-quality, free education.

For children old enough to work, both governments and companies should ensure their jobs do not risk anyone's health or safety. Companies should also monitor their supply chains, report on their efforts, and when child labor is found, transition these children to school or safe alternatives. Our report on the jewelry industry outlines steps companies should take.

Consumers can ask retailers and manufacturers about their child labor policies and practices.

Ending child labor is possible. Since 2000, the number of children involved in it has dropped by a third ‒ from 245 million to 152 million. In the last two years, the Department of Labor found that 17 governments have made "significant" advancement in ending child labor, and another 60 have made "moderate" advancements. It noted particular progress in ending child labor in Panama's sugar production, and cotton harvesting in Paraguay and Uzbekistan.

Still, we have a long way to go. Products that are part of our daily lives shouldn't come at the expense of children's health, safety, and education.

Your tax deductible gift can help stop human rights violations and save lives around the world.

© 2015 Marcus Bleasdale for Human Rights Watch

Jewelry Companies, Changing Sourcing Practices, and Covid-19

Law, Policy, and Military Doctrine

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Report Traces Goods Made with Child Labor to 76 Countries

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Of the products we use, wear, or consume every day, how many are made with child labor? Perhaps quite a few. A new report from the US Department of Labor identifies 148 different consumer goods produced with child or forced labor around the world.

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child labour, employment of children of less than a legally specified age. In Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand, children under age 15 rarely work except in commercial agriculture, because of the effective enforcement of laws passed in the first half of the 20th century. In the United States, for example, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set the minimum age at 14 for employment outside of school hours in nonmanufacturing jobs, at 16 for employment during school hours in interstate commerce, and at 18 for occupations deemed hazardous.

Child labour is far more prevalent in developing countries, where millions of children-some as young as seven-still toil in quarries, mines, factories, fields, and service enterprises. They make up more than 10 percent of the labour force in some countries in the Middle East and from 2 to 10 percent in much of Latin America and some parts of Asia. Few, if any, laws govern their employment or the conditions under which work is performed. Restrictive legislation is rendered impractical by family poverty and lack of schools.

The movement to regulate child labour began in Great Britain at the close of the 18th century, when the rapid development of large-scale manufacturing made possible the exploitation of young children in mining and industrial work. The first law, in 1802, which was aimed at controlling the apprenticeship of pauper children to cotton-mill owners, was ineffective because it did not provide for enforcement. In 1833 the Factory Act did provide a system of factory inspection.

Organized international efforts to regulate child labour began with the first International Labour Conference in Berlin in 1890. Although agreement on standards was not reached at that time, similar conferences and other international moves followed. In 1900 the International Association for Labour Legislation was established at Basel, Switzerland, to promote child labour provisions as part of other international labour legislation. A report published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of the United Nations in 1960 on law and practice among more than 70 member nations showed serious failures to protect young workers in nonindustrial jobs, including agriculture and handicrafts. One of the ILO's current goals is to identify and resolve the "worst forms" of child labour; these are defined as any form of labour that negatively impacts a child's normal development. In 1992 the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was created as a new department of the ILO. Through programs it operates around the world, IPEC seeks the removal of children from hazardous working conditions and the ultimate elimination of child labour.

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Child labor | Definition, History, Laws, & Facts

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child labour, employment of children of less than a legally specified age. In Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand, children under age 15 rarely work except in commercial agriculture, because of the effective enforcement of laws passed in the first half of the 20th century.

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Industries that rely on child labor | DW | 17.11.2017

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The International Labour Organization says that 218 million children between 5 and 17 years old are in employment. DW looks at some of the most exploitative industries.

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Child Labor Defined: Historically, "child labor" is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. However, not all work done by children should be classified as child labor. Children or adolescents' participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays.

Abusive Child Labor: What is to be prevented is child labor in its most extreme form: Children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves. Forms of extreme child labor existed throughout American history until the 1930s. In particular, child labor was rife during the American Industrial Revolution (1820-1870). Industrialization attracted workers and their families from farms and rural areas into urban areas and factory work. In factories and mines, children were often preferred as employees, because owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike.

Historical documents revealed American children worked in large numbers in mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers, bootblacks, and peddlers. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, many labor unions and social reformers advocated aggressively for state and local legislation to prevent extreme child labor. By 1900, their efforts had resulted in state and local legislation designed to prevent extreme child labor; however, the condition in states varied considerably on whether they had child labor standards, their content and the degree of enforcement.

The lucky ones swept the trash and filth from city streets or stood for hours on street corners hawking newspapers. The less fortunate coughed constantly through 10-hour shifts in dark, damp coal mines or sweated to the point of dehydration while tending fiery glass-factory furnaces - all to stoke the profit margins of industrialists whose own children sat comfortably at school desks gleaning moral principles from their McGuffey Readers. By and large, these child laborers were the sons and daughters of poor parents or recent immigrants who depended on their children's meager wages to survive. But they were also the offspring of the rapid, unchecked industrialization that characterized large American cities as early as the 1850s. 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 - many of them 12 hours or more, six days a week. Often they toiled in unhealthful and hazardous conditions; always for minuscule wages.

Young girls continued to work in mills, still in danger of slipping and losing a finger or a foot while standing on top of machines to change bobbins; or of being scalped if their hair got caught. And, as ever, after a day of bending over to pick bits of rock from coal, breaker boys were still stiff and in pain. If a breaker boy fell, he could still be smothered, or crushed, by huge piles of coal. And, when he turned 12, he would still be forced to go down into the mines and face the threat of cave-ins and explosions.

Child Labor Reform: In the early decades of the twentieth century, the numbers of child laborers in the U.S. peaked. Child labor began to decline as the labor and reform movements grew and labor standards in general began improving, increasing the political power of working people and other social reformers to demand legislation regulating child labor. Union organizing and child labor reform were often intertwined, and common initiatives were conducted by organizations led by working women and middle class consumers, such as state Consumers' Leagues and Working Women's Societies. These organizations generated the National Consumers' League in 1899 and the National Child Labor Committee in 1904, which shared goals of challenging child labor, including through anti-sweatshop campaigns and labeling programs.

Since 1900, there have been several efforts to regulate or eliminate child labor. One of the primary leaders in this effort was the National Child Labor Committee, which was organized in 1904. The National Child Labor Committee and various state child labor committees were gradualist in philosophy, preparing them to accept whatever was achievable even if it was not sufficient. They used flexible tactics and were resilient in the face of defeat and slow progress. Furthermore, these committees pioneered the usage of mass political action, including expert investigation, photography, pamphlets, leaflets, mass mailings, and lobbying. However, their success was dependent on the political climate of the nation overall, as well as developments that reduced the need or desire for child labor.

The National Child Labor Committee campaigned for tougher state and federal laws against the abuses of industrial child labor, and Lewis W. Hine was its greatest publicist. A teacher who left his profession to work full-time as investigator for the committee, Hine prepared a number of the Committee's reports and took some of the most powerful images in the history of documentary photography. The Library of Congress holds the papers of the Committee, including the reports, field notes, correspondence, and over 5,000 of Hine's photographs and negatives. This album depicts children at work in canneries and is accompanied by a follow-up report for a group of canneries previously investigated by Hine.

From 1911 to 1916, Hine traveled across southern and eastern states capturing thousands of unflinching images that exposed the heartless treatment of children. More often than not, Hine had to resort to trickery to gain access from resistant, even hostile, employers. He posed variously as a Bible salesman, industrial photographer, fire inspector and insurance agent to get candid shots, sometimes with a hidden camera. Children might be removed from view before he arrived or he might be barred from the premises altogether. When Hine couldn't find a way in, he waited outside the gates and photographed the children as they entered and exited.

The tireless efforts of reformers, social workers and unions seemed to pay off in 1916 - at the height of the progressive movement - when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Keating-Owen Act banning articles produced by child labor from being sold in interstate commerce. The act was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court just two years later.

Between 1902-1915, child labor committees emphasized reform through state legislatures and, as a result, many laws restricting child labor were passed. However, gaps remained, especially in the south. This led to a push for federal child labor laws, which Congress passed in 1916 and 1918, but the Supreme Court declared both of them unconstitutional. Opponents of child labor then sought a constitution amendment to authorize federal child labor legislation. Congress passed the amendment in 1924, but many states failed to ratify this amendment due to the conservative 1920s political climate and opposition from some church groups and farm organizations that feared increased federal power.

The Great Depression catalyzed changes in political attitudes in the United States, especially surrounding child labor. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal sought to prevent extreme child labor, and almost all of the codes under the National Industrial Recovery Act significantly reduced child labor. The Public Contracts Act of 1936 required boys to be 16 and girls to be 18 to work in firms supplying goods under federal contract. The Beet Sugar Act required children to be 14 to work in cultivating and harvesting sugar beets and cane. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) set the minimum working age at 14 for employment outside of school hours and 16 during school hours. Furthermore, non-agricultural work in interstate commerce required a minimum age of 16 during school hours and 18 for positions designated as "hazardous" by the secretary of labor.

Overall, these laws were successful, not only to the generally widespread disapproval towards child labor, but also because many previously unemployed adults became employed once children were limited in the workforce.

Sources:

University of Iowa Labor Center & Center for Human Rights. (2011). Child labor public education project. University of Iowa. Retrieved from https://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/

Yellowitz, I. (2009). Child labor. History. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/child-labor

How to Cite this Article (APA Format): Hansan, J. (2011). The American era of child labor. Social Welfare History Project. Retrieved from https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/child-labor/

Resources related to this topic may be found in the Social Welfare History Image Portal.

See also the Child Labor Discovery Set.

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Child Labor Defined: Historically, "child labor" is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. However, not all work done by children should be classified as child labor.

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The Hidden Cost of Jewelry | Human Rights in Supply Chains and the Responsibility of Jewelry Companies

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Summary Jewelry and watches denote wealth and status, as well as artistry, beauty, and love. Gold and diamond jewelry in particular are frequently purchased as gifts for loved ones and for special occasions. Globally, about 90 million carats of rough diamonds and 1,600 tons of gold are mined for jewelry every year, generating over US$300 billion in revenue.

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© 2015 Benedict Evans for Human Rights Watch

More than half of work-related deaths among children in the US occur in agriculture, according to a new US government report published this week. This happens despite the fact that farms employ less than six percent of child workers, highlighting the devastating consequences of weak laws and regulations that don't properly protect child farmworkers.

The report was prepared by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) at the request of congressional representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard from California and Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut.

My colleagues and I have interviewed hundreds of child farmworkers in the US in recent years. They've told us harrowing stories of working long hours in extreme heat, using sharp tools and heavy machinery, and climbing to dangerous heights with nothing to protect them from falling. Many are exposed to toxic pesticides, and on tobacco farms, children face the added risk of being exposed to nicotine, a neurotoxin.

Under federal labor law, children at the age of 12 can legally work unlimited hours on farms of any size with parental permission, as long as they don't miss school. There is no minimum age for children to work on small farms or family farms. By law, children working in agriculture can do jobs at age 16 that health and safety experts deem particularly hazardous. In all other sectors, workers must be 18 to do hazardous work.

The report clearly shows that these gaps in laws designed to protect young workers leave child farmworkers vulnerable to serious injuries and death. The report found that between 2003 and 2016, 237 children died while working in agriculture in the US. That represents more than half of the 452 work-related deaths among children in that period, even though child farmworkers represent only an estimated 5.5 percent of working children. The report estimated more than 4,700 injuries to children working on farms each year, based on data collected in 2012 and 2014.

Many of these children's injuries and deaths may have been avoided with better workplace protections. But instead of strengthening protections for child workers in the US, the Trump Administration has moved to roll back even the limited regulations that exist to protect child farmworkers from danger.

Since 2001, Representative Roybal-Allard has introduced and reintroduced a bill to afford child farmworkers the same protections as children working in any other sectors, by limiting their working hours and by raising the minimum age for them to begin work. Beginning in January, the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives has an opportunity to act swiftly to address the gaps in US labor law, by affording child farmworkers the same protections as children working in other sectors.

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More US Child Workers Die in Agriculture Than in Any Other Industry

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More than half of work-related deaths among children in the US occur in agriculture, according to a new US government report published this week. This happens despite the fact that farms employ less than six percent of child workers, highlighting the devastating consequences of weak laws and regulations that don't properly protect child farmworkers.

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UNICEF | Children's Rights & Emergency Relief Organization

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Child labour

Millions of children around the world are trapped in child labour, depriving them of their childhood, their health and education, and condemning them to a life of poverty and want. Of course, there is work that children do to help their families in ways that are neither harmful nor exploitative. But many children are stuck in unacceptable work for children - a serious violation of their rights.

Recent global estimates based on data of UNICEF, the ILO and the World Bank indicate that 168 million children aged 5 to 17 are engaged in child labour. Millions of them suffer in the other worst forms of child labour, including slavery and slavery-like practices such as forced and bonded labour and child soldiering, sexual exploitation, or are used by adults in illicit activities, including drug trafficking.

Despite a steady decline in child labour, progress is far too slow. At current rates, more than 100 million children will still be trapped in child labour by 2020. The continuing persistence of child labour poses a threat to national economies and has severe negative short and long term consequences for the fulfillment of children's rights guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - including denial of education and frequent exposure to violence.

Child labour spans various sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, quarrying and mining, and domestic service. Often, it is hidden from the public eye. For example, the estimated 15.5 million child domestic workers worldwide - mostly girls - are often hardly visible and face many hazards. Child labour is the combined product of many factors, such as poverty, social norms condoning it, lack of decent work opportunities for adults and adolescents, migration, and emergencies.

Child labour reinforces intergenerational cycles of poverty, undermines national economies and impedes achieving progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is not only a cause, but also a consequence of social inequities reinforced by discrimination. Children from indigenous groups or lower castes are more likely to drop out of school to work. Migrant children are also vulnerable to hidden and illicit labour.

Child labour is preventable, not inevitable. UNICEF believes that effective action against child labour requires children to be placed squarely at the centre of programmes designed to protect children's rights. Looking at child labour through a broader lens - addressing the full range of children's vulnerabilities and protection challenges - comes as a result of the recognition that these wider concerns are not always fully addressed in action against child labour. For more information on UNICEF's approach to tackling child labour, click .

UNICEF supports the achievement of SDG Target 8.7 which provides that States take "immediate and effective measures to ... secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms". Target 8.7 is linked to several other targets, including target 16.2 aimed at ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children, Goal 1 on poverty, Goal 4 on Education; and Goal 5 on ending violence against women and girls and gender equality, including harmful practices. To support the achievement of Target 8.7, UNICEF pursues a multisector approach to child labour, including legal reform, education, social protection, access to health services and the data collection, and supports partnerships with UN agencies and other key stakeholders to mount a sustained effort to accelerate child labour reduction across regions. UNICEF supports communities in changing their cultural acceptance of child labour, while supporting strategies and programming to provide alternative income to families, quality education, and protective services.

In various countries and regions, UNICEF and partners have strengthened child protection systems, which have led to a comprehensive response to children's issues. In turn, this has resulted in decreased child labour and an overall improvement of children's well-being. Access the most recent data on child labour prevalence by country and region here.

UNICEF also works with employers and the private sector to assess and address the impact of their supply chain and business practices upon children, and promote programmes that contribute to the elimination of child labour through sustainable solutions to address its root causes.

UNICEF also partners with civil society organizations to support a holistic child protection approach to child labour, contribute to the evidence base on child labour through research and data collection, and advocate across all stakeholders to end child labour.

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focus area 4: child protection from violence

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UNICEF estimates that around 150 million children ages 5-14 years in developing countries are involved in child labour. ILO estimates that around 215 million children under 18 work, many full-time. Even though the prevalence of child labour has been falling, it continues to harm the physical and mental development of children.

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Budgets for agencies that monitor workplaces are shrinking as some states roll back laws meant to limit the hours and jobs kids can work.

Stringer / Reuters

On a warm day last summer Josh Bassais, a union organizer, went down to a non-union construction project in Edina, a Minneapolis suburb where new elementary classrooms were being built, to check out safety on the site.

He saw something surprising: a boy, who appeared to be about 12 or 13, wearing jeans and a fluorescent work vest, smoothing mortar on a brick wall. It was a clear violation of child-labor laws, 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.

When others in the Laborers Union went to the site, they saw a boy too, this time driving a bobcat and cutting concrete with a saw.

"When our staff reported it to me, I wasn't sure I believed it," said Kevin Pranis, a spokesman for the union. "We sent him back to take a picture, since we didn't want to make a report without knowing for sure the kid was underage. We observed him four or five times until we were really sure."

The union told the school district what it had seen, and also reported suspicions of child labor to authorities, who identified the boy and prohibited him from returning to the job site.

But a few weeks later, the union stumbled across another kid on a construction site, this time in Minnetonka. Though the contractor at the time said the worker was 18, and that his father owned the company, the union followed-up by tracing the license plate of the car the worker got into, and found he was actually 14.

"No one's going around looking for child labor on construction sites, except for us," Pranis said. "The resources just aren't there."

It's possible to view this merely as a ploy by a union to highlight the problems that occur on non-union construction sites. But the fact is, child-labor standards-and labor-enforcement standards in general-have been rolled back in many states over the past few years. And with budget cuts to the agencies, at both the federal and state level, in charge of enforcing labor laws, there's no sign that there will be more attention to possible violations anytime soon.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration, or OSHA, had fewer health and safety inspectors in 2011 than in 1981, even though there are nowtwice as many workplaces, according to a report from the Center for Effective Government (OSHA is responsible for conducting workplace inspections and following-up on complaints about labor violations, including child-labor laws).

When adjusted to 2013 dollars, OSHA's budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $535 million, compared to $592 million in 2010, said Katie Weatherford, regulatory policy analyst for the Center for Effective Government. There were 864 federal inspectors in 2014, down from 1,469 in 1980, she said.

In February, a whistle-blower group in Washington said that workers in California have less protection on the job now than at any time in a generation because of cutbacks to Cal/OSHA. The state had 11 percent fewer inspectors last year than it did in 2011.

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"We are concerned-having less budget means they have less ability to protect workers," Weatherford said. "We're going to see more injuries and fatalities if we don't raise the number of inspectors."

The child-labor violations the agency has turned up in the last few years, despite its smaller budget, raise the question of what else is happening that the agency hasn't uncovered. Last year, inspectors found that a Tennessee lumber mill was employing a 14-year-old who was operating a chainsaw, removing lumber from a conveyor, and loading scrap wood into a wood chipper. Inspectors also found that grocery stores in Iowa and Nebraska had employed young workers operating meat slicers, bakery machines, and even motor vehicles.

Some of the rollback of investigations stems from concerns at a state level that government regulation is hampering business.

"State legislators across the country have launched an unprecedented series of initiatives aimed at lowering labor standards, weakening unions, and eroding workplace protections for both union and non-union workers," said Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon, in a report " The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards " he wrote for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Lafer attributed the passage of some of the laws to the dramatic changes in manystate legislatures after the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans gained unprecedented control at the state level. In that election, 22 legislatures changed majority control, all to the GOP.

Soon after the 2010 midterms, the changes began. A Missouri elected official had called in 2011 for the elimination of funding for the state's nine labor investigators, saying that he'd heard they were "harassing and picking on" non-union contractors. By 2014, the state had just six investigators.

The department received 19 child-labor complaints and found 467 child-labor violations in 2010, according to a state report; the next year, they found just 191 violations, on 26 complaints.

After the 2010 midterms, four states rolled back child-labor regulations, according to Lafer.

After a parent protested, an Idaho school district stopped a program that allowed children to work serving lunch in schools. Then the state passed a bill allowing students 12 and above to be employed by school districts for up to 10 hours per week.

"It teaches job skills, you have to be on time, you have to do what your supervisor tells you," said district spokesman Eric Exline, defending the program to a local TV station, and adding that the program saved the school district from having to hire additional employees.

Soon after that, Wisconsin lifted restrictions on the number of hours 16 and 17-year-olds could work during a school week-previously they couldn't work more than 26 hours, now they can work unlimited hours, as long as they go to school, too. Michigan also increased the number of hours students could work during the school week, to 24 from 15.

Maine also upped the number of hours a minor could work each week-to 24 from 20. The bill's backers had wanted students to be able to work until 11 p.m. on school nights, but in a compromise, the legislation set the curfew at 10:15 p.m.

Republicans gained even more seats in the 2014 midterms, winning majorities in various chambers in Nevada, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, and Minnesota, indicating that rollbacks of labor standards could continue.

Maine Governor Paul LePage already said earlier this year that he wanted the state to go even further and allow 12-year-olds to work. He had previously proposed a subminimum wage for young workers of $5.25.

A law went into effect in August in Minnesota creating a youth wage of $6.50 an hour for workers under 18 (there had previously not been a separate youth wage).

To be sure, there are some benefits to allowing minors to have jobs and earn money. Newt Gingrich may have been excoriated for saying, during his 2012 presidential run, that child labor laws were " truly stupid," but data shows there are benefits to learning a work ethic at an early age. Young employees can learn to be on time, to respect supervisors, to work hard and to save money. After all, what kid hasn't gloated over the cash he's earned on a newspaper route, babysitting, watering the plants, or mowing a neighbor's lawn?

But what's concerning about recent developments is that some of today's working minors don't seem to be performing innocuous jobs that will instill in them a strong work ethic and understanding of responsibility. Rather, they're in jobs that can-and have-jeopardized their health and safety.

For example, agricultural employers are largely exempt from the sections of the Fair Labor Standards Act that prohibit minors from working. That's led to 13-year-olds working in tobacco fields, where they can be exposed to nicotine poisoning.

A Human Rights Watch report published earlier this year found that in states such as Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, child workers spend 50 to 60 hours a week in tobacco fields, where they are "exposed to nicotine, toxic pesticides, and other dangers."

The group interviewed 141 child tobacco workers between the ages of 7 and 17, and 75 percent of the children said they had sudden onset of nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, and difficulty breathing while working in the fields.

"I can stand the heat for a long time, but when they spray [pesticides], then I start to feel woozy and tired. Sometimes it looks like everything is spinning," one 14-year-old told the interviewers.

Many countries, including Brazil and India, prohibit children under 18 from working in the tobacco fields, according to the report. In 1999, the U.S. ratified a International Labor Organization Convention Covering the Prohibition and Immediate Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, which included prohibiting children under 18 from work that "is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children."

In 2011, Hilda Solis, then the Secretary of Labor, proposed prohibiting farmworkers under 16 from working in the tobacco fields. She also suggested strengthening child-labor laws around agricultural work with animals, pesticides, timber, manure pits, and storage bins (two teenagers died in 2010 after being trapped in a grain bin).

The reaction was swift, with complaints about what happens when "big-city bureaucrats try to craft policies for rural America." Some farmers protested that it would keep their kids from doing chores around the farm (Solis also suggested an exemption for children of farmers).

State legislatures across the country introduced bills asking their Congressional delegations to oppose changes to the child-labor exemptions.

The Obama Administration scrapped the proposed rules in 2012.

"Why does agriculture deserve an exemption for kids working on farms not owned by their parents?" asked Reid Maki, director of child-labor advocacy at the National Consumer's League.* "Is it safer than other workplaces? The answer is categorically no. It's one of the most dangerous workplaces in America."

Child labor on farms helps fuel a cycle of poverty where kids drop out of school or perform poorly so that they can work as many hours as possible, he said. Accidents on farms can be particularly grisly: Last year, one teen lost his arm to a farm machine in Virginia, and a 14-year-old worker was killed in a collision with farming equipment in Idaho, according to Cultivate Safety, an advocacy group.

Going forward, whether people under age 18 are allowed to work in various jobs will probably depend on what state they live in. Missouri passed a law last year exempting children under 16 who work on farms from certain labor requirements-just in case the federal government tries to pass new standards again. Alabama tried to pass an income-tax credit for businesses employing people under 19; Iowa introduced a bill allowing people aged 16-17 to work in laundry establishments (previously they had been prohibited).

New York, on the other hand, passed a bill increasing protections for child models. And in October, a North Carolina Tobacco Growers Association issued a policy suggesting that tobacco farmers not hire children under 16, even with parental permission. Altria Group, parent company to Philip Morris USA, also said on Thursday that it would prohibit growers in its supply chain from hiring children under 16. About 90 percent of tobacco grown in the U.S. is farmed in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.

But evidence shows that once employers feel they have leeway in employing children, they start to flaunt more laws, said Maki, of the Consumer's League.

"Our feeling is that there has got to be a certain level of enforcement for employers to really pay attention," he said. "Once they get a sense that the laws aren't being enforced at all, it's like a carte blanche."
* This post originally misspelled the name of Reid Maki. We regret the error.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Alana Semuels is a former staff writer at The Atlantic.

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Budgets for agencies that monitor workplaces are shrinking as some states roll back laws meant to limit the hours and jobs kids can work. On a warm day last summer Josh Bassais, a union organizer, went down to a non-union construction project in Edina, a Minneapolis suburb where new elementary classrooms were being built, to check out safety on the site.

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Where, why and what can be done

Around 260 million children are in employment around the world, according to the International Labour Organisation (pdf). Of them, the ILO estimates that 170 million are engaged in child labour, defined by the UN as "work for which the child is either too young - work done below the required minimum age - or work which, because of its detrimental nature or conditions, is altogether considered unacceptable for children and is prohibited".

Child labour is forbidden by law in most countries but continues to be rife in some of the poorest parts of the world.

The ILO estimates that 170 million are engaged in child labour, with many making textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the US, and beyond

The situation is improving. ILO estimates suggest child labour declined by 30% between 2000 and 2012, but still 11% of the world's children are in situations that deprive them of their right to go to school without interference from work.

Many of these child labourers work within the fashion supply chain, making the textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the US, and beyond.

Why does it exist?

Where is it happening?

The countries highlighted above were identified by SOMO as particularly notorious for child labour in the textile and garment industry

Children work at all stages of the supply chain in the fashion industry: from the production of cotton seeds in Benin, harvesting in Uzbekistan, yarn spinning in India, right through to the different phases of putting garments together in factories across Bangladesh.

In the cotton industry, children are employed to transfer pollen from one plant to another. They are subjected to long working hours, exposure to pesticides and they are often paid below the minimum wage. In developing countries where cotton is one of the main crops, children are enlisted to help harvest the delicate crop and reports suggest (pdf) they work long hours sowing cotton in the spring, followed by weeding through the summer months.

An estimated 170 million children are engaged in child labour, or 11% of the global population of children, according to the International Labour Organisation

At the next step of the chain, in the yarn and spinning mills, child labour is rampant. The SOMO report (pdf) found that 60% of workers at the mills it investigated in India were under-18 when they started working there; the youngest workers were 15 when they joined.

Children also work in the "cut-make-trim" stage, when clothes are put together. SOMO says: "In garment factories, children perform diverse and often arduous tasks such as dyeing, sewing buttons, cutting and trimming threads, folding, moving and packing garments. In small workshops and home sites, children are put to work on intricate tasks such as embroidering, sequinning and smocking (making pleats)."

What are the challenges?

One of the biggest challenges in tackling child labour in the fashion supply chain is the complex supply chain for each garment. Even when brands have strict guidelines in place for suppliers, work often gets sub-contracted to other factories that the buyer may not even know about.

Ovaa says: "Companies that sell their products in Europe and the US have no clue where the textiles come from. Maybe they know their first supplier and there are codes of conduct in place, but further down the chain in the lower tiers it is very difficult to understand where the cotton comes from."

Tackling child labour is further complicated by the fact it is just a symptom of larger problems. Where there is extreme poverty, there will be children willing to work cheaply and susceptible to being tricked into dangerous or badly paid work.

Lotte Schuurman at the Fair Wear Foundation says if parents have no education they will end up in low-paid work; their children will be forced to work, they will miss out on their education, and they too will end up in low-paid work as adults. "You need to get out of that vicious circle of poverty to decline child labour," she says.

What can businesses do?

Credits:

Writer Josephine Moulds
Commissioning editor Jenny Purt
Art direction and design Tim Shearring and Ian Richardson
Video and map photography Kimberly Hoang
Map embroidery Jessica Thompson
Images Getty Images, Panos, Gallery Stock
Producer Daniel Turner

About this site

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Child labour in the fashion supply chain

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Kids Risk Death Diving for Gold in Philippines

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Not all work done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination. The participation of children or adolescents above the minimum age for admission to employment in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to children's development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life.

The term "child labour" is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that:

is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and/or

interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

Whether or not particular forms of "work" can be called "child labour" depends on the child's age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.

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Not all work done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination. The participation of children or adolescents above the minimum age for admission to employment in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive.

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The journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault discusses a "worrisome development" in our democracy. Also: Child labor and chocolate; the suffering in Venezuela; Virginia's energy policy.

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Breaker Boys
Hughestown Borough Pa. Coal Co.
Pittston, Pa.
Photo: Lewis Hine

Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work, children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. Growing opposition to child labor in the North caused many factories to move to the South. By 1900, states varied considerably in whether they had child labor standards and in their content and degree of enforcement. By then, American children worked in large numbers in mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers, bootblacks, and peddlers.

Spinning Room
Cornell Mill
Fall River, Mass.
Photo: Lewis Hine

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the numbers of child laborers in the U.S. peaked. Child labor began to decline as the labor and reform movements grew and labor standards in general began improving, increasing the political power of working people and other social reformers to demand legislation regulating child labor. Union organizing and child labor reform were often intertwined, and common initiatives were conducted by organizations led by working women and middle class consumers, such as state Consumers' Leagues and Working Women's Societies. These organizations generated the National Consumers' League in 1899 and the National Child Labor Committee in 1904, which shared goals of challenging child labor, including through anti-sweatshop campaigns and labeling programs. The National Child Labor Committee's work to end child labor was combined with efforts to provide free, compulsory education for all children, and culminated in the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which set federal standards for child labor.

Child Labor Reform and the U.S. Labor Movement

1832 New England unions condemn child labor

The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen resolve that "Children should not be allowed to labor in the factories from morning till night, without any time for healthy recreation and mental culture," for it "endangers their . . . well-being and health"

Women's Trade Union League of New York

1836 Early trade unions propose state minimum age laws

Union members at the National Trades' Union Convention make the first formal, public proposal recommending that states establish minimum ages for factory work

1836 First state child labor law

Massachusetts requires children under 15 working in factories to attend school at least 3 months/year

1842 States begin limiting children's work days

Massachusetts limits children's work days to 10 hours; other states soon pass similar laws-but most of these laws are not consistently enforced

1876 Labor movement urges minimum age law

Working Men's Party proposes banning the employment of children under the age of 14

1881 Newly formed AFL supports state minimum age laws

The first national convention of the American Federation of Labor passes a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from all gainful employment

1883 New York unions win state reform

Led by Samuel Gompers, the New York labor movement successfully sponsors legislation prohibiting cigar making in tenements, where thousands of young children work in the trade

1892 Democrats adopt union recommendations

Democratic Party adopts platform plank based on union recommendations to ban factory employment for children under 15

National Child Labor Committee

1904 National Child Labor Committee forms

Aggressive national campaign for federal child labor law reform begins

1916 New federal law sanctions state violators

First federal child labor law prohibits movement of goods across state lines if minimum age laws are violated (law in effect only until 1918, when it's declared unconstitutional, then revised, passed, and declared unconstitutional again)

1924 First attempt to gain federal regulation fails

Congress passes a constitutional amendment giving the federal government authority to regulate child labor, but too few states ratify it and it never takes effect

1936 Federal purchasing law passes

Walsh-Healey Act states U.S. government will not purchase goods made by underage children

1937 Second attempt to gain federal regulation fails

Second attempt to ratify constitutional amendment giving federal government authority to regulate child labor falls just short of getting necessary votes

1937 New federal law sanctions growers

Sugar Act makes sugar beet growers ineligible for benefit payments if they violate state minimum age and hours of work standards

1938 Federal regulation of child labor achieved in Fair Labor Standards Act

For the first time, minimum ages of employment and hours of work for children are regulated by federal law

Educational materials containing more information on Child Labor in U.S. History and Causes of Child Labor, including Workshop Materials-Core Workshop on Child Labor and K-12 Teachers' Materials, are available through this web site. These materials include Power Point presentations, instructors' manuals, activities, and handouts. You may adapt these materials to your group's needs.

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Breaker Boys Hughestown Borough Pa. Coal Co. Pittston, Pa. Photo: Lewis Hine Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work, children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike.

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Estimates by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity programs, based on figures gathered by the Department of Labor, suggest that there are approximately 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States. Many of these children start working as young as age 8, and 72-hour work weeks (more than 10 hours per day) are not uncommon.

Agricultural work is demanding and dangerous. Children are regularly exposed to pesticides, greatly increasing their risk for cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that children are three times more susceptible to the pesticides' carcinogenic effects than are adults. Environmental conditions (particularly extreme heat) and dangerous farming tools are even more immediate threats. A report by the Government Accountability Office suggests that 100,000 child farmworkers are injured on the job every year and that children account for 20 percent of farming fatalities.

And yet, these abuses are, for the most part, legal under current U.S. law. The United States' Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) prohibits those under the age of 14 from working in most industries, restricts hours to no more than three on a school day until 16, and prohibits hazardous work until 18 for most industries. However, these regulations do not apply to agricultural labor because of outdated exemptions based upon an agrarian society largely left to the past. Today's farmworker children are largely migrant workers who deserve the same protection as other youth working in less dangerous occupations.

Visit In Our Own Backyard, the AFT's Web site on the hidden problem of child farmworkers in America, to learn more.

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Estimates by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity programs, based on figures gathered by the Department of Labor, suggest that there are approximately 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States. Many of these children start working as young as age 8, and 72-hour work weeks (more than 10 hours per day) are not uncommon.

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Child labour in tobacco is rampant and on the increase in poorer countries, a major Guardian investigation can reveal, despite claims by multibillion-dollar companies that they are tackling the issue.

Child labour in tobacco is rampant and on the increase in poorer countries, a major Guardian investigation can reveal, despite claims by multibillion-dollar companies that they are tackling the issue.

Evidence from three continents shows how children aged 14 and underare kept out of school and employed in hard and sometimes harmful physical labour to produce the tobacco leaf that fills cigarettes sold internationally, including in the UK, US and mainland Europe.

Families are trapped in generational poverty while salaries at the top of the industry run to millions of dollars a year. The companies say they monitor child labour and remove children from the fields to go to school, but experts have told the Guardian that the numbers are going up, not down, as tobacco growing increases in Africa and Asia.

Farming tobacco to produce the leaf that fills cigarettes can involve:

Gruelling physical labour using heavy hoes, and sharp tools, on rows of plants

Nicotine poisoning or green tobacco sickness through handling the leaves, causing nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness

Exposure to toxic pesticides and fertilisers, sometimes without proper protection

Exposure to the sun and high heat for long hours

For some workers and families, a lack of access to good sanitation or places to live and sleep away from the tobacco fields

Tobacco firms say they ban under 18s from hazardous work.

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The consequences for children are lifelong. "I wanted to be a nurse," said one 14-year-old girl in Malawi, who spends her days weeding under a hot sun with a heavy hoe.

Families see no option but to use their children in the fields as unpaid labour. Many are in debt to landowners and landlords and have to stay on from one season to the next, unable to break the cycle of deprivation.
Special report: the children working the tobacco fields - 'I wanted to be a nurse'
"No effective actions have been taken to reverse this scenario," said Vera Da Costa e Silva, head of the secretariat of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a key body tackling an industry that kills more than 7 million people a year. "What happens is that tobacco farming gives its profits to the industry but gives very low incomes to the tobacco growers themselves."

The tobacco firms say they are doing everything they can to end exploitative child labour.

But it is a scandal for which the multinational companies have a direct responsibility, she said. "There is a double burden - the burden of child labour itself and the burden of working on a deadly product that ultimately affects the children themselves."

Silva said about 1.3 million children a year were working in tobacco fields in 2011 and, according to the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO), the numbers are rising with a shift in tobacco growing from some of the better-off countries to some of the poorer. It declined between 2000 and 2013 in Turkey, Brazil and the United States, said the report to the organisation's governing body in February 2017, but increased in others, such as Argentina, India and Zimbabwe.

Given that child labour in agriculture occurs more often in low-income countries, the ILO report said, "this shift in production may have resulted in increased child labour and other decent work deficits in tobacco production. Although there are no estimates of the number of child labourers in tobacco globally, surveys indicate that in impoverished tobacco growing communities, child labour is rampant."

Tobacco: activist investors pressure £20bn companies over child labour

The Guardian's investigation found:

In Malawi: Children being taken out of school to weed the tobacco fields and harvest the leaves by parents who live in dire poverty. Some families in straw huts are paid nothing for 10 months until the tobacco crop is sold after the harvest. They live on a pail of maize a week provided by their landlords and must raise money to mill it by extra piecework in the fields, often also done by the children.

In Mexico: The Guardian saw children working in seven of 10 plantations visited in March in the Nayarit region, despite progress being made by industry and government to tackle the problem and keep children in school.

In Indonesia: The Guardian visited tobacco farming communities in Lombok and talked to child workers, including a 14-year-old who told of chest health problems her family linked to working in the fields.

The US Department of Labor lists 16 countries where children are suspected to work in tobacco. Human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch have documented child labor in the tobacco fields in Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Brazil and most recently Zimbabwe.

'I wish I could go to school': child labour in the tobacco fields of Malawi

Experts say the very low prices paid to farmers in countries like Malawi make child labour inevitable.

BAT and JTI tobacco firms say light work in the fields that does not affect health or education is acceptable for 13-15 year olds. Campaigners say they should not be anywhere near tobacco before they are 18.

The average income of a tenant farmer in Kasunga, one of the biggest tobacco-growing areas of Malawi, for 10 months of work was 223,710 kwacha (roughly $380 or £286 at current rates) according to a study in 2017 by the Centre for Social Concern, a Malawian NGO.

Q&A
Tobacco industry: in what countries is there evidence of child labor?

There is evidence of child labor in the tobacco industry at least 16 countries, according to the US labor department's bureau of international labor affairs (ILAB):

Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico

Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania

Middle East: Lebanon

Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Kyrgyz Republic

Additionally, human rights groups have identified child labor in Zimbabwe and the USA.

Around the world, there are estimates of 1.3 million children being involved in some form of tobacco industry labour. Last year, the UN's International Labour Organi​zation (ILO) said the numbers were rising with a shift in tobacco growing from some of the wealthier countries to some of the poorer. The figures declined between 2000 and 2013 in Turkey, Brazil and the United States, said the report to the organisation's governing body in February 2017, but they increased in others, such as Argentina, India and Zimbabwe.

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Each kilo of tobacco is estimated to provide enough for 1,200 cigarettes;tenant farmers in Kasungu last year earned 200 kawacha (30 cents or 23p) per kilo when the crop was sold.

Tenant farmers are at the bottom of the tobacco food chain. They agree to work for a year for a contract farmer who has land, which he may own or have leased. That farmer's contract is with one of the big leaf-buying companies - Alliance One, Universal (in Malawi known as Limbe Leaf) or Japan Tobacco International (JTI). The leaf-buying companies agree to purchase tobacco from their contract farmers and supply seed, fertiliser, pesticide and tools. The leaf buyers say they tell them not to employ children. Alliance One said the elimination of child labour is a "top priority"; Universal said it is committed to fighting child labour.

The leaf-buyers are fulfilling orders from cigarette manufacturers - British American Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco.

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A tobacco farm village and residents, Kasungu district, Malawi. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

The tobacco giants have their own corporate social responsibility schemes. They say they monitor child labour and build wells or schools. But Professor Marty Otañez, of the University of Colorado in Denver, an anthropologist who has studied tobacco farming in Malawi for many years, said the welfare projects were "pushing out goodwill on behalf of tobacco companies to address some of the problems but avoid the harder issues of leaf prices and living and earnings".

All of the four major companies say they are doing what they can. "BAT takes the issue of child labour extremely seriously and agrees that children must never be exploited, exposed to danger or denied an education," said a spokesperson. "We do not employ children in any of our operations worldwide and make it clear to all of our contracted farmers and suppliers that exploitative child labour will not be tolerated." Imperial Tobacco said: "Child labour is unacceptable and we make every effort to stop it happening in our supply chain."

PMI called child labour an unacceptable reality. "We are committed to eliminating child labor and other labor abuses wherever we source tobacco," said Miguel Coleta, the company's sustainability officer. "We have been working to tackle the root causes of child labor head-on and have achieved a global reduction of child labor incidents on contracted farms over time. We welcome continued systematic scrutiny of our efforts and recognize we cannot succeed alone. This requires serious and lasting efforts by all stakeholders, including government and civil society."

JTI also said child labour was endemic to agriculture but had been decreasing in areas where it directly contracted farmers. "The reality is that child labor stems from a combination of social, economic and regulatory causes. At JTI, we don't pretend to be able to solve the problem of child labor on our own, but we are doing our utmost to play our part in solving the problem, working with others," the company said.
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Child labour rampant in tobacco industry

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Child labour in tobacco is rampant and on the increase in poorer countries, a major Guardian investigation can reveal, despite claims by multibillion-dollar companies that they are tackling the issue. Child labour in tobacco is rampant and on the increase in poorer countries, a major Guardian investigation can reveal, despite claims by multibillion-dollar companies that they are tackling the issue.

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Bolivia's Child Labor: Exploitation or Tradition? | The New York Times

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ABCs of Child Labor...15 products touched by child labor and child slavery. How many do you use?

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Bolivia's Child Labor: Exploitation or Tradition? | The New York Times

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Fingers to the Bone: Child Farmworkers in the United States

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) child labor provisions are designed to protect minors by restricting the types of jobs and the number of hours they may work.

A minor is any person under the age of 18, except a person who has received a high school diploma or a passing score on the General Equivalency Degree (GED) examination.

Prohibited Jobs

The secretary of labor has determined that some jobs are out of bounds for teens below the age of 18. Generally, they may not work at hazardous jobs that include the following:

Driving a motor vehicle and being an outside helper on a motor vehicle

Excavation operations

Exposure to radioactive substances and to ionizing radiations

Manufacturing or storing explosives

Power-driven circular saws, band saws and guillotine shears

Power-driven hoisting equipment

Power-driven metal-forming, punching and shearing machines

Power-driven wood-working machines

Roofing operations

Wrecking, demolition and ship-breaking operations

Restrictions

General Restrictions - No employer shall be permitted to work a minor more than 40 hours in a week or more than eight hours in any 24-hour period.

Nighttime Restrictions - Except for babysitters, no minor under the age of 16 shall be permitted to work between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 5 a.m., unless the next day is not a school day. An exception to this rule is a minor employed as an actor, model or performer.

School Day Restrictions - On school days, during school hours, no minor under the age of 16 shall be permitted employment except as provided by a school release permit. After school hours no minor under the age of 16 shall be permitted to work in excess of six hours unless the next day is not a school day.

Youth Labor Laws

When both federal and state laws apply, the more stringent standard must be observed.

Safe Workplace Resources

Summer's Hot-Campaign to Beat the Heat: If not quickly addressed, heat exhaustion can become heat stroke, which killed more than 30 workers last year. OSHA has developed heat illness educational materials in English and Spanish, as well as a curriculum to be used for workplace training.

Youth @ Work: Teaching Youth About Safety In The Workplace Curriculum for Colorado: The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and the Young Worker Safety Resource Center at the University of California, Berkeley have state-specific youth safety curriculum which can be downloaded from their website.

OSHA 11 Curriculum: A 10-hour curriculum appropriate for young workers and includes an additional hour on child labor laws.

Engaging Employers in Protecting Young Workers: Tips and Best Practices from the Young Worker Safety Resource Center: This 24-page guide provides strategies that young worker safety advocates in state and local agencies and organizations can use to increase employers' knowledge and capacity to prevent workplace injuries among youth workers.

National Children's Center For Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety: This Center funded by NIOSH and the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau strives to enhance the health and safety of all children exposed to hazards associated with agricultural work and rural environments.
Farm Safety for Kids OSHA Information for Teen Workers CDC Young Worker Safety

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The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) child labor provisions are designed to protect minors by restricting the types of jobs and the number of hours they may work. A minor is any person under the age of 18, except a person who has received a high school diploma or a passing score on the General Equivalency Degree (GED) examination.

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That garden stone, handmade carpet or embroidered T-shirt you just bought was probably made by child labor.

Jyothi Ramulla Naga is 4 feet tall. From sunup to sundown she is hunched over in the fields of a cottonseed farm in southern India, earning 20 cents an hour. Farmers in the Uyyalawada region process high-tech cottonseeds genetically engineered to contain a natural pesticide, on behalf of U.S. agriculture giant Monsanto . To get the seeds to breed true the farmers have to cross-pollinate the plants, a laborious task that keeps a peak of a dozen workers busy for several months on just one acre. And to make a profit the farmers have to use cheap labor. That means using kids like Jyothi, who says she's 15 but looks no older than 12. (Monsanto points to papers indicating she is 15.) To harvest the bolls three months later, the farmers use cheap labor again, not the machinery that is used to pick cotton in the U.S.

At the edge of where Jyothi is working, a rusting sign proclaims, "Monsanto India Limited Child Labour Free Fields." Jyothi says she has been working in these fields for the past five years, since her father, a cotton farmer, committed suicide after incurring huge debts. On a recent December morning there were teens picking cotton in nearly all of a half-dozen Monsanto farms in Uyyalawada, 250 miles south of India's high-tech hub Hyderabad. Last year 420,000 laborers under the age of 18 were employed in cottonseed farms in four states across India, estimates Glocal Research, a consultancy in Hyderabad that monitors agricultural labor conditions. Of that total 54% were under the age of 14 and illegally employed.

The law prohibits children under 14 from working in factories, slaughterhouses or other dangerous locations. There are some exceptions for farmwork--if the hours are limited, the kids are in school and there are no machines to be operated. But children like Jyothi put in ten-hour days in the field and miss school. Teenagers 14 to 18 years old can work during the day in factories but no more than 36 hours a week. Employer penalties include fines and imprisonment. But enforcement of the law is lax.

Even as India gallops toward First World status--with its booming economy, roaring stock market and rapid progress in autos and steel--it is still a giant back-yard sweatshop to the world, staffed by underage boys and girls. The government itself, in its most recent account (from a 2001 census), estimates that 12.6 million children under the age of 14 are at work in India. NGOs that make a career of exposing excesses put the number much higher--50 million.

Child labor is as old as the earliest settlements in the Indus Valley thousands of years ago. It is, for that matter, not unknown in the U.S. As recently as 2001 Nebraska's legislature was debating whether to outlaw the use of 12- and 13-year-olds in seed corn fields, where youngsters of this age accounted for 25% or more of detasseling labor. (This job is like Jyothi's, except that in hybrid seed corn production the game is to prevent self-pollination.) The difference is that the teenagers in the Midwest get $7 an hour so they can spend it at the mall. Their Indian counterparts are getting 20 cents an hour to buy food.

Every time you buy an imported handmade carpet, an embroidered pair of jeans, a beaded purse, a decorated box or a soccer ball there's a good chance you're acquiring something fashioned by a child. Such goods are available in places like GapKids, Macy's , ABC Carpet & Home, Ikea, Lowe's and Home Depot . These retailers say they are aware of child-labor problems, have strict policies against selling products made by underage kids and abide by the laws of the countries from which they import. But there are many links in a supply chain, and even a well-intentioned importer can't police them all.

"There are many, many household items that are produced with forced labor and not just child labor," says Bama Athreya, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum in Washington, D.C. It's a fact of a global economy, and will continue to be, as long as Americans (and Europeans) demand cheap goods--and incomes in emerging economies remain low. If a child is enslaved, it's because his parents are desperately poor.

The UN International Labor Organization guesses that there are 218 million child laborers worldwide, 7 in 10 of them in agriculture, followed by service businesses (22%) and industry (9%). Asia-Pacific claims the greatest share of underage workers (122 million), then sub-Saharan Africa (49 million). Noteworthy offenders: Cambodia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Bolivia and Guatemala (see chart). A decade ago India ratified the UN convention on children's rights but refused to sign one key clause that set the standard for child labor--14 and under. "This already waters down their obligations under international law, which of course remains a voluntary matter," says Coen Kompier at the ILO's New Delhi bureau.

Cottonseed farmer Talari Babu is a slim, wiry man dressed, when a reporter visited him, in black for a Hindu fast. "Children have small fingers, and so they can remove the buds very quickly," he says, while insisting that he no longer employs the underage. "They worked fast, much faster than the adults, and put in longer hours and didn't demand long breaks. Plus, I could shout at them and beat or threaten them if need be to get more work out of them." He could also tempt them with candy and cookies and movies at night. Babu says that pressure from Monsanto and the MV Foundation, an NGO in Andhra Pradesh backed by the Dutch nonprofit Hivos, forced him to quit using child labor. But minutes after a visitor arrives at his field, he receives a call on his cell phone asking him if a raid was being carried out on his farm. In 2006, he says, Monsanto paid him a $360 bonus for not using child laborers. The bonus, though, doesn't make up for the higher wages that adults command. Says Babu: "Had I used children, I would've earned more."

Monsanto's competitors, the Swiss Syngenta and the German Bayer , also contract with farmers in India to produce seed. For all three the arrangement is like the one that governs chicken production in the U.S., with a giant corporation supplying inputs to a small farmer and then picking up the output at harvest time.

A typical Monsanto farmer owns only 1 to 4 acres of intensely cultivated cotton plants and keeps up to a dozen workers busy for the better part of a year tending to the plot. Often the farmer is from a higher caste (Brahmin), the laborers from a landless lower caste (Dalit). The pay, typically $38 to $76 a month, goes directly to the parents of the workers. Sometimes the farmer pays for the labor in advance, or offers a loan, charging the parents interest of 1.5% to 2% a month. There may be deductions from the pay envelope for food. Boarding for migrant laborers is usually free--often a spot on the farmer's veranda or in a shed with fertilizers or on a rooftop, next to the drying cotton.

The season starts with the sowing of seed, staggered over a three-month period that begins in April. Two months after a row is planted the bushes are in bloom and the real work begins. Pollen from male plants must be dusted by hand onto the flowers of female plants. The pollination work lasts for 70 to 100 days and is followed by cotton-picking staggered over several months. Children's hands are ideal for the delicate work with stamens and pistils. Their bodies are no better at withstanding the poisons. At least once a week, says Davuluri Venkateshwarlu, head of Glocal, farmers spray the fields with pesticides like Nuvacron, banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and endosulfan, methomyl and Metasystox, considered by the EPA to be highly toxic. Venkateshwarlu ticks off the effects of overexposure: diarrhea, nausea, difficulty in breathing, convulsions, headaches and depression.

The farmers buy the starter seed from Monsanto at a cost that comes to the equivalent of $30 an acre. That acre will produce something like 900 pounds of cottonseed, to be sold back to Monsanto at $3.80 a pound, or $3,400 an acre. The cotton fiber is sold separately by a middleman.
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In a magnanimous gesture that accomplished nothing, the Indian government cracked down on the seed companies by putting a ceiling on the cost of the starter seed (it used to be $64 an acre) but did nothing to change the price paid for the product seed, left to the seed companies. The product price has remained essentially flat in rupee terms over the past six years, despite 4.7% average annual inflation in India.

Farmers say their cost squeeze forces them to use child labor. "That allegation is not true," says Monsanto spokesperson Lee Quarles. "Indian cottonseed producers actually realize almost seven times the financial benefits growing cottonseed for local seed companies than if they were to sell that same yield at farm gate prices"--using their land, that is, primarily to produce cotton rather than seed.

In the neighboring states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, you find children producing genetically modified seeds for such vegetables as okra, tomatoes, chilies and eggplant, in the service of Syngenta, says Venkateshwarlu. The tomato and chili flowers are even smaller and more delicate than the cotton buds. The pesticides are more frequently applied, Venkateshwarlu says, and the pay is less, 5 to 10 cents an hour, even though the mandated minimum wage is 17 cents. Not so, Syngenta insists. "Our contracts require payment of minimum wage," says Anne Burt, a spokesperson, adding that Syngenta has a strict policy against child labor. The seeds are sold to U.S. farmers, the tomatoes and eggplant to U.S. consumers.

Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer, all working under the glare of labor monitors like Glocal, are grappling with ways to prevent the abuse of children. They have, in fact, a symbiotic relationship with these outside groups, sometimes paying them to keep watch over the fields or scold parents into sending their children to school. Monsanto says if it finds a farmer employing children, it cans him. But in interviews farmers say that happens only after a third offense. "The problem," says Mohammad Raheemuddin of the MV Foundation in Hyderabad, "is that too few people have been assigned to monitor a vast area."

"One reason [monitoring groups] are so important in India is because the government has been an utter failure in implementing the law," says Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy director at Human Rights Watch in New York City. "But in any situation where there's funding available there is room for corruption and abuse" (see box).

At the very least, the watchdogs have learned to exploit the media. Sometimes they tip off journalists before persuading the police to raid a sweatshop. In October 2007 the New Delhi group Global March Against Child Labor informed the Observer, the British daily, that 14 kids, some as young as 10, were spending 16 hours a day at a subcontractor embroidering blouses for GapKids. Gap, which has canned the subcontractor, placed its vendor on probation and cut its orders, recently met with suppliers to underscore its zero-tolerance policy and created a $200,000 grant to improve workshop conditions.

The labor organizations can't agree on how to ameliorate the situation. Some say that children of poor families have to work in order to make ends meet and that the government should offer them night classes to prepare them for better jobs. Others want to end child labor by finding jobs for parents, thereby eliminating the necessity for kids to work. "There is obviously a demand for labor," says labor economist Ashok Khandelwal, who works with unions. "But if a child is working that [usually] means the parents aren't."

Seven-year-old Santosh hadn't been in her new job a week yet in Dabbi, in the western desert state of Rajasthan, when a reporter visited. Chiseling quarry waste into blocks, she hurt her thumb and several fingers while figuring out how to hold a piece of sandstone in place with her foot in order to shape it to the desired size. India is the third-largest exporter of decorative stone--marble, granite, slate, sandstone--after Italy and China, with $1.2 billion in export revenue in fiscal 2006. Her work will likely end up in the garden and patio shops of American retail chains.

"We mandate an age of 16 or older," says Karen Cobb, speaking for Lowe's. "Our inspections cover quarries and have found that our vendors are in compliance with our standards."

Laborers get paid by the cobble--a penny for a piece of 8 square inches, 7 cents for one of 66 square inches. Children are ideal because of their flexible hands and gentle pressure on the chisel and the hammer, says Rana Sengupta with the Mine Labor Protection Campaign (Trust) in Rajasthan. Hammer bruises are as common as cuts from flying pieces of the stone or slices from the chisel. So, too, says Sengupta, is silicosis, tuberculosis and bronchitis from inhaling dust particles.

Leela, 10, has been at this work for two years now. In a nine-hour workday she can turn out 50 pieces and earn $1.26. She takes two days off a month. At another Rajasthan quarry, 15-year-old Raju has spent his adolescence among the piles of sandstone waste. He dropped out of school four years ago to make cobbles. He's become something of a veteran. "I used to get hit by these broken pieces in my shins all the time," Raju says. "But with practice I finally got it right." Occasionally a piece of the chisel breaks and flies off like shrapnel. Raju points to a worker who has such a wound, just under his ribs. "It doesn't hurt," he assures.

Further north, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, hand-knotted carpets are made and sent to showrooms in the U.S. You'll find such goods, says Washington D.C. NGO Rugmark, at Bloomingdale's, ABC Carpet & Home and Ikea. The chains insist they do not tolerate child labor. In Mirzapur most looms are inside people's homes or in communal sheds. Workers live and sleep in the same low-slung sheds, stepping down into 3-foot-deep trenches dug into the earthen floors to house the looms. Two or three people sit at a loom. The pits get damp, especially during the monsoons, and after the daylight fades, weavers must rely on a single naked lightbulb.

For the past year 14-year-old Rakil Momeen has been working at a loom in a shack in Mirzapur. A fourth-grade dropout, he left his parents in West Bengal and trekked halfway across the country. In his new life he works from 6 a.m. to 11p.m. and earns $25 a month. After every knot the threads must be cut precisely with a sharp, curved blade. Rakil complains, not about nicks in fingers, but about homesickness. His face lights up as he remembers his childhood in the Malda district. "I used to hang out with my friends and my parents all the time," he says. "I really miss that." A cricket fan, he keeps his worn-out cricket bat next to him at the loom; occasionally he gets to play a game on Sundays.

India is full of painful incongruities. In the capital, on Asaf Ali Road, just across from the Delhi Stock Exchange and behind a wall of tiny storefronts, is a maze of alleyways 2 feet wide, with exposed rooms on both sides. In some places rickety metal ladders go three floors high to the rooftop. Crammed into rooms no bigger than a king-size bed, six to eight young boys, some as young as 5 years old, are hard at work. They're decorating photo frames, diaries, shoe heels and such with sequins and pieces of glass. You can find similar items at stores like Pier 1 and Target , says Athreya of Labor Rights Forum. The companies insist that their vendors not employ underage children.

In one such room, where the only piece of furniture is a low workbench, 10-year-old Akbar sits on the floor and mixes two powders into a doughy adhesive, his fingers blackened by the chemicals. Another boy spreads a thin layer of the mixture on a photo frame and a third, seated on his haunches, starts pasting tiny pieces of mirrors and sequins along the border. He sways back and forth, a habit most kids have developed to keep the blood flowing through their limbs as they sit for several hours. Decorating one 5-by-5-inch frame consumes six child-hours. The boys, who all live in the room and cook their own food here, typically work from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. for $76 a month. Many have teeth stained from cigarettes they smoke and tobacco they chew to relieve the tedium.
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Sometime within the next few months Gap intends to convene a global forum to consider "industrywide solutions" to child labor. Good luck. Since October Gap has cut in half its orders from the contractor in New Delhi it claims had subcontracted embroidery work out to an unofficial vendor without the company's knowledge. But in the wake of the bust, middlemen have found new ways to duck responsibility by removing labels that identify the origin of apparel. Says Bhuwan Ribhu, whose organization, Bachpan Bacho Andolan, helped bust the contractor, "Now it's even harder to trace who the shipment is for and to hold the companies accountable."

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That garden stone, handmade carpet or embroidered T-shirt you just bought was probably made by child labor. Jyothi Ramulla Naga is 4 feet tall. From sunup to sundown she is hunched over in the fields of a cottonseed farm in southern India, earning 20 cents an hour.