Child advocates
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Grace Abbott:
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- After being an activist for immigrants, Abbott took on the task of fighting for children's rights.
- Started the Child Labor Division by the Children's Bureau.
- Helped to enforce a law in 1916 that prohibited interstate commerce of goods created by child labor.
- Congress declined this law which made Abbott push to ban child labor in general.
- Became the head of the Children's Bureau in 1921.
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Lewis Hine:
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- Started career by photographing Ellis Island Immigrants in 1905.
- In 1908, he was hired by the National Child Labor Committee, first part time then permanently.
- In 1909, Hines published two of his famous works- Child Labor in the Carolinas and Day Laborers Before Their Time.
- Recorded appalling working conditions of the children.
- Helped to achieve social reform.
- Changed the perspective on how children were being treated
- (Some of Hines's work pictured/explained below)
Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Lewis_Hine_selfportrait.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukImvupISHE
Debra Satz, wrote in the article, Child Labor: A Normative Perspective, "Some work, especially work that does not interfere with or undermine their health or education, may allow children to develop skills that they need to become well-functioning adults and broaden their future opportunities." However, she continues to acknowledge that, "Other work, including child prostitution and bonded labor, is unambiguously detrimental to children...Moreover, child labor is often a symptom of other problems-poverty, inadequate education systems, discrimination within families, ethnic conflicts, inadequately protected human rights, weak democratic institutions that will not be eliminated by banning child labor." She believes, as many others do at the time, that depending on the situation, child labor can be viewed as a good thing.
Acts and laws
The US Congress worked hard to enforce laws ending child labor. In 1918 and 1922, Congress passed two laws, however the US Supreme Court declared them as unconstitutional. According to Scholastic.com, "In 1924, Congress proposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor, but the states did not ratify it. Then, in 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. It fixed minimum ages of 16 for work during school hours, 14 for certain jobs after school, and 18 for dangerous work."
Today, there are a number of laws passed to protect American children from going back to the unruly times.
The website, www.webs.bcp.org, lists the laws for child labor as of today.
During School:
Not During School:
Work Hours:
People under sixteen years of age-
How do these laws compare to the situations children faced daily, during times of cruel and unfair child labor?
A child with a factory job worked 12-18 hours a day, six days a week, in order to earn one dollar. Today, minimum wage per hour in Colorado is $7.78. When a new decade rolled around, in 1810, over 2,000,000 school-aged children were working 50-70 hours a week. Today, for an adult, a full-time job is considered to be 40 hours a week. Clearly, these conditions were brutal and it was necessary to pass a law regarding child labor. In 1833, a law was passed stating that children under 9 years of age were not allowed to work in factories or mills, and that all children 13 and under working in textile factories and mills were to attend school for a minimum of two hours a day. The Poor Law Amendment Act was also passed in 1834 stating that there should be teachers for children who lived in Workhouses. In 1938, President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, setting federal standards regarding child labor. It states that there is a maximum of 44 hour work week, a national minimum wage, and prohibited most "oppressive child labor."
Today, there are a number of laws passed to protect American children from going back to the unruly times.
The website, www.webs.bcp.org, lists the laws for child labor as of today.
During School:
- Cannot work more than six hours on a school day.
- Cannot work more than ten hours on a holiday, vacation, or workshop day.
- On Fridays (end of school week) they can work up to eight hours.
- Cannot work more than twenty-four hours per week (this can go up to 50 hours per week if there is less than a three day school week or during the first or last week of school).
- Not allowed to work after 10:15 p.m. on a school night (applies to sixteen - seventeen year olds).
- Is allowed to work after midnight if school is not the following day (applies to sixteen - seventeen year olds).
- Cannot work more than three hours on a school day even on Friday (applies to fourteen - fifteen year olds).
Not During School:
- Cannot work more than eight hours per day.
- Cannot work more than forty hours per week (where there is no school that week).
- Cannot work before 5:00 a.m. (applies to sixteen - seventeen year olds)
Work Hours:
People under sixteen years of age-
- Cannot work more than six days in a row.
- Not allowed to work before 7:00 a.m.
How do these laws compare to the situations children faced daily, during times of cruel and unfair child labor?
A child with a factory job worked 12-18 hours a day, six days a week, in order to earn one dollar. Today, minimum wage per hour in Colorado is $7.78. When a new decade rolled around, in 1810, over 2,000,000 school-aged children were working 50-70 hours a week. Today, for an adult, a full-time job is considered to be 40 hours a week. Clearly, these conditions were brutal and it was necessary to pass a law regarding child labor. In 1833, a law was passed stating that children under 9 years of age were not allowed to work in factories or mills, and that all children 13 and under working in textile factories and mills were to attend school for a minimum of two hours a day. The Poor Law Amendment Act was also passed in 1834 stating that there should be teachers for children who lived in Workhouses. In 1938, President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, setting federal standards regarding child labor. It states that there is a maximum of 44 hour work week, a national minimum wage, and prohibited most "oppressive child labor."