Child Labor Laws

Throughout history, the flaws in our legislation on child labor laws are usually evaluated by whether or not we create legislation that changes the way that certain flaw is handled in the future. Hundreds of years ago, daily child labor was part of culture, and children working fourteen hours a day and seven days a week was not an uncommon practice. Many different issues of child labor including the length of time the children worked, the children's age, and the types of jobs they were assigned have all been taken into account by the legislation on Child Labor currently in effect in New York State. Many children need special working papers, need to be above the age of 16, and need written permission from a parent to be able to work legally. The types of laws that protect children today from rash child labor conditions are still changing frequently in support for a much safer workplace and a decrease in shift times.

For children in New York State that are attending school, to work, employers and children must follow a strict procedure to promise the safety and protection for both the child and the employer. Depending on the job and the age, children can work certain hours set as a maximum per day. Children are allowed to work at various different types of jobs including newspaper carriers, different street trades including shoe shining, farm work and many more. There are strict laws for those children, who work in factories relating to whether they attend school, their age, and the set hours they are allowed to work per week.

Many of these laws are direct provisions made as we determine which aspects of history, our culture allowed in child labor. In the eighteenth century, many children worked long, miserable and unsociable hours each day. This clearly had a major impact on their development and dramatically decreased their education due to their usual schooling of only one-day per week. As time progressed maximum hour laws and the treatment of children at the workplace were heavily evaluated. Each industry would be inspected to make sure each met certain criteria and that children only worked at certain hours. Many journalists and muckrakers exposed the problems of child labor to society, which had an extreme effect. As our culture became more aware of the problems of child labor, national attention forced various pieces of legislation through congress including the Keating-Owen Act. This act, "barred from interstate commerce articles produced by child labor." This act had immense effects because all trade between states was regulated to make sure children did not take part in these factories. As time progressed, governments around the world became even stricter with child labor laws. In 1938 during the New Deal the Fair Labor Standards act was introduced which again decreased the amount of hours that children were allowed to work per day and set minimum wages for them at their vocations.

Clearly as time progressed, the rash child labor treatment of the past has been taken into account by the New York State government. Currently there is a minimum wage based off the once cheap labor that children took part in, there are age requirements to restrict the once seven and eight year old workers in the factories and there are strict inspections to make sure all child labor laws are followed. The flaws and concerns our past has endured has clearly been taken into account and set provisions for the current New York State child labor laws which have allowed children to gain the experience of work while also enjoying a rich social life and a fine education in public schools.