Child Labor: The Situation Child Labor in the U.S. Early 1600s to mid- 1700s Children are often sent away from home and "apprenticed out" to other families to learn a trade. Farm, marketplace, and house chores are expected of Colonial American children as young as With the development of factories, the cotton mill, and steam power, as well as urbanization, the Industrial Revolution brings economic prosperity to some, often at the expense of children used as cheap labor. Slavery, now entrenched in America, shatters families and forces adults and children to work in harsh conditions for no pay Children in New Jersey silk mills go on strike for an 11-hour day, 6-day week The Emancipation Proclamation leaves many slave children, already torn from their parents, completely abandoned and subject to abuse. 1850s to early 1900s Children, especially immigrant and orphaned children, work in sweatshops up to 16 hours a day for only a few pennies an hour. Conditions are hazardous and often disease-ridden. Employers prefer child laborers because they can be paid less than adults.

1908 Social activist Lewis W. Hine begins his four-year project documenting child labor in America. His photographs of young workers in cotton mills, selling newspapers after midnight, in mines, and picking fruit result in the 1916 Keating-Owen Act restricting employment of children under 14 and barring interstate shipping of products made by child labor. Two years later, the Supreme Court finds the law unconstitutional Some 147 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, mostly young girls, die in a famous New York fire. The company's owners had blocked stairway exits to prevent "interruption of work." 1914 In Ludlow, Massachusetts, guards commissioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. machinegun union tents during strike. Twelve children are killed in the "Ludlow Massacre." 1924 A constitutional amendment on child labor is proposed; only 28 of the necessary 36 states ratify it President Roosevelt signs the Fair Labor Standards Act, limiting conditions under which children may work and ensuring that work does not interfere with their education. He also approves the 40-hour workweek. 1940s to 1960s After WWII, sweatshops (defined by the Department of Labor as violating at least two labor laws, including child labor laws) greatly diminish due to increased government regulation of monopolies and the rise of trade unions.

1960s With increased immigration, globalization, and retail-industry changes, sweatshops begin to reappear. 1970s Researchers report thousands of underage migrant farm workers, some as young as 4 or 5, employed in the fields during schools hours. 1980s The United Farm Workers union estimates 800,000 underage children work harvesting crops More than 250,00 children, most younger than 15, work illegally, according to an Associated Press series A study by the U.S. General Accounting Office shows a 250% increase in child-labor violations between 1983 and Congress lifts restrictions on occupational driving for minors after lobbying by national car dealers' organizations. A Rutgers University study finds there are 148,000 illegally employed minors in an average week.