There was a time when children were significant financial assets to their families. In agrarian settings, children as young as five had ‘chores.’ Girls helped around the house and boys worked the family farm. Later, many a parent would rent a child to a neighbor for manual labor. Lincoln’s father rented young Abe out for twenty-five cents a day, paid to the father, not Abe.

Industrial Revolution

In the late 1800s, the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain. It would spread worldwide and bring benefits to millions. But early on, it had an ugly component: Child Labor. Many children worked under gruesome conditions in mills, mines and factories. They were malleable, paid a lot less than grownups, easily intimidated and their families needed the pennies they earned.

These abused, underpaid, and exploited children appear in many Charles Dickens stories. They were assigned jobs where nimble, small hands and bodies were an asset. The looms and many other machines they operated frequently led to life-changing industrial accidents. The contagion and abuses spread to a developing America.

The 1870 United States census reported that 1 out of every 8 children was employed. This rate increased to more than 1 in 5 children by 1900. Between 1890 and 1910, no less than 18 percent of all children ages 10‒15 worked, many under deplorable conditions. Most scholars believe these numbers are grossly inaccurate - far more children, mostly boys, worked. We have all seen photographs of children with coal dust smudged faces. They entered the bowels of the earth before sunrise and did not emerge until after sunset – six days a week. Their small bodies were dispatched to dig in crawl spaces too narrow for adult men. Most were doomed to develop black lung disease and die a painful death.

Progress

Finally, under President Franklin Roosevelt, Child Labor laws were enacted in 1938. That legislation is still in force. It “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.” So, child exploitation is all behind us. Right?

No, it isn’t! Recently, economic desperation led tens of thousands of Hispanic children to cross the border without their parents. The number of unaccompanied minors jumped to 130,000 in 2022 - three times what it was five years ago! These children are now spread all over the country, often working in dangerous jobs.

New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Hannah Dreier published an expose on February 26, based on court records as well as hundreds of interviews with lawyers, social workers, educators and law enforcement officials. The findings are sordid.

The findings? Thousands of Hispanic youngsters work in clear violation of existing laws. To wit: “In town after town, children scrub dishes late at night. They run milking machines in Vermont and deliver meals in New York City. They harvest coffee and build lava rock walls around vacation homes in Hawaii. Girls as young as 13 wash hotel sheets in Virginia.”

School Realities

Most of these Hispanic children are struggling to learn English and adjust to a new culture. Middle and high school English-language teachers report it is “now common” for their students to rush off to work long shifts after class.

“They should not be working 12-hour days, but it’s happening here,” said Valeria Lindsay, a teacher at Homestead Middle School near Miami. She said that almost every eighth grader in her English learner program of about 100 students has also been carrying an adult workload.

Reaction

The New York Times article appeared on Sunday. Come Monday, Washington announced “measures to crack down on child labor.”

When pressed, a Labor Department official agreed there has been a nearly 70 percent increase in child labor violations since 2018, many in hazardous occupations. In the last fiscal year, 835 companies were found violating child labor laws by employing more than 3,800 children. That represents but a minuscule percentage of exploited children.

“This isn't a 19th century problem, this isn't a 20th century problem, this is happening today,” said an official. “We are seeing children across the country working in conditions that they should never, ever be employed in the first place.”

Recently, a major food safety sanitation company paid $1.5 million in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers in dangerous jobs at meatpacking plants in eight states.

Other Voices

Mother Jones, a crusading newspaper, is named in memory of Mary G. Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards. She was an Irish-born American labor organizer and former schoolteacher who became a prominent union and community organizer.

In 1903, to attract attention to her cause of abolishing child labor, she led a Children's March of 100 children from the textile mills of Philadelphia to New York City “to show the New York millionaires our grievances.” 

The crusading newspaper recently asked: “Cheerios. Fruit of the Loom. Cheetos. What do all these brands have in common?” The response? They all exploit migrant children, who are forced to work some of the country’s most grueling jobs. 

Reuters reported that a record number of unaccompanied migrant minors, housed in federal shelters and then released to sponsors, usually relatives, have been targeted.

Minors are being exploited by a vast network of enablers, including labor contractors, who recruit workers for big plants and other employers. They steer youngsters into jobs that are illegal, grueling, and meant for adults. The majority, Reuters found, were from Central America.

Bottom Line

Where do we go from here? It is unconscionable that a full 120 years after Mother Jones, this nation still has a child labor exploitation problem.

Do we need another Children’s March?

Observers note we don’t need new laws; we simply have to enforce the ones on the books. Obviously, it’s a low priority among officials and, yes, among the rest of us.