The coalition works to strengthen child labor laws in the United States and to end child labor exploitation at home and abroad. Before delving into how child labor laws would be affected by U.S. ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we first need to describe child labor in the United States and the laws which have been enacted to control child labor. Child Labor in the United States Child labor laws evolved out of the belief that children should be in school instead of in factories or mines. And, things improved as a result of compulsory education laws and restrictive child labor laws. But child labor or child employment or whatever you wish to call it was not totally stamped out with the legislation of the 1930s.
Child labor continues to exist in the United States.
We've replaced children working in mines and factories with adolescents working in eating establishments and retail stores. Employment among minors is booming in the United States. Five and one half million youth between the ages of twelve and seventeen are working. Some of it is illegal work, like working under age, for excessive hours, or in prohibited occupations and industries. Some of the work is hazardous and there is data on occupational injuries among minors to prove the point.