Child Labor: Labor Can Strengthen Its Efforts to Protect Children Who Work

摘要

The public wants to ensure that the work experiences of young people enhance, rather than harm, their future opportunities. Over 200,000 children are injured on the job each year and about 70 die as a result of their injuries, according to a recent report by the Department of Labor. In addition, while work can have a positive effect on academic achievement, working too many hours may adversely affect children's educational attainment. To protect children from such harmful effects, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), with provisions on child labor, was enacted in 1938. These provisions established the minimum age at which children can work, limited the number of hours and times of day they can work, and prohibited them from performing work defined as hazardous. It also made the Secretary of Labor responsible for defining work that is too hazardous for children and for enforcing the provisions of the law. You asked us to update information from our 1991 reports on child labor by providing information on (1) how the number and characteristics of working children in the United States have changed over the past decade, (2) whether the number and characteristics of work-related injuries to children have changed over this same time period, and (3) how well Labor enforces the child labor provisions of FLSA.