Employment Law

Employee Safety, Health and Welfare Law Paper Child Labor The role that children play in today's economy is nothing compared to what it was in the age of early America. Childhood is revered in today's society. However, a little more than two centuries ago, it was not so. The role that children played in the labor force was quite different then. It was customary to have children work, either on the family farm and quite …

…down jobs that adults needed. The need for employees with some type of education and the use of advanced machinery were other factors that contributed to the decline of child labor. This spurred Congress to amend the child labor laws to lengthen the school year, enforce truancy and increase the minimum years a child attended school. Congress also included agriculture, transportation, communications and public utilities that were previously not covered in the Child Labor law.