Child labor

Child Labor

  • Period: to

    child labor was a major problem in factories

  • The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen officially condemns child labor

  • Massachusetts creates the first state child labor law requiring factory children under 15 to go to school a minimum of 3 months per year.

  • The Working Men’s Party proposes prohibiting the employment of children younger than 14.

  • Florence Kelley publishes “Our Toiling Children,” which outlines the state of child labor and urges consumers to use their influence to improve working conditions

  • The National Child Labor Committee is formed with the goal of abolishing all child labor.

  • Congress passes the Keating-Owen Act, which bans the interstate sale of any article produced with child labor (factory, cannery, and mine) and regulates the number of hours a child could work. The Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court tw

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Fair Labor Standards Act, which includes putting limits on many forms of child labor.

  • An amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act directly prohibits child labor for the first time.

  • Kailash Satyarthi founds Rugmark, an organization seeking to stop the exploitation of children in the carpet industry by building up the supply and demand for child labor free products. A year later the first child-labor-free certified carpets are exporte

  • Iqbal Masih, a former child slave in the carpet industry in Pakistan, is murdered for his international advocacy of child rights at the age of 13. His courage and determination continues to inspire children, activists, and officials.

  • The International Labour Organization’s Convention 182 becomes international law. This convention defines and condemns the worst forms of child labor, which include slavery, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, trafficking, and any other “

  • The International Labour Organization releases quadrennial estimates that reveals a drop of 47 million child laborers over the last four years internationally, leaving 168 million youth still in child labor and 85 million trapped in hazardous work.