Child Labor: Back to the 19th Century?

http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/21-21/5924-child-labor-back-to-the-19th-century

Even the most casual students of American labor history undoubtedly have come across the appalling accounts of child labor, accompanied by photos of exhausted, grime-covered teen and pre-teen children staring sad-eyed into the camera.

The children stand outside the mines, mills, farms and other often highly dangerous places where they worked 10, 12, 15 hours a day, sometimes even more. They worked at home as well, in their impoverished families' dilapidated tenement flats, rolling cigars, stitching garments and doing other work for long, miserably paid hours.

It began with the New England colonists, who brought the practice of child labor with them from England. Use of child labor regardless of the age or frailty of the child was common throughout the colonies, and remained common after independence – including in the southern U.S., where the black slaves' children were ordered to work along with their captive parents.

:snip:

In Maine, which was among the first states to enact child labor laws, they've been pushing a bill that would allow employers to pay anyone under 20 a six-month "training wage" that would be more than $2 an hour below the minimum wage. They'd also eliminate rules setting a maximum number of hours kids 16 and older can work during school days and allow those under 16 to work up to four hours on school days and up to 11 p.m.

Much more at the link --

now with such an excess of labor available. wtf.

That 6 months training period covers the entire summer nicely - so they don't have to pay minimum wages for their teen nannies and household help. The Bushes are just one of those families -- pick any old money name and odds are great that they own summer homes in the state.

To use an overdone saying -- Mission Accomplished. LePage is sucking up to the wealthy half-year elites.

Regardless of whether or not one thinks that child labor laws are too restrictive, there are fewer jobs than adults that want and need to work. It will be a sad day when a parent is unemployed and the middle schooler is working for $2 under minimum wage to support the family.

"A Complete and Careful Presentation of the Anxious Problem of Child Labor
-its Causes,its Crimes,and its Cure"

1914

the book that helped change child labor laws in this county...