The first child labor law in 1836 required factory-working Massachusetts children under 15 to attend school for at least three months of the year. It wasn’t until 1939, with the Fair Labor Standards Act, that federal regulations were put in place to limit the age and hours of child employment.
Today, there still isn’t perfect compliance with labor laws. In November 2022, the Department of Labor sued Packer Sanitation Services, accusing them of employing dozens of minors on overnight shifts in hazardous conditions. A Pennsylvania McDonald's was also accused of child labor violations involving 101 teens, in December.
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According to the Department of Labor, the minimum age for employment in the United States is 14 for non-agricultural jobs. Employed minors have restrictions on the types of jobs they can work and the number of hours permitted.
When it comes to jobs in the agriculture sector the minimum age is much lower. The federal guidelines are 16 for work during school hours, 14 for outside school hours and age 12 with written parental consent or on a farm where a parent is employed. According to the DOL, children under 12 with written parental consent are exempt from federal minimum wage provisions.
At the state level, some minimum age requirements are lower for specific jobs. In Hawaii, 10-year-olds and...
The SP chief also dismissed the govt’s claims of mobile phone manufacturing in the state, saying only the assembly of devices was taking place with components imported from China, Taiwan and Korea ...