What Are Child Labor Laws?
In the United States, the laws relating to employment and labor relations are very clear when it comes to child labor. There are numerous child labor laws that regulate the employment of minors. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, when dealing with non-agricultural jobs, no child under the age of fourteen should be employed. For those children aged between fourteen and sixteen years, they may only be engaged in some occupation during limited hours. For children aged between sixteen and eighteen hours, these children under the child labor laws can be employed in non-hazardous occupation for unlimited hours.
The child labor laws allow some exceptions to existing in these rules like employment by parents, child actors, and newspaper delivery. Under these laws, with agricultural employment a child is permitted to work for unlimited hours on a farm and also go to school where the parent works in the same firm.
Under the child labor laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted to ensure that when minors work, they do the job that is safe. The act also aims to ensure that the work won’t jeopardize their health, education and also their well-being. There are hours that youth under sixteen years can labor and those jobs that are too dangerous for young people to undertake.
The main reason for having the child labor laws is aimed to make provisions that are intended to protect the educational opportunities of any minors. The laws prohibit child employment in certain jobs and working in conditions that are detrimental to the minors’ health and well-being.
For a minor aged less than sixteen years, he may not work for more than forty hours in a week, except in an agriculture job. He also can’t work on school days and during school hours unless he or she has an employment certificate from the school district superintendent. Even then, the child still can’t work before seven in the morning and after nine at night. For minors who are eighteen years and above, there are no restrictions on the jobs they can perform as well as the hours they can work.
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