Contemporary

Child Labor in the

United States

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Labor Exploitation vs. Trafficking

Labor trafficking:
The recruitment, harboring, transportation,
provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or
services through the use of force, fraud, or
coercion, for the purposes of subjection to
involuntary servitude,

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Overview

- History
- Demographics today
- Which industries?
- Current legislation
- Future Prevention

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1 History
Child Labor in the United States

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 Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution

◉ Child labor peaked during Industrial

Revolution
◉ Children were less likely to unionize or
strike, could be paid less, and were
useful for completing tasks that
required smaller bodies
◉ Children did not go to school,
resulting in a cycle of poverty

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 Case Study: Marie Moentmann

◉ Lost both hands in a 1915 factory

accident in St. Louis when she was 15
◉ Outside of the legal settlement, E.W.
Hummert, the factory superintendent,
was fined $25 per charge

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 Past Child Labor Legislation

◉ Keating Owen Act (1916)

◉ Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
◉ Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (1923)
◉ Congressional Amendment that failed
ratification
◉ Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)

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 Child Labor Today

◉ Crop Harvesting in the Agricultural

Sector
◉ 500,000 children as young as 6
◉ Underpaid, in dangerous situations, no
access to education
◉ Both a labor and poverty issue

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 Child Trafficking Today

◉ Internet & social media

◉ Street prostitution, night clubs,
brothels, etc...
◉ Runaways & low income youth

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2 Who
Youth at risk

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 Demographics Today

◉ Estimated 154,000 children work in violation of

labor laws in the US today
○ Combination foreign and domestic-born youth
◉ Lack of enforcement
◉ Violations hard to identify
◉ States have rolled back legisation with intent to
increase child labor

https://onlabor.org/the-state-of-modern-child-labor/ 11
 Labor vs Sex Trafficking: Who?

◉ Younger (2x younger than 15)

◉ 9x male
◉ 2x co-occuring neglect
◉ More likely to be BIPOC
◉ 28-42% of homeless and runaway youth

Gibbs, Aboul-Hosn & Kluckman, 2019 12

Underlying Causes

● Poverty
● Unstable Living Environments
● Adverse Childhood Experiences
○ 94% of trafficked youth had 6+ ACE’s, versus 43% of
youth who were not trafficked

Intersectionality in Homeless and Runaway Youth

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LGBTQ Youth

● 3-5% of the population

● 40% of homeless and runaway
youth
● 26% will be rejected by their
families and put out of their
homes
● 1 in 3 children approached by a
trafficker within 48h
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 Foster Care and Homeless
Youth

◉ Florida study says up to 19% of children in the

foster care system will attempt to run away
○ Self reported data says 50%
○ 1% of minors have run away for long periods of time
◉ Often escaping highly restrictive placements
◉ Most runaway at 14-16 years old, which makes
them prime targets for traffickers

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/foster_care_runaway_human_trafficking_october_2020_508.pdf
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Foster Care and Homeless
Youth

◉ 44% of female runaways have been victimized

by sex trafficking
◉ 6-8% of runaways will experience labor
trafficking
○ For 81% trafficking will include selling drugs
◉ Lack of shelter, food, and personal connections
creates desperate conditions for children that
traffickers can detect
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Foster Homes: Peddling Case Study

◉ 2015 National Network for Youth study

◉ Door-to-door trafficking sales ring
◉ Youth were lured with promise of housing,
food, and steady income
◉ Overcrowded motels, impossible sales quotas,
and little to no pay, rationed food and water
◉ Forced to beg in front of gas stations and
buildings
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 Where are the Supervisors?

◉ National cutbacks to foster care funding leads

to less supervision and delayed reporting of
runaways
◉ Difficulties tracking down runaways who may
be vulnerable to trafficking and labor
exploitation

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International Children

● Debt bondage
○ Smuggling fees
● More likely criminal labor acts: selling drugs,
gangs
● 66% of children who qualified for human
trafficking visas were labor trafficked
● Many came to the US under illegal false
pretenses, like education or earning money for
their family
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3 Where
Industries with high prevalence of child
labor in the U.S.
Domestic Work Agriculture

Beauty Salons Restaurants

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Industry: Domestic Work

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 United States v Udeozor (2008)

- 14 year old Nigerian girl was smuggled to US in

1993 on fake passport to work as housemaid
- Agreed to by father because family was promised
her wages and that she would be educated in the
US
- Worked 6am- late at night, responsible for
cooking, cleaning, and caring for Udeozor six
children
- Worked in Udeozors office as a receptionist 3-5
days a week
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United States v Udeozor
- Secretly taught herself how to use computers
and reach out for help after 5 years
- Court documents revealed
- Physical, Verbal, and Sexual Abuse
- Wages had never been sent to her family
- She had been denied an education
- Threat of deportation if she was to ask for help
- Threats of labeling her as a prostitute if she was to
return to Nigera, due to sexual abuse
- In 2008, traffickers were charged with
involuntary servitude of a minor 23
 United States vs Udeozor

- Trafficking victim was threatened by

legal action and social stigma to
prevent her for leaving traffickers
- US government works against child
labor vicitims with threats of
deportation in both legal and illegal
entery
- Traffickers taking advantage of
children's physical labor and situations
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Industry: Agriculture

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 Child Labor: Agriculture

◉ 500,000 migrant workers under 18¹

◉ Suffer 5x fatalities compared to kids
working in other industries (like fast
food, etc.)²
○ Work with harmful pesticides or
hazardous conditions
◉ Only 55% child farmworkers finish
high school²
1. https://stopchildlabor.org/
2. http://ourownbackyard.org/pdfs/Part%201C-Frequently%20Asked%20Questions.pdf 26
 Case Study: Tobacco Farms

◉ N. Carolina
◉ Working long hours in extreme
heat with no safety training
◉ Child workers describe
symptoms consistent with
nicotine poisoning
○ Absorb nicotine through skin
○ Headache/dizziness, nausea

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/13/children-working-terrifying-conditions-us-agriculture# 27
 Case Study: Trillium Egg Farm

◉ Kids from Guatemala smuggled into

U.S.
◉ Indebted
◉ Dept. of Health & Human Services
allowed kids to be taken to Ohio
under guise of sponsorship
◉ Third-party contractors hired by
Trillium Farms
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/inside-the-hidden-reality-of-labor-trafficking-in-america/ 28
 Loopholes In Agriculture Labor Laws

◉ Law: No kids handling pesticides that cause acute effects

(blurred vision, irregular heartbeat, paralysis)
○ Excludes chronic effects (sterility, blood disorders, kidney/liver function)
◉ Law: No kids under 16 can work on ladders over 20ft.
○ Excludes working on tall silos, grain bins, windmills, climbing trees to
pick fruit, etc.
◉ Law: cannot work during school hours
○ No restrictions on # hours, can work early/late in day
○ Age-dependent

http://ourownbackyard.org/pdfs/Part%201B-What%20is%20Child%20Labor.pdf 29
 Loopholes In Agriculture Labor Laws
◉ Younger than 12 → can work in ◉ 12 or 13 years of age → can
agriculture on a farm only if work in agriculture on a farm
the farm is not required to pay only if a parent has given
the Federal minimum wage written permission or is
working on the same farm
○ only during hours when school
is not in session and in
non-hazardous jobs

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/youth/agriculture/other.html 30
 Loopholes In Agriculture Labor Laws

◉ 14 or 15 years of age → can

work in agriculture, on any
farm
○ only during hours when school
is not in session and in
non-hazardous jobs

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/youth/agriculture/other.html 31
 Loopholes In Agriculture Labor Laws
◉ 16 years old or older → can
work on any farm
○ including during hours when
school is in session, on any day,
for any number of hours, and in
any job
◉ All ages → may work at any
time in any job on a farm
owned or operated by their
parents
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/youth/agriculture/other.html 32
Industry: Beauty Salons

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 Beauty Salons = United States v Afolabi (2009)

● In 2007, smuggled 20 girls age

10-19 from Togo to work in hair
braiding/nail salons in NJ
● Threatened deportation, voodoo
curses, forced to have sex with
male trafficker
● Sentence 2-24 years, $4 million
restitution
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Industry: Restaurants
Labor Exploitation vs. Trafficking

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Case Study: Chipotle

● 2020, Chipotle fined $1.4 million

● Estimated 13,000 instances of child labor law
violations
● Massachusetts investigation
○ 6 locations
○ >9 hours/day
○ >48 hours/week
○ Past midnight

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Sex and Labor Trafficking: US v Mondragon (2008)

● Smuggled Central American girls to the US

● Forced to work and provide CSA’s to male
patrons at a bar near Houston, TX
● Threatened deportation, harm families
● 9 years in prison, $1.7 million

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6 Current Legislation

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Trafficking Victims
Protection Act (2000)

● Reauthorized in 2017
● 3 P’s approach
○ Prevention
○ Protection
○ Prosecution
● Protection lacking: ORR office “serious
deficiencies”

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Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

● Governs minimum wage, overtime, child labor

(>14 yo or younger if ariculture)
● Lists industries too dangerous for youth
● Limit # hours, overtime pay (except in
agriculture)
● Violations = fines

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Occupational Safety and
Health Act (OSHA)

Establish and
enforce standards
for work
environments and
workplace safety

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7 Prevention
What we can do to help

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 OSHA Cutbacks

- Vast OSHA budget cuts

- Less oversight, more child labor infractions
- Agricultural hotspots have less OSHA supervisors
since the 1980’s
- Nationwide relaxation on child labor laws
- Can’t rely on neoliberal principles that employers
will regulate themselves
- Unionized whistleblowers
- Vote for OSHA

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/how-common-is-chid-labor-in-the-us/383687/
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 Instructor Education

- Many victims are still enrolled in public school or attend

public assistance programs
- What are the signs and who is affected?
- Local and overarching curriculums
- Education may change based on where victims would be
- Current, informal education isn’t enough
- Encourage school districts and statewide boards to
include mandatory trafficking education
https://oese.ed.gov/human-trafficking-of-children-in-the-united-states-a-fact-sheet-for-schools/
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Example: Virginia Prince Williams County

● Since 2013: 90-min lesson for middle and high

school students
● Invited to privately identify themselves and talk
to a social worker
● 939 students have come forward, 253
confirmed trafficking victims (49,000 students)

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Discussion Questions

◉ How can we address the root causes of poverty

and lack of home support?
◉ Where is the balance between protecting children
vs. allowing them to help their families by working
(especially in agriculture)?
◉ What are some actions that should be included in
school district protocols for child labor trafficking?

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 New Legislation-
https://act.polarisproject.org/page/56504/action/1?ea.tracking.id=action

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