Child labor in the US
*Trabalho infantil nos EUA
1 Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts, Lowell. One University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854 USA. [email protected] * Reprinted with permission from (Protecting Youth at Work) © 1998
by the National Academy of Sciences, courtesy of the National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. David Wegmann 1
Abstract This paper presents a report on child labor in the U.S. that reviewed the positive and negative aspects of work for youth. W orking was found to provide young people with valuable lessons about responsibility, punctuality, in-teracting with people and learning about mon-ey m anagem ent, increasing self-esteem and helping them becom e independent and skilled. Research findings suggested that working dur-ing high school m ay contribute to increased rates of em ploym ent and better wages up to a decade after high school com pletion. Research concerning the hazards associated with work indicated that, each year, tens of thousands of young people are seen in hospital em ergency departm ents for work-related injuries, hun-dreds require hospitalization, and m ore than 70 die of work-related injuries. Long work hours during the school year were associated with problem behaviors. The report points out some im portant questions: updating regulations on allowable work hours, elim inating less strin-gent regulation of agricultural work, revising outdated rules against hazardous work, devel-oping and implementing a comprehensive plan for m onitoring the injuries, illnesses, and haz-ards, building workplace health and safety in-formation into school-based programs, and de-veloping criteria for designating “com m end-able workplaces for youth.”
Key wo rds Child labor, Injuries, Education
Resumo Este artigo apresenta um relatório so-bre trabalho infantil nos Estados Unidos, em seus aspectos positivos e negativos. O trabalho é considerado fonte de valiosas lições para jo-vens no que concerne a responsabilidade, pon-tualidade, interação com pessoas, aprendizado sobre gestão do dinheiro, aumento da auto-es-tima, ajudando sua independência e qualifica-ção. Resultados de pesquisas sugerem que tra-balhar durante o curso secundário pode contri-buir para maiores taxas de emprego e melhores salários até uma década após o término do cur-so. Pesquisas relacionadas aos riscos associados ao trabalho indicam que, a cada ano, milhares de jovens são atendidos em pronto-socorros de hospitais com lesões associadas ao trabalho, cen-tenas requerem hospitalização e mais de 70 mor-rem por lesões associadas ao trabalho. Longas jornadas de trabalho durante o ano escolar tam-bém têm sido associadas a problem as de com-portamento. O relatório chama atenção para a necessidade de: atualização sobre regulam en-tação de horas de trabalho urbano e agrícola; revisão de leis ultrapassadas sobre trabalho pe-rigoso; desenvolvim ento e im plem entação de um plano abrangente sobre monitoramento de riscos, lesões e doenças; segurança no trabalho nos programas escolares, e desenvolvimento de critérios para reconhecer os bons am bientes de trabalho para jovens.
Introduction
We commonly think of children as our “future" reflecting a long-standing value placed on the health and welfare of children in American so-ciety. In accordance with this view present US social policy regardin g children has been de-signed to ensure that we consider the growth, developm ent and education of children as de-serving the highest priority. There is appropri-ate pride in these social policies and confidence that the im plem en tation of them has been largely successful.
In earlier years of our history children held a differen t place in our society an d played an im portant role in the econom ic activity of the fam ily an d the n ation . In the first part of the 20t hcen tury social policy began an evolution
toward the current situation, a transition that included special attention to the protection of youth from dan gerous an d exploitative work. An other part of this tran sition was the devel-opment of policies that ensured universal edu-cation of youth through the age of 16.
At the end of the 20thcentury, an
examina-tion of how social policy related to children has been functioning raised questions that de-served careful attention. While it appeared that we had im plem en ted appropriate policy an d law to promote the health and development of ou r children , there was less certain ty abou t how well we were protecting those who chose to work. Fu rtherm ore, it was n oted that, u n -like m an y developed n ation s, you th em ploy-ment is the norm in the United States. In light of this fact it was believed im portant to deter-m in e wh et h er wo r kin g yo u t h s wer e st ill a-d equ ately protectea-d an a-d that their work was con sisten t with, n ot an im pedim en t to, the priority con cern s with growth, developm en t and education.
Theses concerns led the National Institute for Occupation al Safety an d H ealth (NIOSH ) to ask the Board on Children, Youth, and Fam-ilies to un dertake a study on the health an d safety im plication s of child labor, which has been don e by this com m ittee. The com m ittee empaneled to carry out the study included ex-perts in adolescent social and biological devel-opment, public agency programs and practice, law, econ om ics, sociology, psychology, occu -p ational medicine, and rural health -programs. Such an unusually broad range of backgrounds for the com m ittee m em bers was n ecessary to bring the proper attention to the complex issue
of child labor. The author of this article chaired that committee.
The com m ittee’s charge was in ten tion ally broad to allow consideration be given to a bal-an ce between the various im pacts of work on youth. Ultimately the goal was to focus on ways to m axim ize the ben efits of work for you n g people while targeting for elim ination the ad-verse con sequen ces that could be iden tified. The material that follows is extracted from the Executive Sum m ary of the com m ittee’s fin al report, Protecting Youth at Work(NAP, 1998).
Executive Summary
Today, work is a com m on part of the lives of m an y children an d m ost adolescen ts in the Un ited States. In gen eral, the U.S. public lieves that work is beneficial – and at worst, be-n igbe-n – for childrebe-n abe-n d adolescebe-n ts. Ibe-n deed, workin g provides m an y youn g people with valuable lessons about responsibility, punctu-ality, dealing with people, and money manage-m en t, while in creasin g their self-esteemanage-m an d helping them become independent and skilled. Working during high school may contribute to increased rates of employment and better wages up to a decade after high school com pletion.
Yet workin g can be dan gerous. Each year, tens of thousands of young people are seen in hospital em ergency departm ents for work-re-lated in juries; hun dreds of them require hos-p italization ; an d m ore th an 70 die of work-related in ju ries. Lon g work hou rs du rin g the school year are also associated with problem behaviors, including substance abuse and m i-n or deviai-n ce, ai-n d with ii-n su fficiei-n t sleep ai-n d exercise. Young people who worked long hours during high school also are more likely to have lower education al attain m en t a decade later than those who did not.
Findings
Scope and patterns of work
The U.S. Departm en t of Labor estim ates that about 44 percent of 16- an d 17-year-olds work at som e tim e du rin g the year, either while in school or during the summer or both. The government estimates do not include chil-dren younger than 16 who may work, although the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health found that about 40 percent of 7th and 8th graders were em ployed durin g the school year. Children of any age m ay work in fam ily-own ed busin esses an d on fam ily farm s. But even the official num bers for 16- and 17-year-olds are likely to be un derestim ates because they are based on reports by paren ts or other adults in the household. Research has foun d that paren ts system atically un derstate the in -volvem ent in the work force of their children. Department of Labor estimates are also limited by rather specific defin ition s of work. When high school stu den ts are in terviewed directly through research surveys, about 80 percent re-port that they hold jobs during the school year at some point during high school.
A n otable characteristic of workin g ado-lescents is that they move in and out of the la-bor market, changing jobs and work schedules frequently, in response to changes in em ploy-ers' n eeds, labor-m arket con dition s, an d cir-cum stan ces in their own lives. Children an d teens, like adults, work m ainly for the m oney. Children 's in com e, however, n o lon ger goes primarily toward family support, as it once did: the m ajority of workin g adolescen ts spen d m ost of their in com es on discretion ary item s or on their individual needs.
The biggest em ployer of adolescents is the retail sector – restau ran ts, fast-food ou tlets, grocery stores, and other retail stores – which em ploys m ore than 50 percen t of all workin g 15- to 17-year-olds. The next biggest employer is the service sector (e.g., health -care settin gs su ch as n u rsin g hom es), which accou n ts for m ore than 25 percent of working adolescents, followed by 8 percen t em ployed in agricu l-ture. Several of the in dustries in these sectors of th e econ om y h ave h igh rates of in ju ry for all workers. Rates of injury are high, for exam-ple, in grocery stores and nursing hom es, and agricu ltu re is am on g the m ost dan gerou s in -dustries in the country, with a high rate of fa-tal injuries.
Som e parts of the you th popu lation face unique problems related to work. Children and adolescen ts who are poor, m in ority, or dis-abled are far less likely than white, middle-class youn g people to be em ployed an d, therefore, to reap the poten tial ben efits of work experi-ence. Furthermore, the jobs that poor and mi-n ority you mi-n g people have temi-n d to be imi-n m ore dangerous industries. When they do work, the hours they work and the wages they receive are comparable to those of other youngsters.
Consequences and risks of work
Adolescence occupies a crucial role in con-temporary human development, for several in-terrelated reasons. It is a period of potentially great m alleability and trem endous variability. It is an especially im portant form ative period, during which many developmental trajectories becom e established an d in creasin gly difficult to alter.
Workin g has been shown to be associated with both positive and negative consequences for adolescents. Working may increase respon-sibility, self-esteem , an d in depen den ce an d m ay help children and adolescents learn valu-able work skills. Employment that is limited in in ten sity (u su ally defin ed as 20 hou rs or less per week) du rin g high school years has been found to prom ote post-secondary educational attain m en t. Man y studies show positive lin ks between working during high school and sub-sequen t vocation al outcom es, in cludin g less unem ploym ent, a longer duration of em ploy-m ent after com pletin g schoolin g, an d higher earnings.
However, high-intensity work (usually de-fined as more than 20 hours per week) is asso-ciated with unhealthy and problem behaviors, including substance abuse and minor deviance, insufficient sleep and exercise, and limited time spen t with fam ilies. Moreover, a high level of in vestm en t in work durin g adolescen ce has been fou n d to be associated with decreased eventual educational attainm ent. It should be n oted that researchers have often chosen the dividing point of 20 hours of work per week as a con ven ien t way to subdivide hours of work in to "lowin ten sity" an d "highin ten sity" em -ployment; that division is not based on specific research about 20 hours per se.
people seek treatm en t in hospital em ergen cy departm en ts for work-related in juries each year. The average of 70 documented deaths that occur am on g children an d adolescen ts each year as a resu lt of in ju ries su ffered at work is believed to be an underestim ate.
Th e r ate of in ju r y per h ou r wor ked ap-pear s alm ost twice as high for children an d adolescen ts as for adu lts – abou t 4.9 in ju red per 100 fu ll-tim e-equivalen t workers am on g adolescen ts, com pared with 2.8 per 100 fu ll-tim e-equivalen t workers for all workers. The in du stries with the highest in ju ry rates for young workers are retail stores and restaurants, manufacturing, construction, and public-sector jobs. There is virtually no inform ation on the exten t to which you n g people are exposed to toxic or carcinogenic substances in the work-place, exposures that may cause illnesses many years later.
Work-related deaths of workers 17 years an d you n ger are highest in agricu ltu re, fol-lowed by retail trade an d con struction . The m ost com m on cau ses of work-related deaths among 16- and 17-year-olds involve motor ve-hicles, electrocutions, and homicides. Many of the in du stries that em ploy large n u m bers of children and adolescents have higher than av-erage in ju ry rates for workers of all ages, bu t young workers do not receive adequate health and safety training at work – training that has been lin ked with redu ced in ju ries an d acu te illnesses when provided to adult workers who are young or inexperienced. Furthermore, chil-dren an d adolescen ts often work with in ade-quate supervision an d at tasks for which they may be developmentally unprepared.
In exp er ien ce, as well as p h ysical, cogn i-tive, and em otional developm ental character-istics, may also play a part in the risk of injury faced by you n g workers. Research on adu lts finds that inexperience on the job contributes to occupational injuries. It should not be sur-prisin g, then , if the in experien ce of children an d adolescen ts turn s out to be an im portan t factor in their work-related injury rates. Injury m ay also result from a physical m ism atch be-tween the size of the child or adolescen t an d the task: for exam ple, m achinery that was de-sign ed for adu lt m ales m ay be too large or heavy for children or adolescen ts to han dle safely.
Child labor laws and regulations and education
Work by children and adolescents is regu -lated at both the federal an d state levels. The 1938 Fair Labor Stan dards Act (FLSA), ad-m in istered by the Ead-m ployad-m ent Standards Ad-m in istration of the U.S. DepartAd-ment of Labor, is the prim ary federal law govern in g child la-bor. The FLSA sets lim its on the n um ber of hours that those youn ger than 16 m ay work an d restricts those u n der 18 from bein g em -ployed in certain h azar dou s n on agr icu ltu r al occupations.
Th e st an d ar d s ar e m u ch less r est r ict ive for children an d adolescen ts workin g in agri-culture than for those employed in nonagricul-tural jobs, reflectin g the social n orm s of six decades ago. Each state also has its own child labor standards, which vary widely, with some states permitting 50 or more hours of work per week during the school year for youths under the age of 18. The Occu pation al Safety an d Health Act of 1970, which regulates workplace health and safety protections for workers in the United States, m akes no special provisions for the health an d safety n eeds of workin g chil-dren and adolescents.
Education and training is a complement to laws and regulations. Education about the em-ployment of children and adolescents has three purposes: in form in g youn g people, paren ts, educators, em ployers, an d others about child labor laws an d regulation s; train in g them to prevent work-related illness and injury and to respon d appropriately to workplace hazards; and improving the quality of youngsters' work experien ces, m in im izin g the harm fu l con se-quences and m axim izing the benefits.
Conclusions and recommendations
Guiding principles
The committee's recommendations are guid-ed by the scientific evidence on working and a set of principles. The principles are based on a developm en tal fram ework, which recogn izes that the needs and abilities of children and ado-lescents differ from those of adults: the tasks in which children and adolescents engage should be com m en surate with their physical, cogn itive, em otional, and social abilities. The com -mittee believes that these principles, which rep-resent the judgment and values of the commit-tee, form the basis for en surin g that the work performed by children and adolescents will be safe and healthful.
Guiding Principle 1: Education and devel-opm ent are of prim ary im portance during the formative years of childhood and adolescence. Although work can contribute to these goals, it should never be undertaken in ways that com-promise education or development.
Guidin g Prin ciple 2: The vuln erable, for-mative, and malleable nature of childhood and adolescence requires a higher standard of pro-tection for young workers than that accorded to adult workers.
Guiding Principle 3: All businesses assume certain social obligation s when they hire em -ployees. Businesses that employ young workers assume a higher level of social obligation, which should be reflected in the expectations of soci-ety as well as in explicit public policy.
Guidin g Prin ciple 4: Everyon e un der 18 years of age has the right to be protected from hazardous work, excessive work hours, and un-safe or unhealthy work environm ents, regard-less of the size of the enterprise in which he or she is em ployed, his or her relationship to the employer, or the sector of the economy in which the enterprise operates.
With these principles in mind, the commit-tee's recommendations are designed to protect youn g people in the workplace through up-dated, enhanced, and adequately enforced laws an d regu lation s an d throu gh edu cation an d training. Because such efforts require adequate data, the com m ittee also recom m en ds im -proving data and surveillance systems and more general research. The major recommendations are in cluded below in their en tirety; the re-m ain in g recore-m re-m en dation s in the report are summarized.
Surveillance systems and data
The com bin ation of federal data sou rces and national and local survey research provides a fair am oun t of in form ation about teen agers who have jobs, where they work, and how much they work. H owever, defin ition s an d n om en -clature often vary from source to source, mak-in g it difficult to com pare mak-in form ation . Fur-therm ore, little inform ation is available about the extent of work by those under the age of 15, despite eviden ce that m an y youn gsters begin workin g for pay before that age. Nor is there much information on subpopulations of young people, such as those who are disabled, poor, or m em bers of m in ority groups. In form ation on the quality of the work in which young peo-ple engage is also lacking. And the limited data that do exist are not detailed enough to be used for state-level analysis of working children and adolescents, analysis that is needed for target-in g preven tion an d tratarget-in target-in g efforts as well as for regulatory enforcem ent efforts.
Likewise, in form ation on the adverse health con sequ en ces associated with you th em ploym en t is lim ited. The occupation al in -ju ries, illn esses, an d hazardou s exposu res to which working youth are subjected can be pre-ven ted by proper pu blic health action s. Su r-veillan ce system s that provide in form ation abou t where an d how you n g workers are in -ju red or m ade ill on the job is essen tial both for targeting and for evaluating prevention ef-forts. The current occupational illness and in-jury surveillance systems are limited and poor-ly coordinated, and they have not been evalu-ated to assess the extent to which they may sys-tem atically om it young workers or subgroups of young workers.
Recom m en dation : The Bureau of Labor Statistics shou ld rou tin ely collect an d report data on the employment of young people aged 14 and older. Such data should be reported by in form ative age groupin gs, by school status (e.g., school year or sum m er and in -school or n ot-in -school), and by hours worked per job. For the decen n ial cen sus, the Bureau of the Cen sus should collect an d report sim ilar data on em ploym ent for young workers.
and those who are poor or disabled. Also need-ed are periodic studies of children and adoles-cents who are illegally employed.
Recom m en dation : The Bureau of Labor Statistics should develop m ethods to generate reliable estim ates of youth em ploym ent at the state level.
Man y agen cies – in cludin g the Nation al Center for Health Statistics, the Bureau of La-bor Statistics, the National Institute for Occu-pational Safety and H ealth, the National Cen-ter for Education Statistics, the Bureau of Jus-tice Statistics, and the Occupational Safety and H ealth Adm in istration – collect m uch in for-m ation on children an d adolescen ts. Man y of these agencies include information on the work experien ces of children an d adolescen ts, bu t there is n o stan dard for what in form ation is gathered or how it is reported. Standard defini-tions and nomenclature, on such items as work status, age groupings, and hours of work cate-gories, are needed to make the various sources of inform ation m ore com plem entary.
Recom m en dation : Federal agen cies that collect data related to work by children and ado-lescents should establish standardized nomen-clatu re an d defin ition s for su ch variables as work status, age groups, an d hours of work. Those agencies that collect data for health, ed-ucation, and development purposes should al-so collect data on the em ploym en t of you n g-sters in their surveys.
Many young workers' occupational injuries, illnesses, and exposures to hazardous substances are preventable if proper public health actions are taken. Surveillance that provides inform ation about where an d how youn gsters are in -jured or made ill while working is essential for both targetin g an d evalu atin g preven tion ef-forts. Over the past decade, governm ent agen-cies have substan tially im proved the surveil-lan ce of illn esses an d in ju ries su stain ed by adult workers; more recent surveillance initia-tives have begun to provide in form ation re-garding young workers, at least with respect to their work-related injuries. However, these ac-tivities are limited and poorly coordinated. The lack of specific atten tion to the n eed for data regardin g issu es related to the protection of young workers as a special population has of-ten meant that even data on relevant age groups are not available to the public.
Recom m en dation : The Nation al In stitute for Occupational Safety and Health, in collabo-ration with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and
other relevant federal and state agencies, should develop and im plem ent a com prehensive plan for m on itorin g work-related in ju ries an d ill-n esses su staiill-n ed by workers u ill-n der the age of 18 and for m onitoring hazards to which these you n g wor ker s ar e exp osed . Ad d it ion al r e-sources should be allocated to the appropriate agen cies to im plem en t plan com pon en ts n ot currently funded.
Education
• Information and training
The health and safety hazards that children and adolescents face in the workplace and the protection s to which they are en titled un der the law are little known or understood by chil-dren and adolescents themselves, by their par-ents, and by other adults who are in a position to give them guidance. Although a num ber of efforts are cu rren tly u n der way arou n d the cou n try to provide in form ation an d train in g related to m aking workplaces safe and healthy environm ents for young people, they are scat-tered and uncoordinated. The committee pro-poses several plans to begin to remedy the lack of kn owledge an d to prom ote u n derstan din g of the conditions necessary for safe and mean-ingful work experiences for children and ado-lescents.
Recom m en dation : A n ation al in itiative should be undertaken to develop and provide in form ation an d train in g to redu ce the risks and enhance the benefits associated with youth employment. Adequate resources should be al-located to an agency to lead this effort.
• Occupational health and safety in school-to-work programs
The purpose of the School-to-Work Oppor-tunities Act of 1994 (to run to October 2001) is to leverage other resources to foster partn er-ships, at the state and local levels, that will build system s to su pport the tran sition of adoles-cents from school into lifelong careers. An eval-uation of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act is under way, but it is unclear if that evalu-ation will adequ ately assess the presen ce an d effectiven ess of health an d safety train in g or the safety of work placements under the act.
make certain that the evaluation includes com-prehensive assessm ent of the success of differ-en t program s in con veyin g appropriate an d effective workplace health an d safety in for-m ation an d tr ain in g. Th ose p r actices fou n d to be effective should be con tin ued after the School-to-Work Opportunities Act expires.
• Commendable workplaces for youth
Com m en din g em ployers that provide h ealth y, safe, an d ben eficial wor kp laces for youn g people m ay be equally as im portan t as fining those that do not. The com m ittee envi-sions the establishment of a seal of approval for such workplaces, based on n ation ally devel-oped criteria, but administered at a local level. All workplaces where young people receive pub-licly su pported edu cation an d train in g cou ld be required to m eet the criteria (e.g., in tern ships, cooperative education , youth appren -ticeship, an d placem en ts subsidized by Job Train in g Partn ership Act an d other federal funds), with participation by other em ployers on a voluntary basis.
Recom m en dation : The Secretary of Labor should convene a prestigious group represent-in g all affected parties to develop criteria for design atin g "com m en dable workplaces for youth." These criteria would be used by local groups to iden tify who would earn the desig-nation and to determine employers who are el-igible to employ young people in school-relat-ed publicly supportschool-relat-ed program s.
Protective measures • Hours of work
The Department of Labor is not authorized to establish restriction s on workin g hours for 16- an d 17-year-olds. As the vast m ajority of 16- and 17-year-olds are still attending school, the historical reasons that justified the exemp-tion of those 16 and older from the hour lim i-tations no longer apply. Furthermore, high- in-tensity work (usually defined as m ore than 20 hours per week) has been associated with un-healthy and problem behaviors, including sub-stan ce use an d m in or devian ce, in sufficien t sleep and exercise, and limited time spent with fam ilies, an d it is associated with decreased eventual educational attainment.
Care will have to be taken in setting an up-per limit in number of work hours for 16- and
17-year-olds. Som e circu m stan ces m ay war-ran t exem ption s from lim itation s on work hours during school, such as for adolescents in extreme financial need or for emancipated mi-nors.
There m ay also be special circum stan ces, related to an individual student or to the qual-ity of the work (e.g., high -qu alqual-ity school-to-work placem en ts), un der which lon g hours may be determined to have fewer negative con-sequences. In addition to the number of hours worked per week, the number of hours per day an d start an d stop tim es of work, particularly on sch ool n igh ts, sh ou ld also be con sider ed for regulation.
Recom m endation: The Departm ent of La-bor should be authorized by Congress to adopt a standard limiting the weekly maximum num-ber of hours of work for 16- and 17- year- olds during the school year. This standard should be based on the exten sive research about the ad-verse effects of high -in ten sity work while school is in session.
Hazardous work
Un der FLSA, the Secretary of Labor m ay p r o h ib it yo u n g p eo p le u n d er 18 ( u n d er 16 in agricu ltu re) from jobs design ated as ardou s. The regu lation s that list these haz-ardou s jobs are referred to as hazhaz-ardou s or-ders. Many existing hazardous orders refer to m achin ery an d processes that are n o lon ger used, and they fail to address the full range of health an d safety hazards an d techn ologies in the contemporary workplaces in which young-sters are n ow em ployed. Non e of the cu rren t hazardou s orders takes in to accou n t the spe-cial risks to young workers caused by exposure to carcinogens, biohazards, reproductive tox-ins, and ergonom ic hazards, the health effects of which m ay not be evident until adulthood; nor are the orders based on research and data on jobs that pose hazards to children and ado-lescents.
ade-qu acy of existing hazardous orders to address them.
Minimum levels of protection
State regulations vary widely on the m axi-mum weekly hours minors under the age of 16 m ay work. Although som e states have enacted regulations that are consistent with FLSA reg-ulation s, 16 states allow m in ors un der age 16 to work m ore than the federal m axim u m . A few states regulate the maximum weekly hours that 16- and 17-year-olds may work, and these ru les also vary, ran gin g from 20 to 54 hou rs per week. States' hazardous orders also differ with regard to coverage and interpretation from the FLSA hazardou s orders. Althou gh som e states have incorporated the federal standards, other states have adopted their own defin i-tions, as in the case of operating power-driven m achin ery. Con sisten t with the prin ciple of equal protection for all children, federal hour lim itation s an d hazardou s orders shou ld be con sidered the m in im u m safe requ irem en ts for working children and adolescents.
Recom m endation: All state regulations re-gardin g workin g hours an d hazardous orders for child labor should be at least as protective as federal child labor rules.
Agriculture
Children are permitted to work many more hours and at younger ages in agricultural than in n on agricultural workplaces. Activities that are hazardous for those under the age of 18 in nonagricultural settings are equally hazardous in agricultural settings, yet current regulations do n ot protect 16- an d 17-year-olds on farm s from performing hazardous tasks, nor do they protect youths of an y age on their paren ts' farm s. The only appropriate justification for a lower minimum age for performing hazardous work would be demonstrably lower risks in the industry. This is not the case for work in agri-culture; agriculture is one of the most danger-ous industries in the country.
Recommendation: The current distinctions between hazardou s orders in agricu ltu re an d nonagricultural industries should be eliminat-ed from child labor laws. Furtherm ore, the m in im u m age of 18 shou ld apply for all haz-ardous occupations, regardless of whether the adolescen t is workin g in an agricu ltu ral or non -agricultural job and whether the minor is
employed by a stranger or by a parent or other person standing in for the parent.
Recom m endation: The current distinction in fed er al ch ild labor r estr iction s on th e to-tal m axim um weekly hours youngsters are al-lowed to work in agricu ltu ral an d n on agri-cultural industries should be elim inated in fa-vor of the m ore strin gen t n on agricultural re-strictions.
Under current law, young workers in agri-culture are not entitled to the same health and safety protection as those in other businesses. Only a few Occupational Safety and Health Ad-m inistration (OSH A) standards apply to agri-culture: for exam ple, stan dards that regulate su ch thin gs as electrical hazards, u n gu arded m achin ery, con fin ed spaces, heat stress, car-cinogens, and access to m edical and exposure records in other in du stries do n ot apply in agriculture. Furtherm ore, although the en -forcem en t of OSH A stan dards is m ore lim it-ed in general industry for businesses that em -ploy 10 or fewer workers, the businesses m ust n on etheless com ply with the stan dards, but farms that employ 10 or fewer workers (and do not have labor cam ps) are com pletely exem pt from enforcement.
No h ealth an d safety ju stification for th e d istin ction between agr icu ltu r al an d n on a-gricultural settings appears to exist. It should be a priority to protect th e large n u m ber of youngsters working in agriculture to the sam e exten t th at you n g workers are protected in oth er in du stries. Th e com m ittee ackn owl-edges that exten din g OSH A coverage to agri-culture is a com plex issue with m any possible ram ification s. H owever, the fact that agricul-tu re is on e of th e m ost dan gerou s in du stries in th e cou n try su ggests th e n eed to exam in e h ealth an d safety issu es in agr icu ltu r e m or e closely.
Other regulations and enforcement
The com m ittee m akes a n u m ber of other recom m en dation s pertain in g to regulation s and enforcement, including:
• That the National Institute for Occupation-al Safety an d H eOccupation-alth, in con sultation with the Occu pation al Safety an d H ealth Adm in istra-tion and the Environmental Protecistra-tion Agency, report on the extent to which existing occupa-tional health and safety and pesticide standards take into account special risks to children and adolescents;
• That the Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children, which was created by the Presiden t's Executive Order Num ber 13045, should en sure that its defin i-tion of children in clude older children an d adolescents and include exposures to children and adolescents at work;
• That addition al resources be provided for the enforcem ent of child labor and health and safety regulations, as well as for an evaluation of strategies for dealin g with seriou s, willfu l, and repeated violators;
• That the n am es of serious, willful, an d re-peated violators and violations that jeopardize the health and safety of young workers be pub-lished;
• That in spectors (com plian ce officers) re-ceive interagency cross-training;
• That the adequacy of states' workers' com-pensation systems for young workers be exam-ined; and
• That the potential for work permit or regis-tration systems to enhance the health and safe-ty of young workers be examined.
Research
The com m ittee iden tified several critical areas in which there is n eed for in creased re-search in order to adequately protect youn g workers. Agen cies that fun d research on chil-dren and adolescents should be provided ade-quate resources to fund the types of initiatives discussed below.
The m ajor focu s of research on child an d adolescent em ploym ent has been on the effect of n um ber of hours worked. Little atten tion has been paid to the quality of the work envi-ronment and its effect on development, work-place in juries, an d education al goals. These topics include: longitudinal studies of how in-dividuals who have worked in their youth func-tion as adolescents and adults and how various outcomes are associated with the quality of the work experiences.
Research to determ in e whether the devel-opm ental characteristics of children and ado-lescents put them at increased risk from factors in the work environm ent, including chem ical, physical, ergonom ic, and psychosocial condi-tions (such as stress or type of supervision).
Research on the most efficient and effective strategies to protect working children and ado-lescents, with an emphasis on primary preven-tion of injury and other negative outcomes.
