A Deep Dive into Child Labor, Volume 1

For most people, child labor represents a great evil. Children, after all, deserve a childhood uncontaminated by work; instead, they should be focusing on school or play. Child labor is considered a perversion, a tragedy, and (at least in the imperial core) largely a thing of the past. It brings to mind 19th-century sepia portraits of eight-year-olds hunched over sewing machines in sweatshops or hoisting pickaxes in mines, denied the joy and luxury of an early life defined by leisure.

In truth, all children work all the time, even in postindustrial imperial core societies. Under capitalism, there's a tendency to only count paid labor as "real work" - which many children both in the core and periphery still do, although it's less common now than in the past. But there's also an entire other category of unpaid work called social reproductive labor, and this is the kind of labor most children primarily engage in today. In this series, I'm going to explore some common forms of paid and unpaid labor done by children (and teens) in 21st century.

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. I am only trying to provide an alternative perspective on some of the major roles of children in society. I hope this can inspire a new understanding of what it means to say, for example, "children shouldn't have to work; they should be in school." From a legal standpoint, I will focus primarily on US federal law, as legislation regarding pay and protection from occupational hazards vary widely between states. But I will also include many examples of child labor around the world.

Today, I'm looking at various types of paid, "above board" child labor that still exist. As many societies have introduced compulsory schooling, it is far less common for children to do productive labor than it was throughout history. But many minors do still work - in the service sector, in agriculture, in entertainment, and in parent-owned businesses. Unfortunately, labor protections are often inadequate, and it can be hard for these workers to make their employer/government take their concerns seriously.

In the imperial core, it is still relatively common for adolescents to work in service industries, especially during school breaks. Many work for large corporations in retail or food service, often for minimum wage. Others choose to freelance: they do odd jobs (mowing lawns, cleaning gutters, walking dogs, etc.), childcare, or tutoring. Similar to corporate service work, freelancing teens often receive less pay for their work than adults - citing a relative lack of experience or "need" for money.

In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (29 CFR, Part 570) provides some limits on the types of nonagricultural work teens can do based on their age. A fact sheet supplied by the Department of Labor summarizes the various restrictions. The main points:

• Children under 14 may not be employed in nonexempt occupations.
• Teens aged 14 and 15 can be employed outside school hours for limited amounts of time in non-manufacturing, non-hazardous jobs.
• Teens aged 16 and 17 can be employed for any number of hours in any non-hazardous jobs.

Young people in the US are also subject to a youth subminimum wage (Department of Labor fact sheet here). While the federal minimum wage for adults remains $7.25/hour, employers have the option of paying workers under 20 years of age merely $4.25/hour for the first 90 days after initial hire.

In Australia, according to this 2024 article, there are few resources dedicated to monitoring child labor. Children work in the service sector in cafes, retail stores, and fast food restaurants as apprentices. Instead of having a strong separation between "school years" and "work years," Australian children often do part-time work for years before joining the full-time labor force as adults. Young workers are disproportionately represented in labor injury statistics, but even when they are fully informed of their workplace safety rights, they lack adequate opportunities to report violations.

Notably, the following categories are exempt from the child labor restrictions of the FLSA:

1. Employment of children in agriculture outside of school hours for the school district where they live while so employed;
2. Employment of employees engaged in the delivery of newspapers to the consumer;
3. Employment of children as actors or performers in motion pictures or in theatrical, radio, or television productions;
4. Employment by a parent or a person standing in a parent's place of his own child or a child in his custody under the age of sixteen years in any occupation other than manufacturing, mining, or an occupation found by the Secretary to be particularly hazardous for the employment of children between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years or detrimental to their health or well-being.
5. Employment of homeworkers engaged in the making of evergreen wreaths, including the harvesting of the evergreens or other forest products used in making such wreaths.
6. Employment of 16- and 17-year-olds to load, but not operate or unload, certain scrap paper balers and paper box compactors under specified conditions.
7. Employment of 17-year-olds to perform limited driving of cars and trucks during daylight hours under specified conditions.
8. Employment of youths between the ages of 14 and 18 years who, by statute or judicial order, are excused from compulsory school attendance beyond the eighth grade, under specified conditions, in places of business that use power-driven machinery to process wood products.

The very first exemption is for children working in agriculture. In fact, there are a whole separate set of rules about that type of labor. They can be found here on the Department of Labor website. The main points:

• With special waivers, employers may hire local 10- and 11-year-olds to harvest short-season crops outside of school hours. Children under 12 may also work outside of school hours with parental consent, but only if the farm is not covered by the minimum wage standards of the FLSA.
• Teens aged 12 and 13 can work outside of school hours with parental consent, or if the farm also employs their parents.
• Teens aged 14 and 15 can work any non-hazardous agricultural job outside of school hours.
• Teens aged 16 and over can work any agricultural job at any time.
• None of these restrictions apply to parent-owned farms.

The Children in the Fields Campaign (CIFC) by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) developed a series of reports about the prevalence of child labor in the US agricultural sector as well as the unique struggles that child workers face. Their most recent reports can be found here. From their 2007 "Children in the Fields" report:

There are three principal types of child farmworkers. Perhaps the category that comes to mind first are the children who help out in their parents’ fields. This type of child farmworker can be found on family farms throughout the United States. Their work is not regulated by federal law nor is there any serious proposal to do so. The second type are those American youth who work on local farms—primarily in rural areas of the Midwest, Southwest, and South—part-time or during their summer vacations as a way of earning spending money.

The third type of child farmworker, and the one that is the focus of this report, is the youth who feels compelled to work out of economic necessity. Of the three categories of child farm-workers, those in the third group are the most likely to be poor, Hispanic, and undereducated. Current U.S. law—namely, the FLSA—inadequately protects both adult and child farmworkers, exposing these workers to harm from dangerous pesticides, equipment, and intense heat. These children often migrate with their families, or alone, from farm to farm as they follow the harvest, in order to work as many hours as possible. The economic hardships imposed by migration can have significant consequences on children’s health, education, and self-esteem.

AFOP believes that there are between 400,000 and 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States. These are children who work on farms not owned by their families. AFOP bases its approximation on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) stating that 431,730 youth between the ages of 12 and 17 were hired for agricultural work in 1998. This figure represents both migrant and seasonal farmworkers and local children who work as hired help on a farm that is not owned or operated by their parents. During its field visits from 2003 to 2005, AFOP observed children under 12 working in the fields. In addition, many children work “off the books” by using their parents’ social security numbers, suggesting that the total of child farmworkers may be closer to 500,000.

Youth agricultural labor is by no means exclusive to the United States. The 2024 ILO-UNICEF Global Estimates of Child Labor Report states that, worldwide, 61% of child labor is concentrated in agriculture. In sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the world's child labor is overwhelmingly concentrated, 70% of that labor is agricultural. Globally, children are over twice as likely to work in agriculture as the rest of the working population (28%); most of it consists of subsistence farming or working for smallholder farms.

Children in the US working in entertainment have very few labor protections. Like other sectors, legislation varies widely from state to state; unlike other sectors, even newborn babies are allowed to work. California, with its longstanding entertainment industry, has some of the most stringent protections for child actors in the country. However, that's still not saying much. Babies must be at least 15 days old to work as actors; premature babies are prohibited from employment. The state passed Coogan's Law in 1939, which (as of its update in the year 2000) stipulates that 15% of a minor's gross pay must be held in a trust for them to access once they reach the age of majority. The Child Content Creator Rights Act went into effect (again in California) in January 2025; it extends similar protections to minors who are featured in at least 30% of their family's monetized social media content. In April 2026, Tennessee passed a law to protect children working as content creators - specifying that only teens 14 and above may work in the field, and that a portion of the gross earnings must be set aside in a trust. If a minor 14-18 years old asks to have a video with them in it taken down, under the new law, their parents must comply.

Many other states have far fewer protections. For example, in Louisiana, babies can be made to work for six hours a day, six days a week. In New Jersey, they can work five hours a day, five days a week. As of 2023, 17 states do not have any regulations at all regarding child entertainers.

Child athletes are inconsistently protected under US labor laws. The FLSA child entertainer exemption generally focuses on child workers in film, radio, and television - not sports. However, to bring valid FLSA violation claims, an athlete must be considered an employee, and who counts as an employee is under continual debate. Athletes who are part of a professional team are considered employees, like Ezequiel Rivera, who was 14 years old when he signed with the L.A. Dodgers in 2014. However, there are other sports with a lot of teenage athletes at the elite level, such as women's figure skating and gymnastics - and these athletes are not considered employees. As a result, there are hardly any restrictions at all regarding their working conditions, and young girls are frequently forced to work 10- or 12-hour days regardless of injury.

In Europe, regulations also vary from country to country, but in general the rules are stricter than they are in the US. In Germany, the ability of children to work in entertainment depends on their age, their employer must be granted a permit, and working children must receive approval from school administration, the youth protection service, and a pediatrician. Children under 3 years old may not be employed at all; 3- to 6-year-olds may work up to two hours a day between 8 AM and 5 PM, and minors 6 and over who have not finished compulsory education may work up to three hours a day between 8 AM and 10 PM. The Netherlands has an exemption to its child labor laws for the entertainment industry, but unlike in the US, employers must apply for the exemption. Several other European countries have governing bodies that regulate child labor, including within the entertainment industry - such as Film France CNC, the Arbeidstilsynet in Norway, and the Barnombudsman in Sweden.

In India, child labor laws have also become increasingly stringent over time in order to comply with ILO guidelines. The 2016 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act banned (almost) all child labor under the age of 14; its 1986 predecessor banned only hazardous occupations. However, exemptions were made for the entertainment industry and for family businesses, provided that the children's education was not hindered. The 2017 Child Labour System (Abolition, Prevention, and Rehabilitation) Act extended the child labor ban to age 18, including for family businesses. Under the new rules, there are many provisions for children working in entertainment. For example, child artists cannot work more than 5 hours a day, or more than 3 hours without rest. Employers must register child artists with the District Magistrate, and permits are valid only for 6 months. 20% of the child's wages must be deposited directly into a bank account in the child's name for them to access at the age of majority.

One of the most sweeping exemptions from US child labor restrictions under the FLSA is for parent-owned companies. Once again, the exemptions are as follows:

• Non-agricultural labor: "Employment by a parent or a person standing in a parent's place of his own child or a child in his custody under the age of sixteen years in any occupation other than manufacturing, mining, or an occupation found by the Secretary to be particularly hazardous for the employment of children between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years or detrimental to their health or well-being."
• Agricultural labor: "None of these restrictions apply to parent-owned farms."

There are specific tax and retirement savings frameworks to accommodate child labor within family businesses in the US. According to this 2018 US Small Business Administration blog post entitled "5 Reasons to Hire Your Child," children's incomes up to the standard deduction are free of federal income tax, and for unincorporated businesses, their earnings are exempt from payroll taxes as well. There is no minimum age requirement to qualify for an individual retirement account (IRA), and children can contribute up to 100% of earned income to these accounts. Lastly, the article encourages parents to use their children as a reserve labor force in times of low unemployment, which otherwise usually provide upward pressure on wages. Children, however, can be made to work part-time, seasonally, or full-time based on the needs of their parents.

This literature review evaluates social norms regarding child labor within families across Africa, Asia, and Europe. The 2016 amendment for India's Child Labour Act left a loophole for family businesses, which was heavily criticized by activists. At the time, labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya claimed this exemption was warranted because family businesses did not "pit employer against employee" - but the loophole was closed in 2017. Australian law also provides specific exemptions for child labor within "a family business that is carried out by a parent or relative of the child." Northern Ireland law carves out exemptions for "light agricultural or horticultural work for the parents of the child concerned."

Given the private nature of the family, it is very hard to track how many children work for their parents, and how much these children work. Family businesses are generally the last to be targeted by child labor laws; a common claim is that such regulations are unnecessary because parents will provide adequate labor protections out of love for their children. However, as we will see in the next installment in this series (about forced or illicit labor), that often fails to be the case.