Virginia Child Labor
Posted by Tamara
Child labor is not just happening in the sweatshops of Asia. It is occurring right in the U.S., in the farm fields of Virginia and other states across the country.
Child labor is illegal in the U.S. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), no child under 12 may work at any kind of job, including agriculture.
Most of the children working in the fields of Virginia and elsewhere are the children of migrant laborers.
There are several significant concerns about child labor:
Education The work keeps these migrant children out of school. Their lack of education condemns them to perpetuate a cycle of poverty in which the parents can find no other work and must put their children in the fields with them in order to earn enough money to live.
Physical Health Children who work in farm fields are exposed to high levels of herbicides and pesticides, according to health care experts. Rashes, respiratory problems, asthma, and other long-term problems may result.
Emotional Health Because the children have no opportunity to play or to interact with other children their age, their psychological and social development is delayed. In short, they do not have a “normal” childhood.
An attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor noted that Virginia child labor laws are not adequate. “We don’t let 13-year-olds work in factories,” he said. “Why should we let them work in the fields?”
A group of graduate students recently conducted an undercover investigation of the problem. They discovered that the FLSA child labor law is regularly violated. Children as young as 6 years old are working beside their parents in the fields harvesting fruits and vegetables.
Child labor, they learned, was typically used when picking small fruits and vegetables like grape tomatoes, strawberries, and blueberries. Because the children have tiny and dexterous fingers, they can harvest crops like these quickly without bruising them.
There is a child labor loophole in the Fair Labor Standards Act. This loophole, however, creates exceptions only for the child who is working for his or her parents on a family farm.
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