A comprehensive overview of child labor with restrictions placed upon child workers: school-to-work transition; prohibition of youth peddling; mandates for reporting requirements; and imposition of certain other restraints. Comprehensive home school bill; suggests that "home schooled students" 14 to 16 years of age be permitted to work longer than hours worked by public school students. Requires a that the Secretary of Labor not pre-disclose an inspection, and b that a study and report of child labor issues be made to Congress.
See the Musgrave bill H. Comprehensive bill pp. General restructuring of the child labor components of the FLSA has long been sought, though from somewhat different perspectives, by industry and by labor.
In the th Congress, the initiatives were set forth in H. The Lantos bill was comprehensive, providing for a wide variety of changes in current law and practice. A system of expiration dates for individual work permits is specified. The minor or the parent of the minor would have had an option for appeal of the revocation. The report shall include assorted statistical data see item "e" above and information concerning "the activities and number of work-hours devoted by State and local government employees including contractors to the administration and enforcement of child labor laws in the State.
See discussion above. The Secretary was also directed at "appropriate intervals, but in no case less than once during each five-year period," to conduct "a comprehensive review" of the Hazardous Occupations Orders to assure that they are current. On July 25, , H.
The subcommittee took no action on the bill. For several years, Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard D-CA presented legislation that dealt primarily, though not exclusively, with child labor in agriculture. The Roybal-Allard bill began with a revision of Section 13 c , eliminating the option of having young persons under 16 years of age employed in agriculture "including in an agricultural occupation that the Secretary of Labor finds and declares to be particularly hazardous.
Further, the bill repealed Section c 4 , which allows the Secretary of Labor to grant requests for waivers from employers to allow them to hire minors ages 10 and 11 to work outside of school hours in the hand harvesting of crops. The bill expanded the penalties, both civil and criminal, for persons found to be in violation of the act.
Also, the Secretary of Labor, with respect to persons under 18 years of age employed in agriculture, was to gather data with respect to "each serious lost-time work-related injury, serious lost-time worker-related illness," or work-related death.
An employer was expected to submit a report to the Secretary. The Secretary could employ at least additional inspectors, whose principal purpose would be to enforce compliance with child labor laws. The bill provided that the Secretary, not later than days after the date of enactment, would issue rules relating to the exposure of child workers to certain pesticides and related chemicals. It allowed for some measure of accommodation between the Secretary of Labor and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency with respect to pesticide-related fines.
Finally, H. On October 12, , it was referred to the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections and to the Subcommittee on 21 st Century Competitiveness. No action was taken on the proposal.
The DeLauro bill was divided into two parts: First, the bill required that the Secretary of Labor "not enter into any agreement to provide any person with notice prior to commencing an investigation or inspection.
Periodically through recent years, concerns have been raised about the welfare of young persons the age varies who are engaged in certain types of outside sales work. On occasion, the focus has been upon the "street trades": selling newspapers, candy, or other items at subway stops or, locally, from door-to-door. In such cases, a manager or supervisor may recruit young persons, move them to various local sites and, at day's end, collect them and bring them back to their homes.
But, there is also another arrangement: the "traveling sales crews" in which a sales team goes on the road and remains away from its home base, possibly for extended periods. Some argue that each of these types of sales "peddling" can encompass risks, especially for young persons. Such sales work by young persons suggests numerous questions of public policy. For example, how young is too young for children to be engaged in street sales, potentially in rough neighborhoods with which they may not be familiar?
And, if they do engage in such work, through what hours should they be employed: how early in the morning and how late at night? The situation becomes more complicated when groups of recruits are transported from their homes to a distant city to engage in sales work.
Are the vehicles in which they are transported safe and insured? How and where are these workers housed? Does the manager or supervisor have authority and responsibility with respect to the off-hours behavior of these young workers? What happens if one of these young persons becomes ill and needs medical attention?
Beyond the personal, there are strictly workplace questions. What is the employment relationship between these workers and the manager or supervisor? Are the youth workers employees, independent contractors, or something else entirely? To the extent that they are employees, by whom are they employed? The manager or supervisor may also be an employee of some more distant entity. Where does responsibility ultimately reside? How are wages and benefits handled?
What employment records are maintained—and by whom? From a policy perspective, some may ask: Should young persons be excluded, by law, from working in street or door-to-door sales or in related support services other than actual selling? Were otherwise applicable hours restrictions to be observed, would such work be acceptable?
Would a blanket prohibition on outside sales work by persons under 18 years of age unduly restrict their capacity to earn? Is there something inherently inappropriate about street sales or door-to-door sales? Is such work wrong when and year-olds are involved, but a legitimate entrepreneurial activity if all of the sales staff and, perhaps, support staff are 18 and over?
Is such work acceptable when confined to a certain radius from the permanent residence of the sales staff? And, how expansive should that radius be? In May the 99 th Congress , then-Representative Ron Wyden D-OR , stating that "unscrupulous door-to-door selling groups" were exploiting young persons some of them, children; others, young adults , introduced legislation to establish a National Clearinghouse on Fraudulent Youth Employment Practices.
While Wyden conceded that "the vast majority of door-to-door sellers are wholly honorable and reputable," others, he suggested, were not. These companies "can be peddling anything from magazine subscriptions to chemical cleaners. Susan Meisinger, speaking for the Reagan Labor Department, testified that there was indeed a problem.
But the Reagan Administration was divided on the issue. Victoria Toensing, representing the Department of Justice, agreed that "problems relating to the recruitment and use of salespersons do exist" but she suggested that any legislative action would be premature. After reviewing a series of federal statutes that might apply if there actually were a problem, Toensing noted that the Department of Justice " The Wyden bill H.
Hearings on the general issue were subsequently conducted by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 72 and by the House Committee on Government Operations' Subcommittee on Employment and Housing Further legislation was not then proposed.
The Senator explained: "The driver [in the Wisconsin case] had a suspended license and a series of violations. Often times," he asserted, " Because they rapidly move from state to state, enforcement efforts are difficult if not impossible for local authorities. These abuses continue, and Congress should act. The Kohl bill would have amended the FLSA to provide that "No individual under 18 years of age may be employed in a position requiring the individual to engage in door to door sales or in related support work in a manner that requires the individual to remain away from his or her permanent residence for more than 24 hours.
Then, assuming that such practices were to be allowed, it outlined the obligations of the parties—dealing with such issues as housing, transportation, wages and deductions therefrom , insurance, and related matters.
It then proposed a system for enforcement. A comprehensive and detailed proposal, S. No individual under 18 years of age may be employed in a position requiring the individual to engage in door to door sales or in related support work in a manner that requires the individual to remain away from his or her permanent residence for more than 24 hours. It further authorized the Secretary of Labor to "issue such rules and regulations as are necessary to carry out" the proposed amendment.
On August 1, , the HELP Committee, to which the bill had been referred, was discharged from further consideration and the bill, under unanimous consent, was agreed to by the Senate. The issue was raised in the th Congress, again in an abbreviated form, with introduction of H. No action, however, was taken on the Lantos bill. But once more, the bill was directed to the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, where it remained.
Work in or around sawmills and wood-working machinery has been deemed by DOL as especially hazardous for persons under 18 years of age.
Speaking generally, the Amish resist requirements of law that would alter their traditional way of life and have rejected compulsory school attendance beyond the 8 th grade. The Daily Labor Report explains: "After completing their formal classroom training [elementary school] at age 14 or 15, Amish boys typically receive training in farming or carpentry from their fathers. Therefore, the Amish have sought other activities for their children. The Amish have sought to have their sons work in sawmills and woodworking plants where there is Amish supervision or where they are supervised by an adult relative.
The result has been a clash between the Amish and DOL. The Amish have pressed for an amendment to the child labor provisions of the FLSA in order to accommodate their practices.
At least since the th Congress, legislation to amend federal child labor law on behalf of the Amish has been repeatedly introduced, both in the House and in the Senate.
The bills, generally, would widen the opportunity for youth ages 14 to 18 "to be employed inside or outside places of business where machinery is used to process wood products. Had the legislation been adopted, Amish children, having left school after the 8 th grade, could have been employed in work otherwise regarded as too hazardous for persons under 18 years of age.
Some have suggested that constitutional issues may be involved in affording special treatment to the Amish that is not afforded to other religious groups. Setting aside issues of legality, other questions could be raised, given that Amish children are permitted to leave school after the 8 th grade.
Or, would it merely recognize that Amish children are already out of school and, thus, permit them to be productively occupied? Second, assuming that these children do leave school to work, are sawmills and wood processing establishments appropriate places of employment for any youngsters under the age of 18?
Might other areas of skills training be more suitable for children than mill work with its attendant hazards? What types of work are suitable for year-old Amish children and who should decide? In order to strengthen the ties of Amish children to the Amish community, youngsters are systematically separated from the non-Amish world. Thus, with only an 8 th -grade education and lacking experience in the non-Amish world, their subsequent choices may be, accordingly, restricted, rendering their out-migration from the community within which they were raised extremely difficult.
Souder, representing a partly Amish constituency, explained that the Amish had not been able to persuade DOL to acquiesce in industrial employment for Amish children at age Urging amendment of the FLSA to permit such employment, he argued that the Amish children would be "supervised by adults who know and care about them" and that the proposed amendment "would protect a truly endangered religion and culture.
Thomas M. Markey of DOL testified in opposition, arguing: "Sawmills are dangerous places to work, even for adults. On June 13, , during consideration of S. It would have amended the FLSA to permit Amish youngsters, 14 years of age and older, to work, under specified conditions, in mills and woodworking plants.
Senator Edward M. Senator Kennedy affirmed that it "would be valuable to have With that understanding, Senator Specter then withdrew his proposed amendment.
On July 25, , legislation to permit Amish youth to work at age 14 in wood processing plants was introduced both in the House and in the Senate: H. No action was taken on these proposals. The Pitts H. To be exempt from the restraints of federal child labor law, several standards would be imposed. Other concerns aside, some may ask: Would the safeguards be adequate? In the absence of frequent DOL inspections, would the precautions be observed? Does the fact that a supervisor would be of "the same religious sect" as the child worker render the work any less hazardous—or the supervisor any more diligent in monitoring the youth's work?
As the lead witness DOL was not represented at the hearing , Representative Pitts stated that actions of the department had "severely threatened the lifestyle and religion of this respected and humble community" and averred that the "government should not interfere" with Amish practices lest "their strong heritage Government bureaucracy, he stated, " It is interfering with their religious freedom.
Blank, speaking for the Old Order Amish, concurred, declaring "the ages 14 through 17 to be a very tender receptive age" and a period during which "to instill Amish values and work ethics in our children.
But, not all were in complete agreement. He pointed out, however, that federal government studies had found that working conditions in "sawmilling and woodworking are among the most hazardous occupations for adults, with a death rate that is five times the national average for all industries," and that such work is "especially inappropriate for young workers" emphasis in the original.
Clark expressed concern about constitutional issues and raised, as well, the issue of equity. The proposed amendment " While sawmills and woodworking plants "provide much needed employment for Amish adults," he concluded, "they cannot safely or constitutionally serve that purpose for Amish children. As the first session of the th Congress moved to a close, several appropriations bills among them, the measure providing funding for the Department of Labor remained to be passed.
Ultimately, the several appropriations bills were combined in H. A conference report on H. Included in the conference report Senator Specter had served as a Senate conferee was language roughly paralleling that of H.
In an explanation of the measure, the conference report stated:. The conference agreement includes a provision to permit youth, ages 14 through 17, who by statute or judicial order are exempt from compulsory school attendance beyond the eighth grade, to work inside or outside places of business where machinery is used to process wood products.
The youth would be permitted to perform activities such as sweeping, stacking wood, and writing orders.
Safety provisions include prohibiting the youth from operating machinery, and requiring the use of eye and body protections. On December 8, , the House voted to approve the conference report with the Amish child labor provision included. The vote was yeas to nays. On January 22, the Senate approved the conference report by a vote of 65 yeas to 28 nays.
In a statement to the press, Senator Specter noted that he had "toured an Amish sawmill in Lancaster County, PA," had met with some members of the Amish people, and had come to "know of the importance of this legislation to their community and culture. This is an issue of freedom of religion," he affirmed, "where the Amish prefer to educate their children aside from the public schools and part of that educational process is for teenagers to work in the lumber mills.
Part An extensive literature exists on child labor in America during the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. See, for example Edward N. In addition, OSHA issued an innovative generic cancer policy which regulated a whole class of cancer-causing substances at once.
In January Ronald Reagan became president with a domestic agenda for economic recovery that emphasized reduced government domestic spending and relief for business from burdensome government rules. He immediately froze rules proposed during the Carter administration and sought to weaken existing standards to make them less costly for business.
However, because of the complexity of rule-making procedures, existing rules proved difficult to change. OSHA adopted a less punitive approach to enforcement and encouraged voluntary compliance. MSHA and other regulatory agencies followed similar deregulatory policies. The department began to focus on both long and short-term employment and training policies. It also cooperated with the broadcast industry in Project Literacy US.
After Brock departed, Reagan selected Ann Dore McLaughlin, who had served as assistant secretary of the treasury and under secretary of the interior. During her brief tenure, McLaughlin sought to reconcile demands of work and family life largely through non-governmental means, establishing a Commission on Workforce Quality and Labor Market Efficiency.
President George H. Bush was then elected, ushering in Elizabeth Dole, who had held several high government positions and was the wife of Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole. Although Dole resigned in , she set the main policies that guided the department until the end of the Bush Administration.
She was succeeded by Lynn Morley Martin, a former member of Congress. A Harvard professor, author and radio and television commentator, Reich had previously served in the Justice Department and on the Federal Trade Commission.
Under his leadership, the Labor Department focused on building up the skills of American workers. Goals Educate America Act established a national system of skill standards to certify that workers had the skills that employers needed. States were given funds to establish one-stop career centers, linking unemployment insurance, job counseling and access to job training.
Reich left the administration in and was succeeded by Alexis Herman, a labor relations specialist who worked in the White House before taking over DOL. Herman facilitated negotiations between UPS management and Teamsters union leaders, ending a ten day strike. Under her leadership, DOL concentrated on retooling departmental skills programs into a simpler, more efficient system, giving working people needed skills to succeed in the new economy, moving people from welfare to work and working with disadvantaged youth through the Youth Opportunity program.
After the election of George W. Bush in , Elaine Chao became the Secretary of Labor. Altogether the department enforces more than federal laws. These mandates cover workplace activities for about 10 million employers and million workers. A sampling of the major laws that the department enforces are: The Fair Labor Standards Act, which prescribes standards for wages and overtime pay; the Occupational Safety and Health OSH Act ,which details safety and health conditions in most private industries; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ERISA , which regulates employers who offer pension or welfare benefit plans for their employees; and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, which regulates the hiring and employment activities of agricultural employers, farm labor contractors and associations using migrant and seasonal agricultural workers.
Employment and Training Administration. A key element within the Department of Labor, ETA promotes job-training initiatives and programs across the country.
One such program advocated by the Bush administration resulted in ETA distributing millions of dollars in grants without competition or oversight by labor officials, resulting in criticism from Congress and government auditors. One of the oldest social programs in the federal government today, the Job Corps tries to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds complete their high school education and get a good start in the working world. The program has trained and educated two million individuals since it was first established during the Great Society era of the s.
Job Corps participants receive not only job assistance and education but also room and board during their time in the program, which can last up to two years. Office of Disability Employment Policy. It furnishes employers with tools and technical assistance, along with ideas and relevant updated labor market data and to revamp their beliefs regarding who they may choose to employ. Additionally, ODEP provides practical and beneficial ways and reasons to hire the disabled, coordinates and strategizes with staffs from other federal agencies, state and local governments and non-governmental organizations that also are involved with matters related to employment.
In addition, ODEP helps prepare the disabled with skills that will be specifically valuable in the present job market. VETS provides resources and services to help veterans locate grants, training and employment opportunities so they can return to a job after completion of military service. Employment Standards Administration. ESA enforces compliance and monitors laws governing legally mandated equal employment opportunity, minimum wages and working conditions.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA develops and enforces government standards geared towards protecting workers on the job. OSHA also provides training and education to employers and employees on ways to improve health and safety in the workplace.
Most industries and employment sectors come under OSHA regulations, with the exception of miners, transportation workers, many public employees and the self-employed. OSHA makes available to the public a wide range of data and statistics regarding health and safety in the workplace. Also, OSHA employs inspectors who look into allegations of health and safety violations by employers and is supposed to levy fines in cases where employers have been found guilty of violations.
Several Republican administrations, including that of President George W. Bush, have worked to lessen the regulatory power of OSHA and turn its mandatory worker-safety programs into voluntary-based efforts by employers.
Mine Safety and Health Administration. With a jurisdiction covering 12, metal and nonmetal mines and 2, coal mines, MSHA is charged with enforcing safety regulations that are designed to eliminate work-related accidents and health hazards. Despite its mandate to protect mine workers, MSHA has compromised mine safety as a result of its actions during the administration of President George W. Bush, which has appointed agency leaders from the ranks of mining companies.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. PBGC is a non-profit, federal corporation that protects retirement incomes of 44 million American workers enrolled in more than 30, private-sector pension plans. About 1. The agency was designed to be self-sufficient, funded not through taxpayer dollars, but by premiums paid by plan sponsors, earnings from invested assets, recoveries from terminated sponsors and assets collected from terminated plans. Employee Benefits Security Administration.
EBSA is the primary agency responsible for protecting private pension plan participants and beneficiaries from the abuse or theft of their pension assets through the enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of Yet, the ESBA has been criticized for failure in protecting the people from fiduciary interests, as well as for its lack of enforcement in compliance issues. Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS is the research arm of the Labor Department and the principal fact-finding organization for the federal government in the field of labor economics.
It collects and disseminates data on employment and unemployment, price and spending trends, compensation, productivity and health, all of which influences economic and social policymaking and important decisions within business and financial communities. BLS data is used by the business community, industry and labor in economic planning and collective bargaining.
The Department of Labor stills operates 3, employment offices across the nation today, even though the Internet and other changes in the economy have made the government's role in job-matching obsolete. NIRA is struck down by the Supreme Court in , but these labor market regulations are reimposed in other legislation. The CCC lasts until WPA jobs programs became known for their wastefulness, and indeed the word "boondoggle" was coined to describe them.
It imposes "exclusive representation" on employers and employees, meaning monopoly or coercive unionization after a majority vote. It also imposes "union security" rules, which force individuals to join unions or pay union dues. The NLRA also imposes mandatory bargaining rules, and it bans company unions. The Act does not cover public sector unions. The program—also called unemployment compensation—squelches ongoing efforts by unions, businesses, and insurance companies to develop market-based solutions to the problem of unemployment benefits.
Davis U. Many studies in subsequent decades find that the minimum wage hinders lower-skill workers from gaining employment. The minimum wage rate and the coverage of FLSA have been greatly expanded over time. The government is tasked with using all practical means to promote "maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. The Act revises a few of the worst aspects of the pro-union legislation passed in the s. It amends the National Labor Relations Act to prohibit "unfair labor practices" by unions, and it allows states to pass "right to work" laws, which ban union-only shops.
Following tradition, the President-elect arrived at the office before being received in the Senate. He could see the rotund figure of Taft at work in the next room signing bills. During these closing hours of his Administration, President Taft signed into law the act giving birth to the Department of Labor. The gestation period had been a long one. It began after the Civil War when William Sylvis, the most important labor leader of his day, advocated the creation of a Department of Labor.
He protested that existing government departments threw their protective arms around every enterprise fostering wealth, while no department had as its "sole object the care and protection of labor. Sylvis' cry for recognition was echoed and reechoed. Between and , more than bills and resolutions relating to a Department of Labor were introduced in Congress.
In , the House of Representatives created a standing committee on labor, marking the first Federal recognition of labor's importance. But the campaign for a national Department of Labor died [temporarily] with the death of Sylvis in Meanwhile labor leaders turned to a new strategy: promoting state bureaus of labor statistics.
In , Massachusetts pioneered by creating the first bureau of labor statistics in the world. This new bureau immediately became embroiled in a dispute over its purpose: was the bureau a "voice of labor," or was it to be impartial?
The first Massachusetts bureau started as the voice of labor reformers. Henry K. Oliver and George McNeil, who were the bureau's first directors, colored their reports on tenement housing and banks with their own pro-labor views, drawing charges from businessmen that they were too radical. A partisan struggle soon paralyzed the bureau. Protests notwithstanding, the Governor of Massachusetts refused to abolish the bureau.
The answer to false and partial reports, he said, "must be sought, not in discontinuing the investigation. Wright in some senses was unqualified: he had no association with the labor movement at the time, and he knew very little about either statistics or labor problems. But he was determined to be impartial. A friend attributed to him the quotation: "Figures won't lie, but liars will figure.
By , 12 States had followed Massachusetts' example. While the State bureaus of labor were being established, labor's strategy for creating a Federal Labor Department was being reshaped.
The depressions of and had shattered the labor movement, completely destroying, for example, the National Labor Union. In a meeting of labor leaders "laid aside a resolution for waging a campaign in favor of a National Department of Labor. In the late 's and early 's, the movement for a Federal bureau gained strength. The economy was recovering from the depression of and, following a typical pattern for the labor movement, the winds of prosperity fanned the growth of labor organizations.
Thus a union like the Knights of Labor was able to grow rapidly and acquire political muscle. As the presidential election of was approaching, Republicans and Democrats alike courted the labor vote and adopted nearly identical platforms favoring the creation of a labor bureau.
Five Congressmen introduced bills in the 48th Congress to establish a Bureau of Labor. With some debate, and a little opposition, the House passed such a bill sponsored by Representative James Hopkins of Pennsylvania by a vote of to The Bureau was to collect information on the subject of working people and the "means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity.
Trade unionists expected President Arthur to appoint a labor leader as Commissioner of the new Bureau. Terence Powderly of the Knights of Labor was the leading candidate. When he met with the President he had with him 2, petitions from labor organizations, 37 clippings from labor papers, and from other newspapers supporting his selection.
But President Arthur, reacting to manufacturers' fears that Powderly was too radical, refused to nominate him. Instead, he sent the name of another labor leader, John Jarrett, to the Senate, but withdrew it when he learned that Jarrett had criticized his Administration. After long delay, President Arthur finally invited Carroll D. Wright of the Massachusetts bureau to become first U. Commissioner of Labor.
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