The effects upon the children themselves are injurious. Stunted, crippled, and diseased bodies are the result of steady work at too tender an age. Schooling is interrupted, so that child workers generally develop into illiterate and inefficient adults. When children are forced into gainful occupations at an early age, the family life is disrupted, and proper home training is difficult, if not impossible. Still another factor is the greater temptation to vice and crime confronting the child outside the home.
200. CHILD LABOR LAWS.—Since 1870 the growing acuteness of the child labor problem, together with an aroused public opinion, has served to increase the number of laws restricting child labor. At the present time, forty-five states forbid the employment in certain industries of children under fourteen years of age.
A Federal child labor law was passed in 1916, but two years later the measure was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. [Footnote: For an explanation of this point, see Section 214 of this chapter.] In 1919 a new Federal law was enacted. In order to avoid the charge of unconstitutionality, this measure attacks child labor indirectly. The law levies an excise tax of ten per cent on the entire net profits received from the sale of all the products of any mine, quarry, mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment, which employs children contrary to certain age and hour specifications. The effect of this ten per cent tax is so to reduce the profits of the employers affected, as virtually to prohibit child labor. By this means the act prohibits child labor in several important groups of industrial establishments.
The difficulty with the law is that it touches only about fifteen per cent of our two million child workers. It does not affect, for example, the large number of children employed in agriculture, domestic service, street trades, stores and restaurants, messenger service, and tenement homework.
201. MINIMUM PROVISIONS OF A GOOD CHILD LABOR LAW.—The passage of more comprehensive child labor laws is being advocated by a number of social agencies, notably by the National Child Labor Committee. The minimum provisions of a good child labor law have been set forth by the committee somewhat as follows:
As a general proposition, no child should be regularly employed in a gainful occupation who is under sixteen years of age. There should be an even higher age limit for child workers in quarries, mines, and other dangerous places. Children should not work more than eight hours a day. Nor should they be allowed to engage in night work until they have reached the age of, say, twenty years. All child applicants for industrial positions should first be required to pass educational tests and a physical examination. A good child labor law should provide for a corps of factory inspectors, as well as for other means of securing the efficient administration of the law. Lastly, it is important that there be close co÷peration between employers and the school authorities in the matter of child labor.
202. INCREASED NUMBER OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.—There have always been women in industry, but of recent years the proportion of women so engaged has increased so rapidly as to create a serious social problem. From needlework, domestic service, and teaching, women have spread rapidly into trade, commerce, and the professions. A few years ago transportation and police work were monopolized by men, but to-day women are entering these fields rapidly. Though they outnumber men only in domestic and personal service, women are numerous in practically every important calling except plumbing and street cleaning. Altogether more than 8,000,000 women are engaged in gainful occupations in the United States.
203. WHY WOMEN RECEIVE LOWER WAGES THAN MEN.—Women generally receive lower wages than men. One reason for this is the physical weakness of women, which renders them less desirable in many types of work. Social conventions, home attachments, and, often, the lack of the venturesome spirit, combine to keep women from moving about in search of improved working conditions to the same extent as men. The expectation of marriage causes many young women to neglect to increase their efficiency, and this at least prevents their wages from increasing as rapidly as those of young men who undergo consistent training. The trade union is still little developed among women workers, a factor which often prevents higher wages from being secured. Low wages are often traceable to the fact that there is an over supply of girls and women in the labor market. Large numbers of girls and women are partially supported at home, and are able and willing to work for "pin-money" only. Many employers take advantage of this fact to offer very low wages.
204. LEGISLATION REGULATING THE LABOR OF WOMEN.—Although it would seem desirable to keep young children out of industry altogether, there is a general agreement among students of the problem that the labor of women ought to be further regulated rather than actually prohibited. A number of states have already enacted laws designed to safeguard women in industry. In some states the number of working hours for women has been cut from eleven to nine, while in other states the maximum number of hours during which women may work is eight. Some states prohibit night work for women in industrial establishments. The great majority of the states now provide for proper rest periods, guarded machinery, the ventilation of workrooms, and, where practicable, seats for women employees. To the extent that women actually do the same amount and quality of work as men, there is a growing feeling that men and women ought to receive equal pay.
205. THE MINIMUM WAGE.—A minimum wage law is one which specifies that in certain occupations laborers may not be paid less than a stipulated wage. The aim of the minimum wage is to protect the laborer against employment which, under freely competitive conditions, does not pay wages high enough to guarantee a decent living.