Child labor in the United States was a common phenomenon across the economy in the 19th century, gradually declining in the early 20th century, with exceptions in the Southern textile and related industries and agriculture. Compulsory school laws and Northern state laws prohibiting work in mines and factories further reduced the phenomenon.
A national law was passed in 1916, but it was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1918; a 1919 law was also overturned. In the 1920s, an effort to pass a constitutional amendment failed, because of opposition from the South and from Catholics. Outside of farming, child labor was steadily declining in the 20th century, and the
New Deal in 1938 finally ended child labor in factories and mines. Child labor has always been a factor in agriculture, and that continues into the 21st century. There has been a large rise in child labor in the 2020s amid a labor shortage due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and some states have proposed or enacted measures to loosen restrictions. This 1910 photograph by
Lewis Hine shows ten-year-old Rose Biodo of
Philadelphia carrying berries in a field in
Browns Mills, New Jersey, four weeks into the school year.
Photograph credit: Lewis Hine
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