Government Restrictions on Child Labor

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Child Labor
What if your young son or daughter was working in a big factory, breathing in bad chemicals, and losing fingers in the machinery? Would you be okay with that? I highly doubt you would be. The conditions of factories can be terrible, unsafe, and unhealthy for children to work in for extended periods of time. These children can get respiratory problems, diseases, and many other conditions, just because they are working there. These things would be happening if the government never stepped in and made rules. I therefore believe the government should be allowed to restrict child labor, including the hours, the pay, education requirements,
Without the government restrictions, one event that would occur would be that our children would be working very long ours, getting paid less than everyone else. Our children could be doing the same jobs adults do or should do, but get paid significantly less. “Nearby, nine-year-old Cristina works alongside five family members, including siblings and cousins. This is her second week- end in the fields and she struggles to keep up with the others. Together, the six hope to earn $100 for a full day’s work, which averages out to around $2 per hour worked. More than a dozen other children are working in the same field. They lean over to snip and gather onions. Exhaustion paints their faces as they carry heavy buckets to burlap sacks stationed around the field. The children earn about a penny for every pound of onions picked” (Child Labour Stories). This implies that the children are doing labor that is significantly harder than the average middle-class jobs, and getting paid as if it is worth nothing. These children should get paid as equal as adults, because they are working even harder tha...

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...because they are working long, hard hours of labor, they wouldn’t be very educated, which would therefore make it hard to work at a non-labor job in the future, and they would of spent almost all the money earned just to feed themselves. This means that if they want to help with household income, they may have to go without a meal to get by. If we have restrictions, we wouldn’t have to deal with these, and would therefore make life a lot easier, and safer, for us all.

Works Cited
"Thomas Jefferson quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjeff130495.html

"Child Labour Stories." Digital Commons. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

"Lack of Education…the Root of Children's Rights Violations?" Foreign Policy Blogs Lack of Education the Root of Childrens Rights Violations Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

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