1940: Child Labor

The general picture of child labor in 1940 throughout the world was to a considerable extent colored by the European war. In the countries most acutely affected, the urgent need for increased production for national defense has in general resulted in a lowering of child-labor standards along with other labor standards.

The International Labour Office has continued to maintain its essential activities despite war conditions, but in August 1940 its personnel was transferred temporarily to Canada, because communication and transportation had become so difficult that its work could no longer be carried on efficiently from Geneva. The only action on any child-labor convention reported during the year was the ratification by China in February 1940 of the convention setting a basic minimum age of 15 in industrial undertakings.

Great Britain and the Dominions.

An important advance in child-labor standards in Great Britain, the raising of the school-leaving age from 14 to 15 years, was prevented by the onslaught of the war. By special act of Parliament, the operation of the Education Act of 1936, which would have put this standard into effect on Sept. 1, 1939, was suspended. The war emergency also led to the granting of temporary exemptions, permitting employment up to 48 hours a week, from the provision of the Factories Act, which had reduced the weekly hours of work for children under 16 years of age from 48 to 44. The number of these exemptions, however, was greatly decreased during 1940, and the law reducing hours of work of young persons in shops to 44 per week came into force on Jan. 1, 1940. As regards children leaving school for work, the Minister of Education has urged local education authorities to maintain carefully the protection given to children by existing law and to guard against the risk of excessive employment.

In Canada there have been few changes in child-labor standards. In Manitoba, employment in mines or metallurgic works of boys under 16 above ground and of boys under 18 below ground was prohibited. In Quebec, an Order in Council of March 23, 1940, provided for emergency exemptions from the nightwork prohibition for women and young persons under 18, on approval of the Minister of Labor. The Dominion Government has urged that hours of work should not be unduly extended and that increased output should be obtained if possible by the use of additional shifts.

In British West Africa, a minimum age of 16 has been established for underground work in mines and of 14 for surface occupations.

Continental Europe.

In Switzerland, as in Great Britain, war conditions have retarded an important advance in child-labor standards. Regulations were issued in February 1940 for the administration of the Federal law of 1938, which raised the minimum age for employment of children from 14 to 15 and was to become effective March 1, 1940. However, in 11 of the 22 cantons and in part of the twelfth, the operation of the act was postponed, and even in areas where the law went into effect permission was given for the granting of exemptions allowing children over 14 years of age to work in factories.

In a number of the countries of continental Europe, including France, Germany, and Belgium, general suspension of labor legislation, including restrictions on child labor, were authorized at the beginning of the war. Later orders in Germany have restricted this authorization, and in France instructions issued by the Ministry of Labour recommended to the authorities that the extension of the statutory hours of work for young persons be avoided except in special cases.

Hours of labor for young workers have been lengthened in Italy, the Soviet Union, Rumania, and Turkey. In Italy, where the legal minimum age for employment is 14, the services of children 13 years of age may be requisitioned for occupations essential to the prosecution of war.

Latin America.

Child-labor protection in a number of Latin American countries has advanced along with other child-welfare activities. This advance was stimulated to some extent by the emphasis placed on the needs in this field by the Second Conference of American States, members of the International Labour Organization, meeting in Havana in December 1939.

In Brazil, a commission was appointed by the Minister of Labor to study existing legislation relating to the employment of children and women and to make recommendations for improvement. Street trading by young workers was regulated by a Presidential decree, which prohibited minors under 18 years of age from engaging in street trades on their own account. It also established a minimum age of 14 and provided for the regulation of the hours of labor of children between 14 and 18 who work for an employer in such trades.

The Cuban Constitution adopted in June 1940 reaffirms the child-labor provisions of the existing law, including a 14-year minimum age for employment.

A new Federal law in Mexico, which unifies the educational system on a national basis, makes school attendance compulsory for children up to 15 years of age.

In Chile, the new Ministry of Labor, established in 1940, contains a special unit for the administration of laws relating to the employment of children and women.

The United States.

In the United States there have been significant developments in the administration of the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and in state legislative standards. There has been an increase also in public recognition of certain neglected phases of child labor, particularly the employment of children in industrialized agriculture. Standards for child labor and youth employment were approved at the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy held in January 1940, and follow-up conferences in the states have been held with a view to promoting these standards. A determined effort is being made to maintain the labor standards set by state and Federal laws in spite of the need for increased production in this country for defense purposes, and the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense has adopted a statement of labor policy which calls for compliance with all such provisions.

Extent of Child Labor.

The year 1940 will be significant in respect to information on child labor in the United States, as it is the year of the Federal decennial census. The 1940 census, which covers a wider range of information on the entire population of the United States than ever before, should give a comprehensive picture of the extent and nature of employment of children and youth. Tabulations of the data, which were collected in April, are not yet available, however. (See also CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1940.)

A less comprehensive source of information on child labor for intercensal years is that assembled in connection with the administration of the Federal Social Security Act, passed in 1935, under which records are kept for all persons earning taxable wages subject to the Act. In 1938, the latest year for which data are available by age, the number of workers under 18 years of age, exclusive of those in agriculture and in domestic work in private homes, was over 700,000, of whom approximately 100,000 were under 16 years of age. These figures include, however, young persons still attending school and having part-time jobs, as no distinction is made between full-time and part-time employment. Current reports of employment certificates issued for children going to work, received by the Children's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor, though not covering the entire country, give a rough indication of the trends in child labor. These reports show that the number of children under 16 years of age leaving school for work decreased in 1940 in the face of increasing general employment.

Federal Legislation.

The year 1940 was the second year that the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act was in operation. Its child-labor provisions, which are administered by the Children's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor, apply to establishments where goods are produced for shipment in interstate or foreign commerce. These provisions in effect prohibit employment of children under 16 years of age, with very limited exemptions for children 14 and 15 years of age in nonmanufacturing and nonmining occupations, and prohibit employment of minors under 18 years in occupations found and declared by the Chief of the Children's Bureau to be especially hazardous.

In the administration of these standards, cooperative relationships between the Children's Bureau and state and local education and labor officials, set up when the Act went into effect, have been further developed. Under this program voluntary compliance by employers is sought through making certificates of age for their young workers available for their protection, and a system of cooperation with stats and local agencies authorized to issue certificates under state child-labor laws is worked out both to provide such certificates and to strengthen the administration of state laws. Standards have been set up for issuing certificates, and state officials, usually the head of the state labor department or the state education department, have agreed to make certificates of age available in 42 states and in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. Federal certificates are now being issued in 4 states with the assistance and close cooperation of state and local officials, and in the 2 remaining states and in the Territory of Alaska negotiations for cooperation are under way. In carrying out this program definite advances have been brought about in methods of administering state child-labor laws, particularly in state supervision of local employment-certificate issuance.

Under the authority of the Act, which places responsibility in the Children's Bureau for the protection of minors 16 and 17 years of age from hazardous occupations, the Bureau has issued two new orders, applying to employment as drivers of motor vehicles or helpers on such vehicles and to all work in or about coal mines, except in certain specified surface occupations. In these occupations, as well as in all employment in establishments manufacturing explosives or articles containing explosive components, which was the subject of a prohibitive order issued in 1939, a minimum age of 18 is now in effect. These determinations are based on a thorough study of available material, consultation with experts in industrial safety, employers, and employees, and information presented at public hearings. Advisory committees of experts also have been established to assist in developing the program. Investigations of hazards for young workers are now under way in the logging and lumbering, woodworking, and shipbuilding industries.

State Legislation.

The outstanding advance in state legislation in 1940 was made in New Jersey, where amendments to the child-labor law established a basic minimum age of 16 years for employment, a maximum 8-hour day and 40-hour week for minors under 18 years of age, and an 18-year age minimum for work in certain hazardous occupations. Farm work and street trades were also regulated. Nonresident children under 16 were prohibited from working in New Jersey at any time when the law of the state of their residence would require them to be in school.