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this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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A lot of child labor in the US, is in fact, very legal.
From the age of 10-15, working papers can be issued allowing children to deliver newspaper, hawk products on corners, and do limited farm work.
From 15-17, working papers can be issues allowing children to pretty much do any job, with some limitations on hours, and tooling they can use (ie, no automatic sharp tools, like slicers).
Now, these are for my state. Some states are far more exploitative, such as Georgia, where kids as young as 13 can work a fast food joint.
Yeah as an American that lives in a rural area, I started working at the age of 8 doing small jobs like penny saver delivery to help pay for groceries since my mom was wasting child support on booze and drugs.
By 14 I was an assistant chef at a restaurant because I started as a dishwasher the year before and the other chefs quit or had a heart attack (miss you Bob). And I worked until 1am basically doing clean up and still had to go to school.
If no one around you is caring about the rules and life of others, big federal/state rules are easily ignored, even in America.
Now that you mention it, I was a soccer ref when I was 15. You're right, it probably varies by state. I guess "child labor" is a pretty broad term that could include delivering newspapers and processing chicken on a factory floor.