Child labor laws have little to do with protecting children and were implemented to protect unions from lower wage workers. Outside of acting and modeling, nothing a thirteen year old is allowed to do will pay enough to get her off the streets. Granted most children live with their parents so, for them, that is not an issue. However, there are runaways; sometimes for good reasons such as abuse by parents or guardians or the mother’s live-in boyfriend. Certainly, there are child protective services, but many of those inept and uncaring social workers do far more harm than good.
A runaway might find a nanny position with free room and board but the politicians have made that illegal. And, even it wasn’t, the politicians passed minimum wage laws that would make hiring her too expensive. For children under the age of 18, minimum wage should be $5, 2/3rd of the minimum wage, or nonexistent. $5 an hour for 20 hours per week would be enough to share $250 a month room and buy food.
The politicians claim it is for the children, but they don’t care about the children. They would rather we die on the street or whore for some pimp than to let us work so we might have a chance earn enough to eat and have room to live in. They sold us out so the unions don’t have to compete with lower wage children.
I understand that children need an education so limiting their hours to 20 hours a week is not unreasonable, nor is not allowing children to operate tractors, dangerous, equipment, or dangerous job such as roofing.
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