Chapter 23. Child Labor And The U.N. Convention On The Rights Of The Child

Abstract

Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that states parties should take measures to protect children from the deleterious effects of work. The modern law concerning child labor in the United States dates from 1938. In that year, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA provided, among other things, for the establishment of minimum wages for employment in particular fields and maximum work hours in those fields. The U.S. Supreme Court has occasionally issued rulings pertinent to the child labor provisions of the FLSA. Early case law both cleared the way for the constitutionality of the FLSA and debated the extent to which certain provisions of the FLSA applied to particular occupations. The recent ratification of International Labor Organization Convention No. 182 may bring the United States even closer to complete compliance with Article 32.Keywords: child labor provisions; CRC; Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); United States