There are rules and then there are exceptions to those rules, of which, it is the height of hypocrisy in this modern day and age that children should have to suffer unduly from some of these exemptions to what should be good rules, which clearly instead have been structured in a way, in which profit and the greed so of, rules over the child’s welfare. While, it certainly makes sense, that on a small family farm, (of which, the very existence of small family farms is in steep decline), that the work so needed to sustain that farm, will often necessitate the aid of the children of that family; but this has little or nothing to do with the Federal law, that so declares, that children as young as twelve years old, are eligible to work as many hours as they so desire, seven days a week, as long as such does not interfere with their attendance to school, as well as these children also having received parental consent to work.
Not too surprisingly, a huge swath of those so performing the back breaking work for others of agricultural and farming duties, are pretty much people that don’t have a lot of good options available to them, along with them typically not readily understanding their legal rights, and of which, those that are parents, are going to, in absence of anything of substance or merit for their children to attend to, be okay with their children working in the fields as well, because they often need and desire the additional income from such labor, as well as having an abiding desire to keep their children in close proximity to them.
Further to the harm, though, that these children suffer from, in regards to having them labor at such a young age in agricultural and farming duties, is the fact that the pay so legally required to be provided to them, is subject to minimum wage laws which permits the contractor for a period of time to pay a “youth minimum wage,” if they so are inclined to. Additionally, children’s bodies and brains are still in the process of developing, and by virtue of the fact, that within a lot of these industries there are all sorts of hazards involved, including the tools of the trade, as well as noxious chemicals, makes such work especially pernicious and dangerous for young children. So too, the fact of the matter is, that children are far easier to exploit and to take advantage of, then are adults.
While, it is true, that most parents have the best interests of their children, at heart, they are also susceptible to doing what they so have to do, in order to make some sort of a living; and when the wages and the hours so being paid and devoted to, do not allow these parents any real semblance of a decent life, they are going to, perhaps reluctantly, have a strong tendency to utilize their children as additional labor to help make ends meet. That companies that employ these people have an abiding desire to exploit them and to take advantage of them, is unquestionable; that said, though, what is especially disappointing, is that the Federal government, apparently has no real desire to protect those that are its youngest and its most vulnerable, but instead, believes they should be sacrificed to profit, above all.