Child Labor: the Case of Hammer v. Dagenhart

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US Government
All over the United States, children under 14 years old are not allowed to work outside school hours, and those who are over 15 may work outside their school hours in different non-mining, non-manufacturing and non-hazardous workplaces (Emerson & Souza 104). Permissible work hours for children are three hours on a single school day, eight hours on every non-school day, and about eighteen hours in one school week. In addition, kids are not allowed to work for more than forty hours in a single non-school week, and their timings should be between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. June 1 is when they wouldn’t be asked to work due to Labor Day (Biklé & Bikle 32).
The situation, however, was not the same until 1917. One year later, in 1918, the Supreme Court decided Hammer v Dagenhart case, and for the first time, it was said that children would not work for long hours at dangerous and difficult jobs. The purpose was to increase the number of children in schools and prevent them from working at difficult workplaces. Previously, they were paid cents for every single hour, which was a matter of great concern. The Court found that children were in demand in factories especially the textile industry since they were ready to work for pennies. As part of Hammer v. Dagenhart, it was announced that the trend of cheap labor would be changed by the whole and that children below 14 would not be allowed to work. Instead, they would be required to go to schools for studies.
Hammer v. Dagenhart was brought to the court by workers who were tired of being treated arrogantly and rudely. Dagenhart was the dad of two kids who could have lost t...