Child Labor In America, 1920

Child Labor In America, 1920
August 17, 2012
by Lam Thuy Vo - NPR

Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development

So I was looking through an old Census report and I found a chapter entitled "Children in Gainful Occupations."

Turns out, about 1 million children age 10 to 15 were working in America in 1920 (out of a total population of 12 million kids in that age range). About half worked on family farms. The rest did everything else, working in factories, trained as apprentices, and served as messengers.

As late as 1940, the average American had only a ninth-grade education, and the first enduring, federal child-labor law wasn't passed until 1938.

Anyway, here are two graphics showing what a million kids did for work back in 1920.

GRAPHICS

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/08/16/158925367/child-labor-in-america-1920

1929 CENSUS

http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1920.html