Most existing research indicates that working students perform more poorly than do full-time students on standardized achievement tests. However, we know there are wide international variations in this gap. This article shows that national and international contexts help to explain the gap in the academic performance between working and nonworking…

Child poverty is a global issue that affects around half the children in the world; it is inextricably bound to the poverty experienced by their parents and families and has been identified by the United Nations as a human rights issue. Child poverty can be a barrier to children and young people accessing school education or achieving any form of…

The shadowy, criminal nature of human trafficking makes evaluating its nature and scope difficult. The U.S. State Department and anti-trafficking groups estimate that worldwide some 27 million people are caught in a form of forced servitude today. Public awareness of modern-day slavery is gaining momentum thanks to new abolitionist efforts. Among…

What it means to be a "student" varies within and between countries. Apart from the wide variety of school types and school quality that is experienced by young people, there also is, accompanying increased rates of school participation, a growing population of students who work part-time. The theoretical and actual consequences of…

Children working in agriculture have always been a part of the rural culture and work ethos of the United States, especially on the Great Plains. Many teenagers still detassel corn or walk the beans in the summer months to earn spending money or money for college. But what about the children who work as migrant laborers in commercialized…

In 1994, students from Broad Meadows Middle School met Iqbal Masih, a 12-year-old Pakistani activist who had been sold into bonded labor at age 4 and escaped at age 10. They were moved to take action, and started a letter-writing campaign protesting child labor. When they heard of Iqbal's death later that year, they decided to build a school in…

Recent evidence has emerged that in Britain, like the United States, many children below minimum school-leaving age are working. Often, the work is illegal. Research in the United States suggests that many risk accidents and other hazards to health. Evidence from Britain is of a more fragmentary nature, but enough exists to suggest a need for…

On average, 67 youths under age 18 die at work in the United States each year, and many more suffer work-related injuries. In 1998, an estimated 77,000 young workers suffered work injuries that required treatment in hospital emergency rooms. It is estimated that only one third of work-related injuries are seen in emergency departments; therefore,…

This booklet is a guide to the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (also known as the Wage-Hour Law) which apply to minors employed in agriculture. The content is as follows: coverage of the child labor provisions regarding agricultural employment, minimum age standards for employment in agriculture, school hours and employment in…

This booklet is a guide to the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (also known as the Wage-Hour Law) which apply to minors employed in nonagricultural occupations. The content is as follows: coverage of the child labor provisions (covers employees in commerce, the production of goods for commerce, an enterprise engaged in commerce, and an…

In this article, the author discusses her comparative study of the history of the welfare state in the United States, England, and France, she studies some of the usual features of the welfare state, which include important entitlement programs, such as social insurance, and protective labor legislation, but she also focuses on the development of…