Fields of Peril: Child labor in US agriculture

In this 99-page report Human Rights Watch found that child farmworkers risked their safety, health, and education on commercial farms across the United States. For the report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 59 children under age 18 who had worked as farmworkers in 14 states in various regions of the United States. Child farmworkers as young as 12 years old often work for hire for 10 or more hours a day, five to seven days a week. Some start working part-time at age 6 or 7. Children, like many adult farmworkers, typically earn far less than minimum wage, and their pay is often further cut because employers underreport hours and force them to spend their own money on tools, gloves, and drinking water that their employers should provide by law. On May 10, 2010, the United States will join over 80 other countries at a global child labor conference hosted by the Dutch government in The Hague. A goal of the conference is better enforcement of the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, with a focus on agriculture.