Child Labor Reform and Lewis Hine

These vocabulary flashcards cover major laws, people, movements, and terms related to child labor in the U.S. and Lewis Hine’s role in reform.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

A 1938 U.S. law that set 14 as the minimum working age for non-agricultural jobs, required safe workplaces, and protected children’s health and education.

Lewis Hine

American sociologist-turned-photographer whose 5,000+ images of child laborers spurred public outrage and helped drive reform legislation.

Industrial Revolution

Technological and social upheaval (c. 1760-mid-1800s) that shifted workers from rural farms to urban factories, creating new labor demands—including for children.

Second Industrial Revolution

Late-19th-century phase (beginning 1880s) marked by electricity, telephones, and skyscrapers, which further expanded urban populations and factory production.

National Child Labor Committee (NCLC)

Reform nonprofit that hired Lewis Hine in 1906 to investigate and expose child labor conditions through photographs and reports.

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act (1916)

Early federal law limiting child labor; influenced by Hine’s photographs and other NCLC efforts; a precursor to later, stronger protections.

100-Hour Work Week

Average schedule for full-time factory laborers—including children—in 1890: six days a week, roughly 16-17 hours per day.

Child Labor

Employment of children—often very young—in hazardous, low-wage jobs such as factories, mills, meatpacking plants, and street trades.

Photographic Activism

The strategic use of powerful images to sway public opinion and enact social change, exemplified by Hine’s child-labor photos.

Forty-Hour Work Week

Modern U.S. labor standard (five 8-hour days) that contrasts sharply with the 100-hour weeks common before reforms.