Children have been working for family enterprises like farms and small shops for many generations, but child labor also occurred.

Young children were working in dangerous places like, mines and factories, which altered their safety.

The first state to regulate child labor was Massachusetts in 1842.

This prohibited children under the age of 12 from working more than 10 hours a day.

Now all states have regulated this problem by making the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

This act provides protection for children under the age of 16 from hard working labor.

For children under the age of 18 to work legally, they must acquire a work permit.

The work permit can be found at a school office, which is then brought to the business where the student plans to work and is then filled out by the business manager.

The student should bring it back to his school district to have them document completed. Once this is done, the student is legally allowed to work.

Sophomore Haley Rowan had to go through the process of obtaining a work permit to get a job at Tasty Layers.

“It wasn’t really difficult to get the job,” Rowan said. “All I had to do was ask for the work permit paper in the school office and then get it filled out.”

It used to be that children were forced to work, which is considered child labor, depending on the type of work that is being done.

There wasn’t anything called work permits, so children were not able to choose if they wanted to work or not, because it was not up to them to decide.

Junior Jazzmine Wolfe agrees that getting your work permit is not hard to do at all.

“It was not hard to get a job permit, but we (Jessica, Jazzmine’s sister and Jazzmine Wolfe) did currently work at the Genesee McDonald’s, but we quit working there back in November,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe said it was a challenge to complete her school work while working part time.

“It can be hard to get homework done at night, but if your motivated to do your homework before anything else, then it should be good,” Wolfe said. “All you have to do for a permit is to go to the school office and ask for it, then you fill it out and get it signed. It’s really not too complicated.”

Some students decide not to get a work permit in order to get a job because they want to focus on only school work.

Sophomore Lilliann Dolan believes that sometimes school is more important than focusing more on a job.

“School is something that leads to being successful in your life,” Dolan said. “I don’t want a job in this time of my life because I wouldn’t have time for cheer and to hang out with my friends.”

Dolan also said she will worry about working once she graduates from high school.

“I have my whole life to work but only about two years left of high school,” Dolan said, “so I want to spend the rest of my high school focusing on maintaining my grades and having fun while I can.”