Four times more children died in work-related accidents on farms than in accidents involving any other industries from 2003 to 2016.
A recent child labor report issued by the federal Government Accountability Office said 237 children died in farm work-related accidents during the period. That’s four times more than in any other industry.
In comparison, 59 children died in construction and mining work during that time. The report said that more than 50 percent of child work-related deaths occurred in farming, though fewer than 5.5 percent of working children worked on farms during that period. Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League and co-chairwoman of the Child Labor Coalition, said, “the scourge of child labor still haunts America.”
The GAO child-labor study, which updated a 2002 GAO child-labor study, also called for better child-labor data.
The study said about 2.5 million U.S. children work for wages.
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