Facts

Between 300,000 and 800,000 child farmworkers are laboring under dangerous and grueling conditions in the United States. These children often work 12-hour days, and during peak harvesting season, may work 14 hours a day or more, seven days a week. Some are paid as little as $2 an hour.

Picking apples, North Carolina. © David Peele. Courtesy of IIECL.

Farm work is the most dangerous occupation open to minors in the US. Child farmworkers risk pesticide poisoning, heat illnesses, injuries and life-long disabilities. They account for 8% of all working children, but suffer 40% of work-related fatalities among minors.

A report from Human Rights Watch documents the failure of the US government to protect children working in agriculture. The report, entitled "Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers," draws on scores of interviews with child farmworkers and farmworker advocates. Key findings include:

• Child farmworkers frequently work long hours at young ages. Human Rights Watch interviewed children who worked ten hours a day at age twelve, and others working twelve or more hours a day at age fourteen, sometimes beginning at 3 or 4 a.m.
  
  
• Child farmworkers are routinely exposed to dangerous pesticides, suffering rashes, headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Long-term consequences of pesticide poisoning include cancer and brain damage.
  
  
• Children working in agriculture suffer a high rate of injuries from knives and heavy equipment. An estimated 100,000 children suffer agriculture-related injuries annually in the United States.
  
  
• Young farmworkers are often cheated from receiving their rightful wages, and many earn far less than minimum wage (currently $5.15). Some interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported earnings as little as two dollars an hour.
  
  
• Girls are routinely subjected to sexual advances by farm labor contractors and field supervisors. Many do not speak English, do not know that sexual harassment is illegal, and fear losing their jobs or other retaliation if they report the abuse.
  
  
• Long hours of work interfere with the education of children working in the fields. Only 55 percent of farmworker children in the United States finish high school. Of the dozens interviewed by Human Rights Watch, nearly every one had dropped out of school for at least one extended period of time.
  
• Many young farmworkers are forced to work without access to toilet facilities or handwashing facilities. Being unable to wash hands greatly increases children's risk of pesticide poisoning.

• Employers often fail to provide adequate drinking water for workers, even though temperatures may exceed 100 degrees. Child farmworkers risk heat illness, and may experience dizziness, headaces, nausea and vomiting.
  

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