Danielle Shapiro, Herald News, September 3, 2007 - Fact: Agricultural work accounted for a whopping 42 percent of all work-related fatalities for young workers between 1992 and 2000, according to a 2003 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety.

Fact: By contrast, work in family businesses accounted for more than 30 percent of all work-related fatalities for young workers during that time span, according to the same study.

Question: In New Jersey, which type of work is legal for your 12-year-old child – working on your farm or ringing up customers at your convenience store?

If you said ringing up customers, you'd be thinking logically.

But you'd be wrong.

Child labor laws were created to protect children, but they don't always seem to make a lot of sense. The reason, said some child labor advocates and historians, is that those laws have a long and politically laced history – both nationally and in New Jersey.

"For most of the 230-year history of this country, until probably the beginning of (World War II), this country considered itself an agricultural nation," said Jeffrey Newman, president of the New York City-based National Child Labor Committee. "So the passage of child labor laws could never have occurred at the state or federal level if agriculture was not excluded as it was."

David Bensman, a professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University, said both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which includes child labor regulations, and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 regulated agricultural work more loosely than some other jobs.

"I think the reason they did," he said, "is because the agricultural industry said they couldn't survive without child labor."

Newman speculated that similar political considerations, along with entrenched American traditions, influenced work rules governing children's labor in the entertainment field (no minimum age) and as newspaper carriers (minimum age 11).

Because Americans love child stars (think Shirley Temple), they would not have tolerated a law limiting their performances, Newman said -- and newspaper publishers would have opposed child work laws that deprived them of their newspaper delivery boys. By contrast, the minimum age for work in a bowling alley, restaurant or gas station, all listed as "general employment" in New Jersey, is a more mature 14.

Newman called New Jersey a leader in workplace protection for its strict laws prohibiting underage labor, even in family-owned businesses, but he said that regulating children's work in those areas and in private homes has been politically fraught

"It's ... difficult to do," he said, "because you are telling parents what they can or can't do in their own home or business."

The state's child labor laws date back to at least 1904, although weaker laws existed in the mid-19th century, according to "Labor Legislation of New Jersey," by Philip Charles Nelson. Those earliest laws, according to a 2003 report to Congress titled "Youth Employment in the Agricultural Industry" provided by the federal Labor Department, applied only to manufacturing and textiles, establishing minimum educational requirements and restricting work hours.

Between 1940 and 2007, state child labor law was amended several times; changes in 2005 increased the monetary penalties for violating the rules. The federal government is considering changes regarding the "hazardous" jobs minors are allowed to do. The deadline for public comment was July 16.

Child labor laws include rules, differing by job type, for the ages and hours at which children may work. Those rules change during the summer. At least one area farm owner said the laws can be tricky to follow, noting he was fined for allowing minors to work too many hours during a Columbus Day holiday weekend.

The summer rules are particularly evident in New Jersey's agricultural-work laws, which set the minimum age at 12 outside school hours, but 16 during school hours. No such restrictions limit a child working on his or her family's farm.

Jeff Beach, public information officer at the state Department of Agriculture, said children must take a farm-safety course and obtain a special permit when not working their own family's farm. The course is strongly recommended, regardless, he said.New Jersey accrues about $84 billion a year from the agriculture sector and the food businesses that buy from it, Beach said. In terms of total sales volume, the state ranks second in the nation in blueberries, cranberries and – this year, because of a freeze in the South -- peaches; fourth in spinach and bell peppers; and ninth in tomatoes, he said.

At Pennings Farm Market and Garden Center in Warwick, N.Y., near West Milford, owner Steve Pennings said he employs minors ages 15 and older. Though he grew up on his father's dairy farm, throwing bales of hay and driving a tractor as soon as he was able, Pennings said most of the teens at the 25-year-old family-owned farm work primarily in the retail store. Some do simple chores, such as weeding and picking tomatoes. His own son, a high school freshman, is the only one permitted to drive the tractor.

"I would never let them operate a piece of equipment, not in this day and age," he said. "The equipment is much more intense than when we were little."

Alexandra Debrody, 15, who works at Farms View in Wayne, said she chose it because it hired younger people. Minors work only in the retail market, not in the fields, said Irene Kuehm, whose husband's family has owned Farms View for 113 years.

Alexandra says that field work is inappropriate for those younger than 14: "They don't have the muscles." And, anyway, farm work doesn't interest her.

"I don't want to get so dirty," she said. "And I don't like bugs."

Reach Danielle Shapiro at 973-569-7153 or shapiro@northjersey.com

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