When I worked for McDonald's in the 70s, my manager was black. Most of the employees were black. I was there less than 6 months before he asked me, if I wanted to be considered for the McDonald's management training program. I asked him, "Why me?" Other employees had been there much longer.
He said, when I send you to clean up the parking lot and check afterwards it is spotless, you even pick up the cigarette butts. When I asked to wash the pots and pans, you do so without complaint. When I ask you to stay late (sometimes till 3AM in the morning) to get the place clean for opening, you stay.
No job is below you and you work alongside everyone and get along with everyone even though I know you are attending college and most of the employees never will.
I turned down the offer, because I had different plans. But I told him thanks and that I enjoyed working for him, he was fair. I told him, I learned to work as a child picking up the litter at my father's company and later cleaning the workers' bathroom. Eventually, by late high school and early college (during the summer), I worked alongside them, most African Americans from the South, who had migrated north for better jobs.
I realized my father had taught his son how to work.
I was lucky I had the chance to do some of the dirtiest jobs you can imagine as a child. The "change" I earned was far less important than the lessons I learned. I graduated college in December of 1979, seven years later I was a Vice President of a multi-billion corporation. How did I rise so fast in so short a time? When most young people are learning to work, I had already been working for years and when I combined that with my education, there was no holding me back.
We should not be avoiding child labor, but rather embracing it in a way that it prepares young people for the world. Children need to learn to do hard, dirty jobs to appreciate how much our much our quality of life is the product of their hard work.
Our country needs people who do hard dirty jobs and when you get your hands dirty working, you learn to appreciate those people that do it for their whole lives.
"Protecting children" can mean different things to different people. I certainly believe children should be protected in terms of safety and their job should not interfere with their schooling, but it should be menial, ideally dirty, and yet a job that "needs doing". What we don't want our child labor laws that discourage employers from hiring children.
As the saying goes, "the Devil is in the details". Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. No doubt children were abused in the past by employers, and we certainly don't want a repeat of that... but something equally abusive is preventing children from learning how to work, show up on time, be responsible, and collect a check.
Final note: as someone who employed thousands over his career. It made a huge difference (far bigger than someone's GPA) to me when hiring if the person worked in high school and college. Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of a small business is the ability to teach your children how to work... I recommend starting them at the bottom and learning to appreciate what every worker does.
