Which practice involved employing workers who are under the legal working age?

• A. Labor Union
• B. Child Labor
• C. Prohibition
• D. Sweatshops

Answer: (B)

The practice of employing workers who are under the legal working age is called child labor. In U.S. history, many factories and mines hired children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, often because they could be paid lower wages and perform tasks suited to small hands. This spurred reforms and laws that eventually established minimum ages and restricted hours for minors. The other terms refer to different ideas: a labor union is an organization that negotiates for workers’ rights and pay, prohibition was the ban on alcohol, and sweatshops describe harsh, underregulated factory conditions (which can involve underage workers, but the term focuses on the working conditions, not the age issue). So, the best label for the practice of hiring underage workers is child labor.