<P> In 1916, under pressure from the NCLC and the National Consumers League, the United States Congress passed the Keating--Owen Act, regulating interstate commerce involving goods produced by employees under the ages of 14 or 16, depending on the type of work, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson . It was the first federal child labor law . However, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law two years later in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), declaring that the law violated the Commerce Clause by regulating intrastate commerce . Later that year, Congress attempted to levy a tax on businesses with employees under the ages of 14 or 16 (again depending on the type of work), which was struck down by the Supreme Court in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (1922). </P> <P> In response to these setbacks, Congress, on June 2, 1924, approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would authorize Congress to regulate "labor of persons under eighteen years of age", and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification . Only five states ratified the amendment in the 1920s . However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration supported it, and another 14 states signed on in 1933 (his first year in office); 28 states in all had given their approval by 1937 . An additional 8 states were needed at the time to ratify the proposed amendment . </P> <P> The common legal opinion on federal child labor regulation reversed in the 1930s . Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 regulating the employment of those under 16 or 18 years of age, and the Supreme Court upheld the law . After this shift, the amendment has been described as "moot" and effectively part of the Constitution . </P> <P> However, while the 1938 labor law placed limits on many forms of child labor, agricultural labor was excluded . As a result, approximately 500,000 children pick almost a quarter of the food currently produced in the United States . </P>

When did child labor end in the us