Reply #93: I worked starting about 10. Picking strawberries. We got the going wage. [View All]

[peacetalksforall]

It was not because we were struggling, my father had a good job. Some of the picking was in our own gardens and sometimes we got to do it for people who had bigger gardens or possibly even a business. Lasted a few days or weeks. I loved it because I had my own money and I thought it was a neat task. When I was about 12 I baby sat for a family with six children because the income the father brought in wasn't sufficient to cover their obligations and the mother had to work. I got the going rate.

The line to draw here is that this work for a large commercial company is not just about hiring adults. This is all about the intent and policy and enforcement of policies that this corporation had laid out regarding children.

Knowing Wal-Mart policies, we know that they can suck the money out of suppliers.

Did the blueberry company allow the children around and the parents put them to work?
Did the blueberry company hire the kids unofficially?
If they knowingly allowed them to work, did they stipulate ages and wages and write them down and get signatures?

This is not about what most of did as kids. Corporations/suppplier enetities weren't involved. That may not be true for all kids. But, most of us should not compare our youth to the youth in this situation.