| Among developed nations, the U.S. has the largest percentage of youth employment. While many youth are employed in service or retail sectors, a smaller percentage work in the agricultural sector, which has been alternately viewed either as “a bucolic healthy employment sector for the youth” or as “the most dangerous youth employment sector with higher rates of school failure, injury, and death.”;Contemporary issues in adolescent employment in the U.S. focus, in part, on whether student employment has positive or negative effects on students' academic outcomes, yet students employed in agriculture have not been compared with other adolescents working in other sectors. This study explores the relationship between employment sectors (agricultural vs. non-agricultural) and the academic achievement of junior and senior high school students in the U.S. The academic achievement of non-working students is also compared.;The results from the analysis of the NELS:88 data set suggest that agricultural employment is associated with decreasing students' test scores in most grades. The decrease in test scores was most conspicuous if students were continuously engaged in farm work at 8th, 10th, and 12 th grade. This decrease was also particularly clear for 8th grade students, who lack sufficient statutory protection. The results from this study encourage stricter federal child labor protection for youth employed in farm labor, and modification of the Fair Labor Standard Acts (FLSA) to more contemporary needs. |
