u/nanothief

I was reading the Revisiting New London #1: New Adaptation Laws with Paweł Szyszka , the first addition it mentioned was this:

> First of all is an additional Child Labour law - Maintenance. Child labour in my opinion is, besides it’s undeniable memetic value, an abjectivelly worse choice in comparison with Child Helpers which is useful through the entire game, not only at the very beginning. With a new law you can force the little ones to do mundane tasks in dangerous places. Their small frames allow them to fit in tight spots between machinery to maintain or repair it without closing the facility. With that you can squeeze some more effectiveness out of your workplaces even in the late game and make them more efficient. This will make using children as a workforce a viable option even in a late game and with a big population, but with a price to pay.

I've always thought it was the other way round, with child labour being much better than child helpers. Child Helpers:

• Child Labour useful immediately after one law. Child Helpers needs two to really help (the hope gained from the Child Shelters isn't that helpful).
• In the early game it is a big help. I like to split jobs down into two areas: maintenance and enhancement. Maintenance are the tasks to keep the colony running (e.g. food, coal, medical). Enhancement is making the colony better (e.g. gathering wood, steel, researching, building). Early on a large proportion of work needs to be spent on maintenance, meaning any additional labour "for free" ends up having a disproportionate effect on the enhancement speed of the colony. E.g. if you have 100 adults, 20 children, and need 50 of the adults on food/cooking/coal mining/medical, then you only have 50 working on wood/steel/research. If you can then use the 20 children for the some work, then you could then have 70 working on wood/steel/research, a 40% increase, not 20%.
• There is always work you can get them to do even late game, from gathering coal piles from coal thumpers, farming food at hot houses, cooking.
• If you go the faith path (and aren't going for a deathless run), you can also get the House of Healing, which not only frees all your engineers from medical work, but saves you from having to research the infirmary upgrades, and saves steam cores. Child helpers works amazingly with this, meaning 100% of your engineers can be used for reseach.

In comparison, you need two laws to get any benefit out of child helpers. This ends up pushing back the law a long time, as there are always better options to take first. When you do finally get it, the benefit is pretty small: a 20% boost in efficiency for one workshop or 30% for a medical facility. That is roughly the equivalent of 1 bonus engineer at a workshop, or 1.5 to 3 bonus engineers at a infirmary, in exchange for 15 children. This is a terrible trade as compared to child labour.