The Fight against Child Labor
International Business
Tamara Ramsey
May 9, 2012

Abstract Child labor has recently become a very touchy subject throughout the world. Well known corporations and clothing and sporting goods distributors that have for decades been taking advantage of cheap labor in third world countries are seeing their names and images tarnished by allegations of child labor practices and obscene working conditions. Child labor is nothing new to the world. It has been a part of almost every society in recorded history. From ancient times, children have been a part of the economic survival of their families, particularly in industries like the farming and crafting industries. Child labor is meant to define unfair, abusive work whereas work is an important part of the sculpting of most children. There is no question in society that some forms of labor are acceptable and some are not. Children may work without being abused and in many countries and even some American cultures; it is both necessary and integral that children perform some laborious duties. The line between work and child labor is most commonly drawn where normal tasks are replaced with exploitative tasks and children are expected to do things that go well beyond the borders of inhumane.

When you think about children, chances are you think of them getting up in the morning, going to school, then coming home and going outside to play. Sadly this isn't always the case. In many countries, children are locked up inside factories and forced to work. Child labor is driven by child and family impoverishment, market forces, and political apathy concerning the rights of the child. It is synonymous with child exploitation, because the activities may be hazardous, may interfere with the child's education, and may be "harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development." Although a fundamental concern of the early 20th century child welfare system, today child labor is often seen as outside the scope of child welfare and child protective services. Making child labor a focus of child advocacy activity once again could do much to better the lives of children. In many developed countries, it is considered inappropriate or exploitative if a child below a certain age works (excluding household chores or school-related work). An employer is usually not permitted to hire a child below a certain minimum age. This minimum age depends on the country and the type of work involved. Children can be employed in factory work, mining, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having one's own small business(for example selling food), or doing odd jobs. Some children work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants (where they may also work as waiters). Other children are forced to do tedious and repetitive jobs such as: assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store's products, or cleaning. However, rather than in factories and sweatshops, most child labor occurs in the informal sector, "selling many things on the streets, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses —far from the reach of official labor inspectors and from media scrutiny." And all the work that they did was done in all types of weather and was also done for minimal pay. As long as there is family poverty there will be child labor. Millions of children work to help their families in ways that are neither harmful nor exploitative. However, UNICEF estimates that around 150 million children aged 5-14 in developing countries, about 16 per cent of all children in this age group, are involved in child labor. ILO estimates that throughout the world, around 215 million children under 18 works, many full-time. In Sub Saharan African 1 in 4 children aged 5-17 work, compared to 1 in 8 in Asia Pacific and 1 in 10 in Latin America. Although aggregate numbers suggest that more boys than girls are involved in child labor, many of the types of work girls are involved in are invisible. It is estimated that roughly 90% of children involved in domestic labor are girls. Even though the prevalence of child labor has been falling in recent years everywhere apart from Sub Saharan Africa where it is actually increasing with regard to children aged 5-14, it continues to harm the physical and mental development of children and adolescents and interfere with their education. (Unknown, 2012) According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 138 on the Minimum Age for Employment-the world's principal standard on child labor, which was passed in 1973, and has been signed by more than 60 nations, child labor is any economic activity performed by someone younger than 15 years of age. Approximately 250 million children, ranging in age from 5 to 14, are estimated to be laboring worldwide. Approximately 60% and 30% of these laboring children reside on the Asian and African continents, respectively; however, America shares the problem. In the United States, as many as 800,000 children under the age of 18 work as migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the state of California alone. About 25% of all deaths of working children in the United States occur in agriculture. Every day, children across America are working in environments detrimental to their social and educational development, their health and even their lives. Of the estimated five million youth in the work force, thousands are injured, even killed, because several barriers continue to prevent them from being adequately protected in the workplace. Since 1938, child labor has been regulated under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This law prohibits employment in any hazardous nonagricultural occupation for all children under the age of eighteen. No child under eighteen may work in mining, logging, construction, on a motor vehicle, or with power-driven machinery. (Levine, 2003) A patchwork of inefficient data collection systems fail to monitor the total number, much less the wellbeing, of youth in the workplace. Enforcement of the FLSA is lax. Cultural beliefs about the worth of work for children are strong. And, various Political Action Committees (PACs) lobby successfully to keep child labor laws from being strengthened, and, in many cases, to weaken existing laws. (Goyer, 2010) “Child labor today is at a point where violations are greater than at any point during the 1930s,” said Jeffrey Newman of the National Child Labor Committee, an advocacy group founded in 1904. (Goyer, 2010) Violations are occurring today on farms and businesses around the country. Farm owners beat the system by allowing their entire family, including the children; to work under one person’s social security number or by hiring a farm contractor who, on the books, counts as only one employee (while the contractors then hire whomever they wish).
Businesses aren’t worried about the child labor violations that they commit because the laws are rarely enforced. One report found that the average business could expect to be inspected once every 50 years or so. Inspectors spend only about five percent of their time looking into child labor problems. Even when companies are inspected and violations are found, the maximum penalty of $10,000 per violation is rarely enforced.
Most Americans might be shocked to learn that there is less protection given to children hired on farms than all other working children. This double standard falls mostly on poor Hispanic children, who are the majority of child farmworkers. About 85% of crop workers in the United States are Hispanic, and living in poverty.
“The US Labor Department has caved in to Big Agriculture and their allies in Congress to abandon the most vulnerable working children in America,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of protecting child farmworkers, the Labor Department will look the other way when children get crushed, suffocated, and poisoned on the job.” (Unknown, U.S. Labor Department limits child farmworker protection as dangers persist, 2012)
Child labor on farms not only risks children’s health and lives; it also violates the international legal obligations of the US under the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO). In 2010, the ILO Committee of Experts expressed serious concerns regarding the significant number of injuries and fatalities suffered by children in US agriculture, and the exemptions in US law that allow young children to work. The committee called on the United States to take immediate action to comply with its treaty obligations. (Unknown, U.S. Labor Department limits child farmworker protection as dangers persist, 2012)
Even in the United States, children have been found to provide products to major corporations. In 1997, an investigation by the Associated Press followed "the work products of 50 children to more than two dozen companies including Campbell Soup Co., Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurants, ConAgra, Costco, H.J. Heinz, Newman's Own, J.C. Penney, Pillsbury, Sears and Wal-Mart."10 (The AP reported that every company contacted condemned child labor, and some launched investigations into their suppliers' use of under-age workers.) "Some were older teens working a few too many hours in after-school jobs. But also among them were 59,600 children under age fourteen and 13,100 who worked in garment sweatshops, defined as factories with repeated labor violations." Employers, the AP estimated, saved $155 million in wages by hiring these under-age workers instead of people of legal age. An estimate of the total number of child laborers in the United States, based on census data and workplace data, came to 290,200 children (down from two million a century earlier). (Bachman, 2000) In the summer of 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed new rules that would restrict children younger than sixteen from being employed in agriculture-related jobs. This would have been the first time in decades that these regulations would have been updated. This regulation would not have applied to children working on family farms. The new restrictions would have added prohibitions on operating heavy machinery, working in silos, handling of pesticides, and working in the production of tobacco. As of April 26, 2012, the Labor Department has withdrawn this proposal.
In Western Europe and the United States industrial growth increased demand for skilled, adult labor and increased returns to education, thereby reducing child work, even before laws defining and curbing child labor were passed or implemented. Nardinelli's (1991) landmark analysis showed that historically child labor incidence began to fall well before countries in Western Europe adopted national laws banning child labor. Businesses using increasingly sophisticated technology demanded workers with more education and literacy, and greater industrial productivity led to higher incomes for those workers. The payoff for becoming a literate adult worker rose; and, therefore, so did the incentive for children to stay in school. (Bachman, 2000)
Now, let’s turn to the developing countries and the issue of child labor. The majority of Americans would be horrified to support a business that exploits the use of child labor to produce its goods. However, odds are we all have in a way supported these businesses the last time we went shopping. Be it a baseball for our child, a diamond ring for our fiancés, or a chocolate bar for our hunger it probably was made using child labor in Indonesia, South Africa, or the Ivory Coast. The use of child labor is a major driver of the global economy in today's age of globalization where U.S. companies such as Nike, Reebok, or Wal-Marts have taken control of the market. These companies should stop using child labor to produce their goods.
Child Labor is not only a cause, but also a consequence of social inequities reinforced by discrimination. Children from indigenous groups or lower castes are more likely to drop out of school to work. Migrant children are also vulnerable to hidden and illicit labor.
One in six children 5 to 14 years old, about 16% of all children in this age group, is involved in child labor in developing countries. In the least developed countries, 30% of all children are engaged in child labor. These children are put to work in ways that drain a childhood of joy and crush the right to normal physical and mental development, and often interfere with children’s education.

Percentage of children aged 5-14 engaged in child labor, by region:

Percentage of boys and girls aged 5-14 engaged in child labor, by region:

(Unknown, Statistics by Area/Child Protection, 2012)
Although Africa and Asia together account for a very substantial proportion of all child labor, the problem is not confined to certain continents, nor is it confined to countries with a low level of industrialization. It is estimated, for example, that in Europe some 89,000 children in the 10 to 14 age range are engaged in work. Eastern Europe has been particularly badly affected in recent years as an upsurge in child labor has occurred in the wake of the transition to a market economy. There may also be large differences between countries in the same region. (Limited, 2000)
Social attitudes condoning child labor also contribute significantly to its prevalence. Children in West Africa are generally expected to begin helping with work in family fields and households at the age of four. Moreover, the region has a history of economically motivated migration both within and across national borders. Children have always been a part of this migration, either traveling with their parents or by themselves in search of work. In addition, the upbringing of children is seen as a responsibility that concerns all family members, and therefore children are often sent away from home to work with extended family members living in areas with greater opportunity for income. These social norms of working at a young age and widely accepted mobility support the practice of supplying farms with bonded child labor. Moreover, these norms help explain the lack of adequate child labor laws and their inefficient enforcement. The problem of insufficient legislation and enforcement will be discussed in more detail in the following section. (Ellenbogen, 2004)
Child labor is not an easy issue to resolve; while it seems noble to immediately withdraw investments and cooperation with firms and factories that employ child labor it may do more harm than good. Many of these children are from very poor families and work to pay for their family and/or their education. Depriving them of this income has led to some children seeking different, lower paid work, and even prostitution in some cases. Other ways with schemes to help children would likely be needed so that this labor can be phased out. (Shah, 2001)
During the course of an investigation for CNN’s Freedom Project initiative - an investigation that went deep into the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast - a team of CNN journalists found that child labor, trafficking and slavery are rife in an industry that produces some of the world’s best-known brands. UNICEF estimates that nearly a half-million children work on farms across Ivory Coast, which produces nearly 40% of the world’s supply of cocoa. The agency says hundreds of thousands of children, many of them trafficked across borders, and are engaged in the worst forms of child labor. (McKenzie & Swails, 2012)
The Child Labor Deterrence Act was created by U.S. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, and first proposed in 1992. The theory behind this bill was that it would prohibit the importation of products that have been produced by child labor, and included civil and criminal penalties for violators. It also included civil and criminal punishments for anyone or business that defies the act. Even though this bill had subsequent propositions in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999; it has never been passed. This bill brought about much controversy, especially in places such as Bangladesh. The child workers in this country found themselves without work after this bill was introduced. Many child laborers were forced to find work in more hazardous and exploitative activities than their factory jobs.
In the wake of the mass expulsion of child garment workers it was plain that something had gone very wrong. UNICEF and the ILO tried to pick up the pieces. After two years of hard talking with the garment employers they came up with a Memorandum of Understanding. This guaranteed that no more children under 14 would be hired, that existing child workers would be received into special schools set up by local voluntary organizations and would receive a monthly stipend to compensate them for the loss of their wages. Child labor is linked to global business directly and, more commonly, indirectly. Critics blame increased trade and financial flows for increased child labor and those criticisms have undermined the legitimacy of further trade and financial liberalization. Companies—including multinationals such as Nike, Wal-Mart, Ikea and the Brazilian subsidiaries of U.S. and European automobile manufacturers— have responded with a range of initiatives. Unless business responses alleviate the worst forms of child labor, the legitimacy of continued trade and financial liberalization will continue to be undermined by perceptions that liberalization disproportionately hurts children, especially child workers.
So, it can be seen that although the challenge of child labor is at its greatest within less industrialized countries, the issue is truly global and affects substantial numbers of individuals.

References

Bachman, S. L. (2000). The political economy of child labor and its impacts on international business. Business Economics, 30-41.
Ellenbogen, M. (2004). Can the Tariff Act Combat Endemic Child Labor Abuses? The Case of Cote d'Ivoire*. Texas Law Review, 1315-1347.
Goyer, M. (2010, April 30). Child Labor In The U.S. Is Worse Today Than During the 1930’s. Retrieved from Project Censored: http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/3-child-labor-in-the-us-is-worse-today-than-during-the-1930s/
Levine, M. J. (2003). The Scope of the Problem. In M. J. Levine, Children for Hire (p. 4). Westport: Praeger Publishers.
Limited, S. I. (2000). Business and Child Labour. London: Publicity Services.
McKenzie, D., & Swails, B. (2012, January 19). Child Slavery and Chocolate: All too Easy too Find. Retrieved from The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/
Shah, A. (2001, January 1). Child Labor. Retrieved from Global Issues Web site: http://www.globalissues.org/article/62/child-labor
Unknown. (2012, March 29). Child Labour. Retrieved from UNICEF web site: http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58009.html
Unknown. (2012, January). Statistics by Area/Child Protection. Retrieved from Childinfo web site: http://www.childinfo.org/labour_challenge.html
Unknown. (2012, April 30). U.S. Labor Department limits child farmworker protection as dangers persist. Retrieved from Women News Network: http://womennewsnetwork.net/2012/04/30/u-s-labor-department-child-farmworker-protection/