TOPIC 14: CHILD LABOR
Learning Objectives: By the end of this lecture, students will be expected to:
1. Explain the Concept of Child Labor.
2. Discuss the causes of child labor
3. Assess the determinants of child labor.
Introduction:
Child labor is fundamentally a reflection of poverty and weak economic and social institutions.
There is strong negative association between poverty and the incidence of child labor. Child
labor is almost unheard of in the developed countries. The term “child labor” is often used to
cover a multitude of situations: from bonded labor to part-time work on the family farm. It is
useful to clarify who classifies as a “child” and what activities count as “labor”. Neither of these
turns out to be simple.
The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention No. 138 specifies 15 years of age as
the age at which a person, under normal circumstances, may participate in economic activities.
Most studies therefore define children as individuals of less than 15 years of age. It is presumed
that children of less than 5 years are unable to work productively and so statistics often show
child labour for 5-14 year olds. However, in some cases individuals under the age of 18 years
also count as children and the ILO sets more specific thresholds for some types of work e.g. light
work from the age of 12 years is permissible in a developing country context (IPEC 2006).
Child labor refers to children who are engaged in an economic activity and who are below the
minimum legal age of employment in a given country. Depending on the country, young people
aged 12-15 and over may be employed in certain “light work” if it is not hazardous or harmful to
their health and does not affect their attendance and performance at school. Article 3 of the
International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 defines the worst forms of child
labor as:
a) All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children,
debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory
recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
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b) The use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or
for pornographic performances;
c) The use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production
and trafficking of drugs;
d) Work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to harm the
health, safety or morals of children.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) and in particular the International Program on the
Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) are the main international bodies for dealing with child labor.
The ILO produces estimate of child labor for different countries under their program called
Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labour “. The ILO defines any
individual between ages 5 to 17 years as child. It distinguishes among three terms: (i)
economically active children; (ii) child labor; and (iii) children in hazardous work.
1. Economically active children:
A child is economically active if he/she has worked for at least one hour on any day in a sevenday reference period. What working or economically active means? Economic activity” is a
broad concept that includes productive activities undertaken by children: at home or outside,
whether for market or not, paid or unpaid, casual or regular, part-time or full time, legal or
illegal. However, it does not include household chores or domestic work undertaken by children.
Thus, activities such as cooking, sweeping, fetching water, looking after siblings etc. are not
counted as economic activity.
2. Child Labor:
Child labor is a subset of economically active children. ILO defines child labor as work that
deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to
physical and mental development. Child labor consists of all economically active children
excluding all those children aged 12 years and older who are working only few hours a week in
permitted light work and those aged 15 years and above whose work is not classified as
“hazardous”.
According to this definition all economically active children in age group 5-12 are counted as
child labor. However, economically active children in age group 12-14 are counted as child labor
only when they work more than a specified minimum number of hours in the reference week.
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Finally, economically active children in the age group 15-17 are counted as child labor only
when they are engaged in hazardous activities.
3. Hazardous Work:
Hazardous work by children is any activity which adversely affects child’s safety, health
(physical and mental), and moral development. Hazards can derive from excessive workload,
unsafe work environment, or exploitative relationship. For examples of hazardous activities
please see ILO (2002). Hazardous activities do not include bonded labor, child trafficking,
soldiering etc. They are considered to be unconditional worst forms of child labor.

Working children and domestic work:
The UNICEF survey defines children as any individual in age group 5-14. A child is classified as
working if he/she has been engaged in domestic or market work for at least an hour in the
reference week.

Gender differentials in child labor:
There is also substantial gender differential in the incidence and nature of working children. It
also shows that girls are more likely to work longer hours than boys. The analysis shows that if
we just include market work in the definition of child labor, we will seriously underestimate the
time spent by girls working. A great deal of evidence suggests that the types of work
economically active girls and boys are engaged can be quite different even within a sector.

Child Labor and Schooling:
The issue of relationship between child labor and acquisition of human capital and more
particularly participation in schooling has received a great deal of attention. The main focus has
been on whether child labor adversely affects school attendance of children their scholastic
performance and the acquisition of (formal) human capital. The human capital acquisition of
children depends not only on school attendance, but also on time devoted on studying in school
and outside. A child who works for long hours may not be able to devote sufficient time and
attention to studying.
Working children 5-14 who did not attend school on average worked for 11.6 hours per week.
On the other hand, working children who attended school on average worked for 10.7 hours.
This difference is much larger for working children 10-14. The working children 10-14 who did
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not attend school on average worked for 23.7 hours in a week compared to 14.1 hours for
working children who attended school. Thus, data suggests that child labor may adversely affect
the (formal) human capital acquisition by children.
Determinants of Child Labor:
Economic literature has identified a large number of determinants of child labor. Basu (1999)
and Edmonds (2007) provide a comprehensive summery of this literature:
1. Low income and poverty:
Many explanations of child labor are based on the prevalence of poverty and suggest that
increased income may reduce the existence of child labor. There are four ways improvements in
family incomes can potentially affect child labor:

Firstly, child labor may be a bad in the family’s welfare function, so as incomes improve,
parents will choose to have their children work less.

Secondly, with diminishing marginal utility of income, the value of the marginal
contribution made by the child will fall. This will induce parents to choose less amount of
child labor.

Thirdly, higher family incomes may facilitate the purchase of substitutes to child labor
e.g. agricultural machinery, which would lower the return to child labor within the
household.

Fourthly, children’s productivity in schooling may increase if increased income allows
the purchase of more and better quality educational materials.
2. Access to Credit:
Children may be sent to work, because their family needs their contribution of income. If parents
would prefer their children did not work, but cannot manage this in their economic environment,
then credit may greatly affect children’s outcomes. This situation could arise for many reasons.
A family’s permanent income may be too low, so they may have few assets to borrow against.
Alternatively, there may be a lack of institutions that allow families to borrow. One situation
where access to credit could be particularly useful is when there is a temporary shortfall in
income, e.g. due to crop failure or the household head being made unemployed.
3. Return on Human Capital and Schooling:
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If one takes a simple cost-benefit approach to a parent’s decision over their children’s time
allocation, then assuming a school of the right grade exists and education and work are the two
possible uses of a children’s time, then the decision can be simply described as follows.
Attending school imposes direct costs on the family, for example, transportation costs to get to
school and the purchase of educational materials.
These direct costs will depend largely upon how close the nearest school is and the infrastructure
or transport available. There are also indirect costs of schooling through the child’s foregone
wage income or use by the family. The indirect costs could depend upon a number of factors. For
example they can depend on: the child’s ability; the job opportunities available to them in the
market; or their use on the family farm which could depend upon land size and crop seasonality
amongst other things.
The benefits on the other hand can be seen as the return to schooling. This can differ according
to:

The level of education undertaken.

The quality of the school or the teachers.

What is taught.

The impact on job opportunities or marriage opportunities as a result.
In summary, there are a wide number of factors that are likely to be important. In particular
children are more likely to work if there is not a school nearby, or the wage differential for
educated compared to less well educated children is low. If the return to schooling is very low
then there will be very little incentive to send children to school.
4. International Trade:
International trade can also affect the incidence of child labor. One common argument is that
opening of trade (or globalization) increases the demand for goods and services produced by
child labor. Thus, opening of trade is likely to increase the incidence of child labor. This
argument underlies the demand for ban on trade or consumer boycott of goods produced by child
labor. Consumers who do not wish to consume goods produced by child labor can do so by
buying ``child labor free goods. The counter argument is that opening of trade increases income,
which reduces supply of child labor.
5. Social Norms:
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Social norms may underlie many of these factors and so the effects of particular features will
differ across countries and even across regions of the same country. In some areas there may be a
stigma attached to having children work. This stigma can reduce the parent’s utility when their
child works.
However, the loss of utility will be smaller if many other children work, since the stigma cost is
lower. This can yield the result that if all parents send their child to work then it is worth-while
for each parent to send their child to work; and if no one sends their child to work each parent
may not find it worth-while to send their child to work, as the stigma cost is so high.
Importantly, there are a number of gender issues which can come into play. Traditional gender
roles may, for example, make it more likely that girls will be depended upon for undertaking
domestic chores or providing childcare for younger siblings. If there is gender discrimination in
the labor market, so earnings for females are lower, then this can have two affects:

It reduces the opportunity cost of schooling a girl now.

It also reduces the return to their education.
The balance of these effects will depend upon the degree of discrimination in wages for children
and adults. Cultural practices over marriage may be significant too. If a girl joins her husband’s
family upon marriage then her own parents may find little return to their investment in her
education.
6. High fertility and mortality rates:
High fertility and mortality of children can also lead to higher incidence of child labor. This is
particularly true in countries where parents rely on their children to support them when they are
old. High mortality rate among children may induce parents to have large number of children in
order to ensure that children survive until adulthood to support them in old age. The large
number of children born can stretch a family’s resources further and so make it more likely some
of the children will need to work.
7. Labor market imperfections:
Labor market imperfections such as oligospony or monopsony in the labor market which reduces
wage earnings can also increase child labor due to two reasons;

Firstly, low wage earnings reduce family income.

Secondly, it reduces the return from schooling.
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Both of them will lead to higher child labor. Labor market imperfections can also lead to gender
differentials in child labor. It has been observed that there is gender bias in labor market against
women. They earn less than male workers for similar work. Also, employment opportunities
outside home for women in many developing countries are quite limited. Such biases may lead to
girl children working longer hours, particularly in domestic work.
Reasons for Child Labor:
Child labor can stem from one or more factors, including:

Extreme poverty and the need for all members of a family to contribute economically to
its survival.

Limited access to educational programs, for example, lack of school facilities in rural
areas.

Lack of legal documentation which keeps them from enrolling in school and receiving
other state-social services.

Poorly funded, trained, and equipped education systems and teaching staff.

Cultural and/or traditional practices in certain geographical locations or among certain
peoples, for example, migrant workers, nomadic and indigenous populations, and lower
castes.

Employment practices whereby businesses and factories employ children because they
can pay them less than adults and because children are young, defenseless, and docile and
may be bullied into doing work they should not be doing or into working long hours.

Vulnerable children being coerced into illegal activities, such as drug smuggling.

Trafficking or criminal practices, such as commercial sexual exploitation.

Discriminatory practices in society and in education, for example against girls or certain
population groups, such as indigenous peoples.

Lack of acknowledgement of the problem of child labor by some governments, other
socio-economic and political actors, and even the public at large, and a failure to deal
with the issue as a priority.

Lack of social protection programs through which poor and vulnerable families could
access government and local authority support, particularly in times of difficulty.

The death of parents or guardians from HIV/AIDS, creating a new generation of childheaded households.
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
Armed conflict, with children forced to take up arms or provide other forms of military
support.

The absence of an organized workforce in informal economic sectors where child labor is
prevalent, reinforcing the employment of children to the detriment of adult employment
and the continued erosion of working conditions and basic rights.

Any combination of the above or other phenomena that either encourage or oblige
children to leave their childhoods, education, and family behind and enter the labor
market.
The consequences of child labor for children:
1. Because children differ from adults in their physiological and psychological make-up,
they are more susceptible to and more adversely affected by specific work hazards than
adults. Not yet matured mentally, they are less aware of the potential risks involved in the
workplace. The effects of hazardous working conditions on children’s health and
development can be devastating. The impact of physically strenuous work, such as
carrying heavy loads or being forced to adopt unnatural positions at work, can
permanently distort or disable growing bodies. There is evidence that children are more
vulnerable than adults to chemical hazards and that they have much less resistance to
disease.
2. The hazards and risks to health may also be compounded by the lack of access to health
facilities and education, poor housing and sanitation, and inadequate diet.
3. Children are much more vulnerable than adults to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse
and suffer worse psychological damage from being denigrated, humiliated, or oppressed
and from working in environments that are exploitative, dangerous, and isolating.
4. Children who suffer ill-treatment, abuse, and neglect at the hands of their employers may,
as a consequence, find it very difficult to form attachments with and have feelings for
others. They may have problems interacting and cooperating with others and attaining a
real sense of identity and belonging. They often lack confidence and have low selfesteem. These vulnerabilities are particularly true for the very young and girls.
5. Children who work do not have the opportunity to participate in activities that are a
crucial part of growing up, such as playing, going to school, and socializing with their
peers. They do not obtain the basic level of education that is needed to cope in life.
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6. When these activities are abandoned in favor of work, children are pushed into adulthood
before they are ready. All children, regardless of race or social and economic status, are
entitled to enjoy their childhood years and to grow up fully and naturally. All have the
right to love, education, and protection. Understanding these rights is the first step in
preventing child labor and providing children with education so that they can look
forward to a better future.
What can be done to prevent, reduce, and eliminate child labor?
1. Education is the key:
Education has been the main tool of intervention in addressing child labor since the issue was
first identified by industrialized countries in the nineteenth century. It is pivotal to eliminating
and preventing child labor, to establishing a skilled workforce, and to promoting development
based on the principles of social justice and human rights.
There has been progress in recent years in raising public consciousness of the problem of child
labor, of its pervasive and tenacious nature, and of the fact that it is growing in some areas of the
world, for example, in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Global efforts to achieve Education for All
(EFA) and the progressive elimination of child labor are therefore inextricably linked.
On the one hand, education is an essential tool in preventing child labor. Child labor is a major
obstacle to the achievement of EFA, since children who are working full time cannot go to
school. The educational achievement of those who combine work and school will suffer, and
there is a strong likelihood that they will drop out of school in order to go into full-time
employment. Governments, the social partners, civil society, local, regional, and national
education authorities, teachers, parents, communities, and other actors need to work towards the
reduction of child labor through increased enrollment and completion rates for (former) child
laborers and children at risk, and through the provision of life skills and livelihood training for
older children.
2. Barriers to education:
Primary education in most countries is not completely free, and in most developing countries
schooling is not accessible to all children. Parents who send their children to primary school
must shoulder numerous indirect costs, such as for uniforms and textbooks. Furthermore, they
incur the opportunity cost, which is the wage that the child would earn if she or he was working
instead of going to school.
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Still, while poverty is an important “pull” factor, dragging children prematurely into the labor
market, there are also important “push” factors, particularly social exclusion, within the
education system itself or within the community. Barriers to girls’ education are even greater.
For example, in some parts of the world, it is not considered appropriate for girls to be seen in
public or to walk to school, owing to the distance or fear of assault.
In addition, schools in some countries do not have adequate sanitation facilities for girls, which
may also affect their attendance. Some parents may not send their daughters to school if there is
not a female teacher. Others may view education as promoting behavior unfavorable to their
daughters’ future marital prospects.
3. The urgent need for education policy reform:
Investments in primary education need to focus more on children at risk and initiatives need to
offset the opportunity cost for very poor families. Not taking these children into special
consideration will jeopardize the goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.
Furthermore, in a number of countries, many children face the problem of a lack of options
available to them beyond primary education.
The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and EFA focus exclusively on the provision of
universal primary education, which usually involves children up to the age of 12 or 13. However,
if the legal minimum age of employment in a country has been set at 14 or higher, what are
children supposed to do for the intervening years?
Secondary education is not always available, particularly in rural areas, and in many developing
countries it is expensive and beyond the reach of most poor families. This issue needs to be
addressed to ensure coherence between compulsory education and legislation governing the
minimum age of employment.
Education for all children and the establishment of a properly resourced, accessible, and quality
education system in every country worldwide is an ideal to which the international community
has aspired for many years and which coalesced into the global EFA initiative. If the aims and
objectives of EFA could be achieved, then children would not need to work to support
themselves and their families. Girls would enjoy the same educational opportunities as boys.
Decent work opportunities would grow exponentially. Children, young people, and previously
uneducated communities would have a better understanding of their rights in society and in the
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workplace. Even if only some elements of the EFA initiative are achieved, the situation would
improve for children at risk of entering the worst forms of child labor.
4. Global collaboration is essential:
Efforts need to be conducted within a strong framework of national policy development and
reform, first to improve basic education and later to reform secondary and tertiary education.
Preparing young people for the world of work, discouraging premature entry to the workplace,
highlighting the dangers of the worst forms of child labor, and ensuring a smooth transition from
school to work should all be fundamental objectives of education systems in the prevention of
child labor. Success of this ambitious endeavor depends on partnership, cooperation, and
mainstreaming.
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