Child Labor Research Paper
In the United States, child labor and sweatshops are illegal, and society frowns upon any business that exploits children in the production of goods. Though most would say that they would not support a company that uses child labor to produce its goods, almost everyone has, in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, supported these businesses in one way or another. Children are involved in the production of many of the everyday goods we import from overseas, including the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, toys, and sporting equipment, the farming of cocoa, cotton, sugarcane, and bananas, and the mining of coal, diamonds, and gold (The U.S. Dept. of Labor). Often, we are blinded to this fact.
Child Labor is defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as “a form of work that is inherently hazardous, employs children below the internationally recognized minimum age, or is exploitive” (U.S. Lib. of Congress). The ILO estimates that approximately 250,000,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen work, and 120,000,000 work full time (Bachman 30). Children comprise 22% of the total workforce in Asia, 32% in Africa, 17% in Latin America, and 1% in the United States, Canada, and other wealthy nations (“Child Labor”). Merriam-Webster Dictionary broadly describes a sweatshop as “a shop or factory where workers work long hours, at low wages and under unhealthy conditions”. Such sweatshops, primarily manufacturing clothing and shoes, employ less than 5% of child labor worldwide, but this segment of child labor receives “a disproportionate amount of press and world attention (Bachman 38).
Children are treated as mere cogs in the wheel of the global economy. They perform the greatest amount of work in the production process for the least benefit. They suffer physical, mental, and emotional anguish and forego their futures for minimal and sometimes no pay (Darity 23). Poverty drives child labor. Impoverished families in underdeveloped and developing countries turn to
Child Labor is defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as “a form of work that is inherently hazardous, employs children below the internationally recognized minimum age, or is exploitive” (U.S. Lib. of Congress). The ILO estimates that approximately 250,000,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen work, and 120,000,000 work full time (Bachman 30). Children comprise 22% of the total workforce in Asia, 32% in Africa, 17% in Latin America, and 1% in the United States, Canada, and other wealthy nations (“Child Labor”). Merriam-Webster Dictionary broadly describes a sweatshop as “a shop or factory where workers work long hours, at low wages and under unhealthy conditions”. Such sweatshops, primarily manufacturing clothing and shoes, employ less than 5% of child labor worldwide, but this segment of child labor receives “a disproportionate amount of press and world attention (Bachman 38).
Children are treated as mere cogs in the wheel of the global economy. They perform the greatest amount of work in the production process for the least benefit. They suffer physical, mental, and emotional anguish and forego their futures for minimal and sometimes no pay (Darity 23). Poverty drives child labor. Impoverished families in underdeveloped and developing countries turn to