Tough Being a Kid

In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established important U.S. labor laws such as a national minimum wage and guaranteed "time and a half" for overtime in some jobs. Perhaps most important, though, was the act's prohibition of child labor. Previous bills to put an end to child labor had been shot down by the U.S. Congress in the past, making this act instrumental in finally putting an end to the employment of minors.

In countries like India, Ivory Coast, and Cambodia, however, not only is child labor still practiced, but the economy depends a great deal upon it. In Cambodia, children 5 to 14 make up 38% of a workforce of nearly 4 million people. Children often work nine to 14 hour days in Indian cottonseed plantations or on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, jobs they excel at because of their smaller hands. Their low pay goes to their starving families. Nearly all plantations that employ children provide materials to U.S. companies like Monsanto, Macy's, and Home Depot.

Despite company policies and legislation that prohibit child labor and legislation in India that forbids children under 14 from working in high risk jobs that interfere with school, underage workers continue to fly under the radar of corporations and governments that have too few regulators to monitor the situation. Even if the companies buying from these farms and factories hired more representatives to enforce their anti-child labor policies, there is no guarantee their efforts would pay off. Some children would still find work because their families would forge documents saying they are of working age. Parents often send their kids to work because their own wages are so poor. In an Indian granite-cutting quarry, people earn as little as $1.25 for a full day's work, forcing everyone in the family to work or face possible starvation.

1			As a consumer, can you do anything to help put an end to child labor?
2			Should global laws abolish child labor in all nations? Why or why not? Why does child labor persist in less developed countries?
3			Some argue that child labor is a fact of life in emerging nations, and as a nation grows economically such practices end. Do you agree or disagree? Why?