Child Labor

The term “child labor” refers to work which is exploitative and detrimental to a child's development. The International Labor Organization estimates that 250 million children under the age of 14 are working in the world today. Because they have been born into families which are poor, these children are deprived of the opportunity to get an education because they must help support their family. In the United States, as many as 800,000 children under 16 years of age work as seasonal farm workers. Many of these children earn far less than the minimum wage. It is estimated than more than 200,000 adolescents are injured in the workplace each year and more than 100 die yearly of those injuries. (National Institute of Safety and Health). 148,000 minors are illegally employed in an average workweek in the United States, (Rutgers University Study, 1998), and UNICEF estimates (1996) from 100,000 to 300,000 children are sexually exploited as prostitutes or in pornography in the United States every year.

For further information:
www.us.ilo.org/ilokidsnew/index.html
www.nlcnet.org
www.freethechildren.org