For Discussion: Child Labor

Last updated on: February 26, 2015 at 11:10 pm by Jane the Actuary

For Discussion: Child Labor 2015-02-26T23:10:40-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal, via marginalrevolution.com, “Newest Legal Laborers in Bolivia: Kids; Newly Re-Elected President Morales Bucks World Trend in Legislating the Right for 10-Year-Olds to Work.” (Behind a paywall; google the text below.)

Bolivian government officials say the new law simply recognizes the harsh realities of a largely indigenous country where 42% of the population remains poor and children often help support their families. The new law, the officials say, creates a wider safety net for under-14 workers by mandating that they register for work permits and that employers provide humane conditions and fair compensation.

The article goes on to say that the work permit registration process involves social workers assessing how needy the family is before granting the work permit, and that there are restrictions on the type of work permitted, excluding “hazardous” work; under 12s can only be self-employed, and all children require parental permission. However, just as children worked illegally before the law was passed, so too do very few children/employers actually obtain the work permits.

There was an article in the Trib about child labor a while back, too — profiling children in India, I think. And here there the stories the reporter told were not black-and-white. One child had indeed left school to work long hours, and had no hope of learning to read or write. But others continued to attend school part-time, and they and their employers defended their employment as teaching them a trade — though in one case, as I recall, he attended school only a very few hours a day, and his dream of someday going to college seemed pretty unrealistic.

Here in the U.S., even what child labor is generally permitted is disappearing. Who among us still has their paper delivered by a paper boy, or their lawn mowed by a neighbor teen? And teenagers are pressured to load up on afterschool activities rather than working, and employers would rather hire immigrants anyway.

But is Morales right, that the way forward for poor countries is to regulate, not ban, child labor?

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