History Of Child Labor

Over the years, child labor has become one of the most severe issues in the debate of globalization. Many have claimed that favorable income effects are most likely to reduce the need for child labor, while others have argued that the impact of economic globalization on low-income families from developing countries is the primary factor causing the exploitation of child labor. This led to an arising question: Why does child labor still exist today? And is globalization the main cause of it?  

There are many reasons that cause child labor: Poverty and unemployment levels are high – As you see, the most of employed children work in less developed countries by economy. In such countries poor families and children may rely upon child labor in order to improve their chances of attaining basic necessities. According to U.N statistics more than one-fourth of the people around the world live in poverty that is caused by the high unemployment levels. Free education is limited – U.N estimated that approximately 75 million children were not attending school. The education for the whole world’s children costs 10-30 Billion dollars that is 0.7% - 2% of the annual cost of global military spending.

Child labor is a contested and global issue that affected mostly Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. According to International Labor Organization (ILO-IPEC) (1996-2016a), a United Nations agency, the number of children in labour globally has declined since 2000 from 246 million to 168 million children; and although declining, around 85 million are still working in hazardous environment. However, the Asia-Pacific region has the largest number of child workers in the world and represents about 18.8 per cent of 650 million 5-14 year-olds in the region. Out from the statistics, the majority population of children in global context are still trapped in child labor, thus the higher rates of evolving into an adult with poor prospects of securing

The economic elements of 1861-1865 were very different for the North and the South. The North was doing very well, compared to the South. In the North they had to lay-off many workers and close down the textile industries because of the scarcity of cotton. However, the “arms, metalworking, boot making, and shipbuilding industries” were booming in the North (Keene, 391). The wages of the workers rose by about 40 percent, but the prices of goods rose at the same pace as the inflation rate averaged about 15 percent annually (Keene, 391).

These are some of the important factors contributing in general to the suffering of children in Ethiopia. A quarter of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day (UNDP 2011), and “87.3 percent of the population suffers multiple deprivations while an additional 6.8 percent are vulnerable to multiple deprivations” (UNDP 2013). “Almost half the population is considered undernourished, and the average life expectancy is only 48 years”. Most people living under these severe conditions are trapped in a cycle of poverty (UNDP 2011). Poverty is a major factor in this regard and accounts for close to 70 percent of the factors that cause streetism in Ethiopia.

Child Labor Child labor is one of the most significant issues in numerous developing nations. According to the International Labor Organization estimates, there are 351.7 million economically active children on the planet 210.8 million aged 5–14, and 140.9 million aged 15–17 years. About 170 million of these children are included in dangerous work 111 million aged 5–14; 59 million aged 15–17 (Tiwari & Saha 2014). child labor refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their capacity to go to school, and that is socially, mentally, physically or ethically harmful and dangerous. child labor support and its results have dependably been a great interest for financial aspects.

BUSINESS ETHICS ASSIGNMENT   INTRODUCTION Child labor by numbers. 211 million children worldwide are child laborers. 73 million working children are less than 10 years old. 126 million are estimated to work in the worst forms of child labor one in every 12 of the world's five to 17 year’s olds. 8.4 million Children are trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labor, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities.

As a result of activities related to oil, agriculture was neglected (Ralph 2010; 304). After Dauda (2009; 84) the impact of globalization is characterized by the following 1. Uncompetitive and collapsing industrial sector activities (30% surviving in the previous 10 years.) 2.

Another factor that could contribute to poverty is unemployment. The Development Bank of South Africa believed that around 2,5 million unemployed people in South Africa in 1991 and that figure had increased substantially since 1980 (M.C Potgieter, 1998). The people who reside in rural areas usually move to bigger cities where they can seek jobs that have to experience ordeals such as crime and violence (M.C Potgieter, 1998). An ultimately because there is a lack of employment the crime rate increases. Education Children who are malnourished and weak have a disadvantage at school.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Youth unemployment rates are high across the world. The Independent Evaluation Group (2013), reports that in 2011 the International Labour Organization estimated that 12.6 percent of youth in the world’s labour force are unemployed, corresponding to about 74.6 million youth. Nevertheless, youth unemployment rates vary substantially across time and across countries. In 2011, Kenya’s unemployment rate was approximated at 40 percent.

More than half of the nation’s immigrants receive some kind of government assistance, a figure that’s far higher than the native-born population’s, according to a report (Gomez, 2015). Over half of the immigrant’s household receive at least one social welfare benefit compared to 30% for native-led households, according to a Center for Immigration Studies (Gomez, 2015). Some politicians think immigrants are abusing the welfare system. Some Immigrants come to this country with no or very little education so they do depend on the welfare system which there are reports that states that. Linda Chavez, who worked for President Reagan administration, states you cannot blame the failure of the social welfare system on the immigrants only.

But, a pole by the Pew Research Center in 2014 says otherwise, “nearly nine in 10 blacks say discrimination still exist today. One in three blacks say they have experienced discrimination within the past year; that number rises to one in two when it comes to workplaces or the voting booth.” When someone is discriminated against during employment, that can have a big impact on the wealth of ones being because it is much more challenging to acquire a job. Which then leads to poverty. In fact, Richard Wolf, a USA Today reporter, gave some startling facts and statistics about poverty and wealth; The black poverty rate has dropped from more than 40% in the 1960’s to about 27% today; child poverty similar has dipped form 67% to about 40%.

Illegal immigrants are a major part of the US labor force and have been an important source of low-skilled labor supply to the US economy for many decades. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the US labor force was 8.3 million in 2008, up from 6.3 million in 2003 but down slightly from the 2007 peak of 8.5 million. And there are currently 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, with an average of 500,000 new entrants arriving annually over the last decade. (Passel and Cohn, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States, 2009).

Some of this has to do with each state 's autonomy and their ability to decide where the grant money from the government goes. “In 1996, for every 100 families with children living in poverty, TANF provided cash aid to 68 families. By 2010, it provided cash assistance to only 27 such families for every 100 in poverty” (Trisi). This depicts the TANF steadily losing effectiveness.

Many times this pattern begins at an early age as a juvenile and progress up through adulthood, leading to the so call school to prison pipeline. A 2007 study by two civil rights organizations further demonstrated the government’s emphasis on incarceration over education. Researchers found “the U.S. spent almost $70 billion annually on incarceration, probation and parole.” This figure represented a 127% increase from 1987 to 2007, dramatically outpacing the funding for higher education during the same time period (Porter, 2015). In addition, Mothers who give birth to children in poor conditions have really set the child up to be disadvantaged from the very beginning.