The presence of laboring children in the 20th century was beginning to increase. The industrial revolution marked the pinnacle through the 1930s when most children were working multiple occupations. Which is one of the main reasons child labor laws were placed in order, due to all the abuse minors endured. Many child workers were uneducated due to not being able to attend school to help make ends meet for their families as well as the extensive long hours they were required to work.
The problem began when many children 10-years old and younger were employed by various factories known as sweatshops and mines, where they were forced to work under dangerous and unhealthy conditions while receiving small wages.
According to an article, from the Monthly Labor Review, written by Michael Schuman, ‘The right of parents to take advantage of the productive capacity of their children was long recognized both in the United States and abroad of children during the Industrial Revolution was consistent with this belief.’ Many of these children may have benefited from having the job to be able to generate some income.
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In 1993 United States Senator, Tom Harkin, proposed banning imports from countries that employed children in sweatshops in response, a factory in Bangladesh laid off 50,000 children. What does that tell you? Businesses do not care about their employees necessarily, but the cost of labor and labor hours.
A company should keep its employers happy with the company for labor to be done. With these sweatshops, many of their workers are typically underpaid, overworked in poor conditions, and quite frankly treated like scum. Many of these employers are abused and sadly don’t know any better. Wages in third world countries are low due to worker productivity being low, and worker alternatives being miserable.
Whether the economy is increasing or decreasing, finding ways to encourage their workers should always be the business owner’s concern. Compensation was paid in benefits or wages, as well as safety and comfort in the factory, longer breaks, and fewer hours. Sweatshops raised the ‘living standards’ in a lot of these third world countries not offering many jobs to people underaged.
By companies delivering technology and physical capital, many raised their worker productivity. Still, with companies increasing labor and work productivity, many children were laid off causing them to find work elsewhere, some even becoming prostitutes, enslaved, trafficked to perform criminal and hazardous jobs. According to the article written by Mashele RAPATSA, ‘It affects the social and economic wellbeing of communities.
It is not only an issue in developing countries like South Africa but rather, it is a worldwide concern with many governments proclaiming laws protecting children from labor exploitation.’ One of the worst places with a need for better Child Labor Laws covered by the Department of Labor is Honduras. In 1996, Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee accused the sweatshop owner, Kathy Lee Gifford, of exploiting children in Honduras, and only paying them 31 cents an hour.
Some of her employers not even making $1 or $2 a day. After being caught, she promised she would raise the wages. Being caught shouldn’t be a reason to increase your unethical wages to your hard-working employees. None of these reasons convince me that children should be working from a young age. There is a difference between a child working to help their families make ends meet and fully accepting responsibility at a job at a young age and child abuse.
With that being said, factories have gotten good at concealing the abuse they cause upon their workers. Abuse can be shown physically, emotionally, and verbally. Workers and managers in these businesses are trained on how to answer auditor’s questions pf their payroll, hours worked, and safety within the workforce. One of the examples mentioned in the article Secret, Lies, and Sweatshops, written by Roberts & Engardio, was, Walmart was in business with Chinese business owner, Tang Yinghong, who produced pens and mechanical pencils.
He has been accused previously of not complying with labor laws, underpaying staff, and disregarding overtime rules. Was indicated if caught again business deal would be terminated. Soon after, he hired a Business scam professional to properly train him to falsify paperwork for a fee of $5,000. The amount of power some of these companies have to brainwash their employees blows my mind.
Some of these sweatshops falsify payroll information to auditors as well as falsework hours, while the real books are kept a secret. A majority of the high demand these companies receive, is from the United States, to be able to keep up with the workload they hire subcontractors, which violates the pay and safety standard that is established by the Department of Labor.
Many of these subcontractors are hidden from the auditors during their visits to the factories. American Companies demand lower prices from their suppliers in return, the United States can receive inexpensive products like clothing, shoes, or electronics. With requesting for products to be made cheaper many of the employers in these factors take a massive pay cut for their companies can make a profit.
Due to the harsh and dangerous conditions, it has been difficult to reform labor practices in countries where the rule of law is week. According to The Fair Labor Assn., an average of 88 factories can have 18 violations. Watching children have to be subjected to these conditions and this line of work is unethical and should be illegal. Cultural differences can only play a role in this situation for so much.
As previously explained, there is a massive difference between having a child rightfully, sign up to do a job, and a child being abused. As shown in the article History of child labor in the United States, ‘Thinking of the children as more than just their economic value eventually helped change the role of the children of the working class in American society. In combination with greater awareness of the exploitive practices of some employers, this change in thinking helped propel reform efforts that, in time, led to an end of widespread child labor in the United States.’ Finding ways to help people that need to work in these conditions shouldn’t be impossible.
Educating others in what happens in these types of conditions can probably help to direct others to understand what many of these children have to put themselves through in third world countries to make some money. Here in the United States, these conditions are unacceptable and these children are protected by the Department of Labor and the Child Labor Laws that were established after the Industrial revolution.
Work Cited
- “Child Labor.” Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, Jan. 2018, p. 1; EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=funk&AN=ch120300&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- Schuman, Michael. “History of Child Labor in the United States–Part 1: Little Children Working.” Monthly Labor Review, Jan. 2017, pp. 1–19. EBSCOhost, doi:10.21916/mlr.2017.1
- RAPATSA, Mashele1,2, [email protected]. z. “Understanding Trends in the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the State’s Legal Responses: A Descriptive Analysis.” Juridical Tribune / Tribuna Juridica, vol. 7, Oct. 2017, pp. 186–199. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=lgs&AN=127294351&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- Kess, Sidney, et al. “Legal, Tax, and Financial Issues for Working Minor Children.” CPA Journal, vol. 87, no. 7, July 2017, p. 65. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=aqh&AN=123973114&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- Powell, Benjamin, et al. “In Defense of ‘Sweatshops.’” Econlib, 3 June 2019, www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Powellsweatshops.html.
- Roberts, Dexter, et al. “SECRETS, LIES, AND SWEATSHOPS. (Cover Story).” BusinessWeek, no. 4011, Nov. 2006, p. 50. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=edb&AN=23135835&site=eds-live&scope=site.
