CAS138

Dr. Spielvogel
Li-Jung, LEE (Emily)
11th. Apr. 2017

Today, While I am taking courses in the Pennsylvania State University, I know how privileged I

am. There are over 70 million1 people around the world are prevented from going to school

because they have to go to work earn money for their families and maybe their own education.

All kind of reasons make those people especially, kids and teenagers have to go to work in order

to survive and this causes the problem - child labor.

Figure 1 : This shows the rates on how child labor is impacted throughout the world.In some part of the
world countries are impacted more then others.2

1Shepherd, Jessica. "70 Million Children Get No Education, Says Report." The Guardian.
Guardian News and Media, 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
2"Washington State University." Fall 2014 AlShabaab Invasion on Somalias Children
Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
There are few reasons cause child to start working at there young age around 5-14. From Figure

1, we can see that child labour happen all around the world, but mainly in third world countries,

such as Sub-Saharan, Yemen, Cambodia, India, China, North Korea, Somalia, and Panamaetc.

These are the countries that most of the people cant even make $10 dollars a day. As a result,

they need to work to earn money. Thus, Poverty3 is the top reason that make child to go to work

because they have to earn extra money to support their families. Cultural may be one of the

reason since some countries expect their children to work at their young age, and also this can be

their traditions. Something has happened from generation to generation. In addition, limited

access to education is one of the reason that cause children to work because they don't have free

education like developed countries. The real problem is that these children work in hazardous

conditions in agriculture, mining, domestic labor, and other sectors. On tobacco farms, children

work long hours in extreme heat, exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides that can make them

sick. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, child laborers in artisanal and small-scale gold mines

work underground in pits that easily collapse and use toxic mercury to process the gold, risking

brain damage and other serious health conditions. We are working to end the worst forms of

child labor and to ensure that all children are protected from jobs that interfere with their health,

safety, and education.4

3Michael Herring. "Causes of Child Labor." Causes of Child Labor - The Child Labor Education
Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
4 "Child Labor." Human Rights Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
Figure 2 : Actual picture of kids working in a factory.

Define child labor and law

According to International Labor Organization5 , Child Labor is defined as work that deprives

children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and

mental development. This means that the work is harmful to children in all kinds of way, take

away their chance to be educated, or require them to combine long work hours and school.

As a result, according to the international workers right that most nations or countries set 14 or

15 as their minimum working age and prohibit children under 18 from doing hazardous work. In

addition to national legislation regulating child labor, many international human rights and labor

standards focus on the issue of child labor.

5 "What Is Child Labour (IPEC)." What Is Child Labour (IPEC). N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
How does this happen

As mentioned, child labor happen because of the poverty, cultural and limits education. But of

course, these three factor themselves wont necessarily cause child labor if there are no

opportunities for kids to work, which means if there were no factories or companies that hire

these kids to work and also government allowance, this would not happen. Most of the people

who live in third world countries, they probably don't even know how other countries look like,

simply put, they probably dont know child labor is wrong. All they know its working at those

factories is the only way to solve their financial problem. At this circumstances, some factors,

companies from foreign countries take the advantages of it. In order to maximize their profit or

benefits, they hire kids because they are physically smaller, cheaper and easy to control. (see

Figure 2) Another reason that those foreign companies want to hire kids to work from third world

counties is because they are not as educated as their counties. People wont hustle too much and

they will just do what the companies ask. In addition, because of those countries policy, such as

minimum wages, it is definitely cheaper for them to hire workers from third world countries. But

the main reason that they want to hire cheaper workers is because the consumers love buying

cheaper stuff. For example, buying a pair of shoes that is made in the USA is a lot more

expensive than a pair of shoes that is made in Nepal. Of course, if the quality are a lot worse,

then people wont purchase it. But it is not. As a result, it becomes a norm that a lot of companies

start invest in third world countries to decrease their total costs and maximize their profit.
Figure 3: Pie Chart for Nike Shoes business

model. 6

Figure 4: Actual kids making Nike Shoes in China. 7

Nike shoes example

From Figure 3, it shows that how Nike distribute its money. We all know that Nike shoes are not

cheap in the market, the average price per pair of shoes is around $70 - $100 US dollars. In fact,

it actually takes approximately $28 US dollars. Thus, we can tell that they must gain a lot of

profit since they also use a tons of child labor to decrease its variable cost. As a result, as an

American company, it is such an irony that Americans constitution includes that everyone has

the basic right to receive education and also it has a child labor law within the country, it hire a

bunch of child labor around the world, mainly Asia. This is one of the reason that so many

6Dunne, Brendan. "How Much It Costs Nike to Make a $100 Shoe." Sole Collector. Sole
Collector, 20 Oct. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
7 "Made in China." Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
people from the United States and other developing or developed countries decide to boycott

Nike. Of course, in here it refers to the people who actually care and aware of the issue. In

addition, most of them believe that by boycotting them is the only way to solve the problem.

However, this doesnt actually work because the fact that those children would end up starving,

and dying all kinds of worse situation. For those kids, they need that chance to earn money

because they probably don't have enough opportunities find a local job. In addition, even if no

more child labor, they still won't be able to receive the education. From this perspective, some

people think that child labor is a fancy term for rich and wealthy countries. To look back, even

Britain thought it is a such tradition that 5 years old kid should start working at cotton factory.

But now they don't think that way anymore because its country its mature enough to provide

basic human right to its citizen. But for those people who live in third world countries, they don't

have a chance to choose because no matter which one they choose, they are still suffering.
Figure 5: Boycott Nike Slogan8

Solutions

From our perspectives, we know that those third world countries are not in a fair situation, so we

want to fight for their rights and lives. Consumers from developing or developed countries start

an idea about boycotting Nike shoes(see Figure 5), simply just start buying any products from

Nike. We believe it is a legitimate way to solve child labor problem. However, our help may

eventually not being as helpful as we except or thought. Since not buying anything from Nike

only cause Nike to close down their factories. In this way kids still remain poor. On the other

hand, some people think that we should buy more products from Nike, so kids can have more

salaries. However, we all know that neither way can help the actual situation because the actual

reason we are angry and feel unfair for those kids are because first, they work in a bad condition

factory; second, they cant receive the general education; and third, companies, such as Nike is

taking away other peoples job from its origin. In this case, it will be the United States.

8 "TED Case Studies." NIKE and Child Labor. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
Real Actions We Can Take

If neither solutions that have been mentioned cant actually solve the problem, then it is the time

that we come out some more flexible and practical solutions. For example, those foreign

companies should provide their workers training, such as how to use sewing machine and how to

protect themselves while working. This wont cause them too much money since recording

online courses are actually very cheap today. In addition, they can provide their workers a better

working condition, or environment. Moreover, providing some benefits to those kids, such as

limited hours for working per week and hiring or cooperating with volunteering organization to

educate those kids to help their families. As a result, consumers may buy more their products

because they know that they can help those children indirectly. Companies can gain much better

reputations, make more money and at the same time helping those third world countries. Thus,

why dont we instead of protesting and boycotting those companies, we spread these ideas out to

help those children.