The Paradox of Child Labor

Many Americans have been horrified to learn that shoes, clothing, soccer balls, and other goods imported from developing nations were made with child labor. Yet those nations themselves strongly oppose any talk of a ban. They use child labor extensively, for much more than just exports, observes Wasserman, an associate editor of Regional Review. A glance at U.S. history makes the widespread practice—and the difficulty in uprooting it—easier to understand.

About 120 million children between the ages of five and 14 work full-time today in the developing world, and another 130 million work part-time. Children also do much unpaid work at home. Probably less than five percent of all child workers are employed in manufacturing or mining, producing the kinds of exported goods that attract worldwide attention. More than 70 percent work on farms. Populous Asia has the largest number of child workers (more than 150 million), while poverty-stricken Africa has the highest proportion of them (41 percent of all children aged five to 14).

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