Child labor in Mexico: a survival tool for families
In Mexico, child labor is commonplace. In some families, child workers make up a large portion of the income they depend on for survival. This cycle of poverty and dependance upon child labor has had devastating effects on the country’s children.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Statistics, there are an estimated 8 to 11 million children under the age of 15 working in Mexico.
They work eight hour days getting paid an average of $6-$10 dollars a day.
In some rural areas of the Mexican countryside south of the border, school attendance is declining as more and more younger and younger children go to work in the fields and factories.
Government studies also show that 42 percent of child workers suffer from some form of malnutrition.
According the Commission for Labor Consumption’s “Guide to Child Labor Laws in Mexico,” both boys and girls above the age of 14 are allowed to work for up to 6 hours a day. Child workers are supposed to have finished secondary school, obtain a medical certificate, and have their parent’s approval before working.
Mexican labor laws also allow children over 14 to join unions and qualify for paid vacation time.
It has been widely documented that illegal child labor frequently occurs. Children much younger then 14 often work eight to ten hour days, and drop out of school.
Laboring in fields and in maquiladoras is not only harmful to the children’s health and well bening, it also usually costs them their education.
Studies estimate that around 20% of farmworkers in Mexico under are age 15, of which less then 10% attend full-time school.
Many underage workers are generally girls just below the minimum age working in maquiladoras. They are able to either lie about their age or provide documents in order to obtain their positions.
Many children remain invisible to the government. While some U.S. distributors are increasingly putting rules against child labor into their supplier contracts, the Mexican government has yet to harshly crack down on child labor. The lax enforcement of Mexico’s constitutional labor laws has caused this problem to continue largely unabated.
