child labor
before and after the industrial revolution
definition
In the early decades of the twentieth century, the numbers of child laborers in the U.S. peaked. Child labor began to decline as the labor and reform movements grew and labor standards in general began improving, increasing the political power of working people and other social reformers to demand legislation regulating child labor.
Child Labor Today
Child labor is not as severe an issue as it was a centuries ago, but it still affects millions of kids worldwide. Statistics from the International Labor Organization show that there are about 73 million children between ages 10 and 14 that work in economic activities throughout the world, and 218 million children working worldwide between the ages of 5 and 17. These figures do not even include domestic labor. The child labor problem is worst in Asia, where 44.6 million children have to work. Africa is not much better, with about 23.6 million child laborers, and Latin America has 5.1 million child laborers.