Laws: October, 1997 - Number #17

Despite laws in virtually all countries against the use of child labor, "more children work in agriculture than in any other sector," in part because half of the world's work force in developing countries is employed on farms, and many children work alongside their parents. A 1995 DOL report concluded that children under 14--the minimum age for wage work in developing countries according to ILO convention 138; age 15 in developed countries--are seven to 12 percent of the 20 million workers employed in plantation agriculture, which mostly produces crops for export with wage workers.

In many cases, children employed on plantations are paid piecerate wages that are lower than those offered to adults.

In Egypt, education is supposed to be compulsory to the age of 15, but thousands of children as young as age six pick cotton by hand in September for about $1.50 for an eight-hour day. In September 1997, 31 children were killed when the flatbed government truck taking them to a government-owned cotton field overturned. Egyptian law prohibits employment under 12 in agriculture, and under 14 in nonfarm jobs. However, these age limits are routinely violated, including by the Agriculture Ministry, which owns 10 percent of the cotton fields in Egypt.

The Egyptian Center for Social Research estimates that 1.5 million children in Egypt under the age of 14 work, and that most work in agriculture.

Douglas Jehl, "King Cotton Exacts Tragic Toll From Egypt's Young," New York Times, September 25, 1997. US Department of Labor. 1995. By the Sweat and Toil of Children: The Use of Child Labor in US Agricultural Imports and Forced and Bonded Child Labor. Washington. US Department of Labor. Bureau of International Labor Affairs. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/e_archive/ChildLabor/