Child labor is a global problem. These are not children helping out for a few hours a day on a family farm or business. These are children working long hours that interfere with schooling and often place these children at harm.
This work could look like handling pesticides on a cocoa farm or cleaning dangerous equipment in a slaughterhouse.
Child labor and poverty are inextricably linked. Children are often pushed into dangerous work due to poverty. And, child laborers often miss out on an education which may have enabled them to get out of poverty. It is a vicious cycle and one we have a responsibility to act on.
Child labor is on the rise in the United States.
Major U.S. corporations are putting children as young as 13 to work in dangerous jobs they are too young to perform and that are hazardous to their health. In the meatpacking industry, children are working hazardous conditions on cleaning crews in slaughterhouses – surrounded by dangerous machinery that can easily rip off a person’s arm.
This is exactly the type of work children should never be exposed to – but, the largest meatpackers, JBS, Perdue, Cargill, and Tyson Foods, all have documented cases of child labor in their operations in recent years.
Big fast-food companies are employing children as young as ten years old to work hours so long that it negatively impacts their education or in dangerous conditions, including manually operating deep fryers and loading trash compactors. And, there have been nearly six times as many child labor law violations in the food service industry in the last ten years.
Major fast-food companies, including McDonald’s, Jersey Mike’s, Sonic Drive-In, Baskin-Robbins, and Chick-fil-A, have documented cases of child labor at franchises locations.
Child laborers in cocoa carry heavy loads, work with dangerous tools, and are exposed to hazardous agrichemicals – all of which negatively impact their health.
Child labor takes a big toll on the health and development of children. A 2020 study on the prevalence of child labor in the West African cocoa sector found:
Of the children surveyed, 50% were only 5-11 years old. 57% of the child laborers were boys and 43% were girls.
While the major chocolate companies still have work to do to address child labor in their supply chains, many smaller brands already offer fair trade chocolate options—which means they have long-term, direct relationships with their farmers and guarantee a minimum price. Check out these brands.
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