Philosophy 360: Business Ethics Chapter 18

Child Labor There is a significant distinction between teenagers with part time jobs, young teenagers who babysit or mow lawns, farm children who do chores, or children who are required to help with household tasks, some of which are more and less labor intensive, and what we mean when we condemn “Child Labor”. What we condemn is when children are employed full time and deprived even of rudimentary education, and are thus condemned to a life of poverty and/or indentured or otherwise involuntary servitude. Also, if children are employed in dangerous or dirty work, that can be objectionable as well.

Child Labor and poverty Most often, child labor occurs in areas of poverty, as families must get income from as many sources as possible. Though much media attention focuses on the use of child labor by multinationals or by those who contract with multinationals, UNICEF estimates that only about 5% of child labor is involved in production for export. (p. 408)

Beyond Simplistic solutions: It is tempting for a multinational to simply take a “clean hands” approach to the problem: to simply demand that subcontractors cease to employ children. In this case, the children often end up in a worse state than before. This does not excuse the practice of child labor, but rather demands more involved solutions to it, including: – Establish schools near the workplace for employees’ children – Pay the employees their salary plus what the children would have been paid, if the children go to school

Differing contexts DeGeorge cites a study by Wokutch and French that details the shoe export industry in Franca, Brazil. While some instances of exploitative child labor were found, much of the child labor was voluntary, done in small family shops after school, and assisted the children in getting spending money, financial independence from their families, and even in some cases, savings for college expenses. The point is to make sure to distinguish between exploitative and benign child labor, and that means moving beyond a mere “clean hands” approach.

Sweatshops Common characteristics: – Poor ventillation – Poor sanitary facilities – unsafe or unhealthy conditions – Crowding – Low wages, long hours – No benefits – rights abuses by management/employer As with child labor, this is predominantly a condition found by multinationals, not created by them.

The typical justification: Where there is a great surplus of labor, any job is better for the people that have it than no job at all. Even if the conditions are sweatshop conditions, each employee knows it and either decides freely to stay employed or is replaced with someone who does not object, and so the work is still voluntary. These local facilities supply work that would otherwise not be available, and so serve a social need.

A response: While this justification does have some merit, it is worth pointing out the obligation to make improvements whenever possible, and also to point out that such a system incentivizes exploitation over improvement. In 19 th century England, sweatshop conditions and child labor were rampant, and only ceased to be so when legislation was demanded and passed to halt the practices.

Multinationals and sweatshops This justification does not apply to multinationals because multinationals never NEED to operate sweatshops. The have the ability to do better, and so they have the obligation not to sink below the ethical minimum.

Outsourcing From a consequentialist perspective, it is incomplete to consider only those who lose their jobs due to outsourcing. It is important that everybody affected by an action be considered, and if a decrease in standard of living for Americans is made up for by a greater increase in the standard of living for others, then morality may demand such a sacrifice.

Migrant labor This category of labor applies primarily to seasonal agricultural laborers, who are often very poorly paid and housed, and who have little other recourse. There are about 13 million migrant workers in the United States. The potential and incentive for abuses in such a system is very high. Recent legislation has attempted to limit the worst of the abuses.

Long term effects: When developed nations import labor to do jobs that it is not willing to do, it runs the risk of failing to integrate groups of immigrants into its society, and eventually suffers the social consequences. See, for example: – turks-recall-german-guest-worker-program.html?_r=0 turks-recall-german-guest-worker-program.html?_r=0 –