Child labor in Southern Brazil: Occupational characteristics and contribution to the economy

Child labor is a huge worldwide problem, particularly in developing countries. It is estimated that there are 352 million economic active children and teens younger than 18 years-old in the world, including not only paid work but also unpaid, illegal and informal work. In Brazil there are 9.3 million child workers between 10 and 17 years-old. There are few studies evaluating the children economic contribution to the family income. This paper presents the children and teens occupational characteristics and their economic contribution emphasizing its particularities by gender, age, school attendance and familiar socioeconomic status in a sample of 4.924 subjects between 6 and 17 years-old, representative of the low-income areas of Pelotas, a mid-sized city in Southern Brazil. Children and teens contributed in average with 18% of the family income. Among workers, half of them contributed with at least 10% of the family income and one forth contributed with 25% or more. The proportion of the children and teens contribution to the total family income, the non-attendance to school among teens workers and the number of hours of children and teens working increased with the decrease of the adult family income.