Investigative Journalism

“ H&M Employing 14 year olds?”

                    By: Nathaly Galvez

     More than 200 million children today are child laborers and 73 million of these children are below the age of 10 years old. Child labor has been a problem throughout the whole world, during the Industrial Revolution. Children worked for long hours, had poor working conditions, and earned a low pay. It took away their time of education and the time to enjoy their childhood. Families make an arduous effort to support their children but when not capable, children have to support and maintain their families.

          On August 21, 2016, officials say that children as young as 14 are working for more than “ 12 hours a day “ with H&M factories. These factories employed anyone who wanted to work. These children working in Myanmar, that are 14 year olds work but do not receive the equal amount of pay . Information was collected on the Myanmar factories, they “ found a high prevalence of forced overtime and low pay.” This quote shows that children work for long hours in factories, however they are not paid fairly for the amount of time they put into the factories. It states, in the article, “ I am not hugely surprised these problems are happening given the scale of disempowerment of workers in Myanmar,” Sahan said. “ This quote from the article states that Erinch Sahan, a man that has recorded data based on the child labor established in Myanmar, shows his perspective on the situation. According to his statement, there are not a lot of workers being employed in Myanmar. The minimum wage is “one of the lowest in the world” inferring that the pay, workers are receiving is not enough ($3 a day).

      There are many popular companies, that yet continue to use child labor to this day. Nestle, H&M, Philip Morris, Walmart, Gap, etc. Child Labor is a problem that has tried to be stopped by employing workers over the age of 18 and enforcing child labor laws. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which helps protect “educational opportunities of the youth and prohibits their employment in jobs that are detrimental to their health and safety.” In the United States, the legal age to work is 18. However in many other places, this is not happening. Child labor is yet not stopped, and with the way it is handled, will it ever?