Glossary Term

Child labor

Work undertaken by children under the legal minimum working ages. National legislation normally sets various minimum ages for different types of work. For example, the age for normal full-time work may begin at the age at which compulsory schooling ends. The term child labor refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially, or morally dangerous and harmful to children, and which interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, obliging them to leave school prematurely, or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.