The Child Labor Coali­tion formed in Novem­ber 1989, as con­cerned groups mobi­lized fol­low­ing the Capi­tol Hill Forum, “Exploita­tion of Chil­dren in the Workplace.”

The coali­tion believes that no child, regard­less of race, sex, nation­al­i­ty, reli­gion, eco­nom­ic sta­tus, place of res­i­dence, or occu­pa­tion, should be exploit­ed. Exploita­tive child labor is defined as employ­ment (whether in the for­mal or infor­mal sec­tor; whether paid or unpaid) that is coerced, forced, bond­ed, slave, or oth­er­wise known to be unfair in wages, inju­ri­ous to the health and safe­ty of chil­dren, and/or obstructs a child’s access to edu­ca­tion or impairs edu­ca­tion­al attainment.

We are involved in the fol­low­ing activities:

1. tes­ti­fy­ing before state and fed­er­al leg­is­la­tures and agen­cies on child labor
2. pre­sent­ing com­ments in response to reg­u­la­to­ry initiatives
3. host­ing con­fer­ences, forums, and briefings
4. cre­at­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing edu­ca­tion­al and pub­lic aware­ness materials
5. ini­ti­at­ing research
6. con­duct­ing cam­paigns and media events