AMERICA/MEXICO - 90% of Mexican children are involved in hazardous work activities

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - According to the 2015 results of the Child Labor Office (MIT) of the National Research on Employment carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), about 2.48 million children and teenagers work in Mexico. Of these, 89.6% (2.22 million) carry out forbidden economic activities. Of these 2.22 million, 887,000 (40%) have not reached the legal age expected to work and one million and 330,000 (60%) carry out activities that are hazardous to health and their integral development. In addition, in Mexico, the working day of children under 16 cannot exceed six hours a day; however, 36.6% of the population in the age range between 5 to 17 work 35 or more hours a week.
Of the minor workers, 42.5% receive no pay, 19.1% receive up to two minimum wages and three out of 10 receive only a minimum wage. Of those who earn a minimum wage, 38.2% work between 40 to 48 hours per week. Of all the infant population, 9.6% work and 9.7% work and study. Out of the working children and teenagers, 53.3% study and do housework and 27% combine work with housework. 12% of those who work in households do it in dangerous conditions. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 2/5/2017)

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