PELOTAS

953

Trabalho infantil em Pelotas: perfil ocupacional e contribuição à economia
Child labor in Pelotas: occupational characteristics and contribution to the economy

Luiz Augusto Facchini 1
Anaclaudia Gastal Fassa 1
Marinel Dall’Agnol 1
Maria de Fátima Santos Maia 1

1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Epidemiologia,
Departamento de Medicina
Social, Universidade Federal de Pelotas,
Av. Duque de Caxias, 250/ 3o andar, 96030-001, Pelotas RS. [e-mail] Abstract 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. 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 work increase with the decrease of the adult family income.
Key words Child labor, Occupational profile,
Economic contribution

Resumo O trabalho infantil é um fenômeno global de grandes proporções, especialmente em países em desenvolvimento. Estima-se que, em todo o mundo, 352 milhões de crianças e adolescentes menores de 18 anos são economicamente ativos, incluindo atividades remuneradas, trabalho