Ethical Issue - Child Labor in Pakistan

Low salary is said to be a contributing factor to child labor in Pakistan. This minor issue refers to low wage levels among the adult worker. The daily wage of an average adult is currently 75 to 100 rupees, that is, roughly US$2.50 to US$3.00.[Tahir Ikram, " Child Labor a Painful System," Reuters, 13 December 1996] The low income could not cover their cost of living. This put family in poverty. And, what happened was the parent allowed their children to work. More worst, according to Zahid Siddiqi, lots of father have stopped working since they have many of their children working for them. [Crawford, 1999]

Then, a Save the Children report suggested raising their wage in accordance with the wage of construction worker, that is, 120 rupees (US$4.00). [Tahir Ikram, " Child Labor a Painful System," Reuters, 13 December 1996] However, salary increases will affect the prosperity of the industries in Sialkot. When previously the sporting goods make Punjab the richest provinces, now, their profits will decline due to the rising cost of production.[Crawford, 1999] Moreover, the brand manufacturers will be less loyal to their Sialkot subcontractors if their costs rose because of child labor band. And according to M. Yunas Ratra (managing director of a sporting goods company that bore his name), some brand manufacturers actually refuse to share the cost.[Crawford, 1999]

Nighat un Nisa, a team leader for the National Rural Support Program (NRSP), has encourage the women to work, as an alternative source of family income.[ Crawford, 1999] However, this did not last long. The factors of prohibitions of religion and constraints of local infrastructure were preventing women from work. Indeed, the villagers not able to get out of poverty. [Crawford, 1999]

Low wages among the child labor themselves is another problem. For the example, the reporters found that they were paid only US$ 0.30 per hour in Honduran sweatshops.[Shanberg, 1996]