The problem of unpaid labour in latin American economics Essay

The problem of unpaid labour in latin American economics - Essay Example International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2006, about 6 million children in Latin America are engaged in the workforce as laborers (Antonopoulos, and Hirway, 2009). On the same score women have been found to be heavily involved in unpaid labor all across Latin American economies. Research conducted by the United Nations on this subject has found that the gap between women and men in paid labor is quite huge. Many women and children still suffer from certain forms of discrimination or slavery at their places of work. Research has also shown that efforts are being made to ameliorate such discrepancies in the workforce and bring some ethics into organizations. Such efforts like bridging the gap in health, education, markets and access to credits as well as protection of labor rights have been devoted to address these alarming disparities. Such initiatives have been important yet not sufficient to bridge the huge gap that already exists and women still feel underrepresented in paid labor (MaganÃŒÆ'a, 2013). It must be recognized that by bridging the gap between paid and unpaid work is a positive goal that influences positively pro-poor growth, social cohesion and general human developments and must be encouraged. As such policy makers must focus their attention to address the gaps that exist in health, education, labor rights and access to credits as these have been found to influence greatly the productiveness of women in the workforce. The ILO defines child labor as any work that interferers with the child’s development. In Latin America many children are engaged in the regional workforce either formal or informal. It is a difficult problem to combat as it as a result of the high poverty levels and entrenched societal customs. It is therefore the aim of this paper to look at such problems of unpaid labor in Latin America and find out possible solutions. The succeeding discussion elucidates the problem in more detail. The number of people engaged in unpaid or