Think of the Children: a Call for Mainstream Organizational Research on Child Employment and Labor

Although children are a sizeable portion of the workforce, and many of these employed children are engaged in child labor, organizational research has largely ignored this population. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the critical and timely need for organizational research on the experience of work for children, particularly those engaged in child labor (defined as work that is mentally, physically, socially, or morally dangerous or threatens the education of children). I argue this is inherently a question particularly important for those with expertise in occupational health psychology, given the definitionally hazardous nature of child labor and the developmentally critical period during which children tend to be employed. To achieve this aim, I first review the current state of child labor globally with an example of recent backsliding as highlighted by modern legislative efforts to roll back protections for employed minors in the United States. I then provide results of a scoping review of 19 top organizational science journals, which largely suggest that employed children are rarely the subjects of study in mainstream organizational research, and those that are studied may not best represent the population of employed minors globally. Lastly, I provide recommendations and research questions for organizational and occupational health scholars to improve our empirical understanding of the nature of work for employed youth. Overall, this paper provides a strong foundation for increased organizational research with employed children, particularly those engaged in child labor.