Child labor in the Philippines is the employment of children in hazardous occupations below the age 15, or without the proper conditions and requirements below the age of 15, where children are compelled to work on a regular basis to earn a living for themselves and their families, and as a result are disadvantaged educationally and socially. So to make it short, it is called child labor when it is forced.
In 2012, the National Statistics Office reported that there were around 5.5 million child laborers aged 5–17 in the country, around 2.1 million of whom were exposed to environments that are considered hazardous. The International Labour Organization estimated that 55.3% of these children undertake hazardous work in agriculture.
The Philippines was committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ending child labor by 2025. However, despite considerable progress, this has not yet occurred as of 2026. Under the Philippines Development Plan, the country attempted to remove 2 million children from hazardous child work by 2022. The Philippine Statistics Authority estimated that 861,000 children 5 to 17 years old were working in 2024.
Definitions Republic Act No. 7610, known as the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act, gives the following definitions: Children – refers to persons below 18 years of age or those over but are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability/condition. (Section 3) Child labor – refers to the illegal employment of children below the age of 15, where they are not directly under the sole responsibility of their parents or legal guardian, or the latter employs other workers apart from their children, who are not members of their families, or their work endangers their life, safety, health and morals or impairs their normal development including schooling. This also extends to the situation of children below the age of 18 who are employed in hazardous occupations. (Section 12) The joint project of the Philippine National Statistics Office and International Labour Organization made distinctions on the kinds of work that children are subjected to.
Hazardous work Chemical – work involves exposure to: dust (e.g. silica, dust, standing dust), liquid (e.g. oil, gasoline, mercury), mist, fumes, or vapors (e.g. paint, insecticides or pesticide spraying), gas (e.g. oxygen, ammonia), etc. Physical – work involves exposure to: noise, temperature or humidity, pressure, inadequate illumination or lighting, slip, trip, or fall hazards, insufficient exit for prompt escape, congested lay-out, radiation, ultraviolet, or microwave, etc. Biological – work involves exposure to: viral, bacterial, fungal, parasitic (e.g. drinking water affected with amoeba), etc.
Permissible work Children are allowed to undertake work under certain conditions. A child below 15 years old can be permitted to work if he/she is under supervision by family senior/ parents provided that the child works directly under the sole responsibility of his/her parents or legal guardian and where only members of his/her family are employed. The child's employment does not endangers his/her life, safety, health, and morals, or impairs his/her normal development. The parent or legal guardian shall provide the said child with the prescribed primary and/or secondary education. The employer first secures a work permit for the child from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Children aged 15 to below 18 years of age are permitted to work in any economic activity not considered child labor, but not more than 8 hours a day and in no case beyond 40 hours a week. They shall not be allowed to work between 10:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M. of the following day, and employer should provide the child with access to at least elementary and secondary education.
Current status In its report Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor in 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated the percentage of working children aged 5 to 14 to be around 11% which corresponds to about 2,180 million children. 65% of these children were found in the agricultural sector, 5% in the industrial sector and 29% engaged in domestic service. The 2014 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor reported 13 goods produced exclusively by child labor in the Philippines. These included 8 agricultural goods (namely sugarcane, bananas, coconuts, corn, hogs, rice, rubber, and tobacco). Gold mining, pornography and pyrotechnics complete the list.
Statistics Working children Working Children 5 to 17 Years Old.
Year Number Percentage 2022 1.48M 4.7% 2023 1.09M 3.5% 2024 .861M 2.7%
Philippine legislation on child labor
Historical evolution of child labor laws in the Philippines The concern for the welfare of children being employed to work started in the Philippines as early as 1923."International Labour Organization-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC)." International Labour Organization-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC). 1998. Retrieved 1 July 2015. http://ipecphils.tripod.com/phillaws//p2_1.htm#top. The American colonial government of that time enacted the very first set of rules and regulations in the country regarding child labor through Act No. 3071, also known as "An Act to Regulate the Employment of Women and Children in Shops, Factories, Industrial, Agricultural and Mercantile Establishments, and Other Place of Labor in the Philippine Islands, to Provide Penalties for Violations Hereof and for Other Purposes". The enforcement of this law was eventually overseen by the Woman and Child Labor Section of the Inspection Division of the then Bureau of Labor in 1925. When the Philippines declared independence from American rule in 1946, all existing laws enacted under the former regime were replaced by Republic Acts. Act No. 3071 was renamed R.A. 695 thereafter and the implementation was entrusted to the Women and Minors Division of the former Bureau of Labor Standards, in 1957.
In 1932, the Philippines enacted into law to codify its penal laws, they came to be known as the Revised Penal Code (RPC). The RPC contains several provisions barring certain types of child work, such as "Exploitation of Child Labor" (Article 273) which prohibits an employer from retaining a child worker in service against his or her will under the pretext of reimbursing a debt incurred by the child's ascendants. The PRC also includes a clause regarding the "Exploitation of Minors" (Article 278). This provision prohibits the employment of a minor less than 16 years of age in what the code describes as "dangerous exhibits". Other provisions of the RPC relating to slavery, prostitution, corruption, illegal detention, and kidnapping of minors are all applicable to child workers. The RPC remains in effect to this day in the Philippines.
Two years after Philippine independence from American control, the Republic became a member state of the International Labour Organization on 15 June 1948. Since then, the Philippines have ratified a number of international conventions adopted by ILO, relating to child labor. The country first ratified in 1953, ILO Convention No. 90, which prohibits the employment of children in industry during night time and in 1960, the government ratified ILO Convention No. 59, which fixes the minimum age of employment for industry at 15 years. The convention, however, allows younger workers to be employed in undertakings which only members of the employer's family are employed, but only if the work in question is not a danger to the life, health, or morals of the children employed. ILO Convention No. 77, which requires the medical examination and subsequent re-examination of children as a prerequisite for their employment, was also put into effect in 1960. The ILO Convention No. 138 or the Minimum Age Convention of 1973 was not ratified in the Philippines until 1998.
During Martial Law, a handful of Presidential Decrees (P.D.'s) were enforced concerning child labor laws in the Philippines. One of which is P.D. no. 148 which amended R.A. 679, the Woman and Child Labor Law. The new decree simplified the complex provisions of R.A. 679 regarding confusing age limits imposed by this law under different types of undertakings allowing "any person between 14 and 18 years of age may be employed in any non-hazardous undertaking." P.D. no 148 was in direct disagreement with ILO Convention No. 59. The new law didn't last that long since only a year after, P.D. no 148 was amended by the passage of P.D. no 442, otherwise known as the Labor Code. The new law raised the minimum age of employment from 14 to 15 years old, and has maintained the previous minimum age for hazardous undertakings at 18 years old. The Labor Code failed, however, to include the terms and conditions of employment of children previously provided by R.A. 679, as amended by P.D. no. 148 creating a huge gap in the new law. This was eventually addressed through P.D. 603 or the Child and Youth Welfare Code, a codification of different provisions for the well-being of all children.
Child labor laws in the Philippines After the fall of the Marcos regime in 1986, increasing demands for reforms in government policies, legislation and programs affecting children made the government respond by ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 26 July 1990. The CRC entered into force as an international agreement on 2 September 1990. The convention directs the ratifying countries to "recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development".
To comply with the mandate of the CRC, the government enacted R.A. 7610, "An Act Providing for Stronger Deterrence and Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination, Providing Penalties for its Violation and for Other Purposes" on 17 June 1992. Initially, the act was lauded for its innovation in promoting child welfare, especially those found in extremely difficult situations. However, the act was also severely criticized because of how its provisions severely changed existing policies regarding Child labor laws. Article VIII, Section 12, of R.A. 7610 legalized the employment of all children below 15 years of age, but only if the employer is able to secure a working permit from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Public opinion and international organizations like the ILO and the UNICEF, along with the local Department of Justice pushed to amend R.A. 7610, Article VII, Section 12, as it was in flagrant violation of ILO convention no. 59. A new law called R.A. 7658 or "An Act Prohibiting the Employment of Children below 15 Years of Age in Public and Private Undertakings" was passed in October 1993 for this purpose. R.A. 7658 allows only two exceptions to the prohibition on employment below the minimum age, first for the concerned child to "work directly under the sole responsibility of the child's parents or legal guardian and where only members of the employer's family are employed" and second, "where a child's employment in public entertainment or information through cinema, theater, radio or television is essential". Additionally, the new law requires the employers to first secure for the child a work permit from the DOLE before the child can begin to work.