The benefits of eliminating child labor and replacing it with universal education
Eliminating child labor has significant economic returns. A study commissioned by ILO-IPEC in 2004 called "Investing in Every Child" concluded that the benefits of eliminating child labor would be nearly seven times greater than the costs, or an estimated $5.1 trillion in the developing and transitional economies, where most child laborers are found. The study estimated that child labor could be eliminated and replaced by universal lower secondary education by 2020 at an estimated total cost of $760 billion.

Globally, the economic benefits of eliminating child labor and replacing it with universal education exceed costs by a ratio of 6.7 to 1.⁷⁸ All regions of the world would experience large net gains from the elimination of child labor. In North Africa and the Middle East, the benefits are the highest relative to the costs (8.4 to 1), whereas in sub-Saharan Africa they are the lowest (5.2 to 1). In Asia, the ratio is 7.2 to 1, in transitional countries it is 5.9 to 1, and in Latin America it is 5.3 to 1.

The elimination of child labor is a wise "generational investment". In the initial years, costs would almost certainly exceed returns. However, net economic flows would turn dramatically positive as the effects of improved education and health take hold. By 2020, costs would be far outweighed by the returns, leaving annual benefits of around US$60 billion. Each extra year of school stemming from universal education through age 14 results in an additional 11 percent of future earnings per year, yielding global benefits of just over $5 trillion.⁷⁹

Importantly, the elimination of child labor is critical to achieving at least half of the eight Millennium Development Goals (in addition to world peace and security):

1. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger
2. Universal completion of primary education
3. Promoting gender equality: Eliminating gender disparity in education
4. Combating HIV/AIDS

Did you know that Universal Primary Education (UPE), enhanced knowledge and increased awareness and could save at least 7 million young people from contracting HIV over a decade?⁸⁰ Imagine the value added to the world economy of 7 million lives.

---

⁷⁸ Investing in Every Child: An Economic Study of the Costs and Benefits of Eliminating Child Labor, International Labor Organization, 2004, p. 4.
⁷⁹ Investing in Every Child: An Economic Study of the Costs and Benefits of Eliminating Child Labor, International Labor Organization, 2004, p. 12.
⁸⁰ http://portal.unesco.org/education/
en/ev.php-URL_ID=30875&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html