debt bondage
Labor-secured loan exploitation
Debt bondage is a form of forced labor in which a person works to repay a debt but cannot escape the arrangement because the debt grows faster than it can be paid off.
The employer controls wages, living expenses, or interest rates to keep the worker perpetually indebted.
Also called debt slavery or peonage, it remains one of the most common forms of human trafficking worldwide: Migrant workers trapped in debt bondage had their passports confiscated.
- peonageDebt-based forced labor
- servitudeCompulsory labor under masters
- modern slaveryCurrent forced labor exploitation
- slaveryOwnership of people
- forced laborCompelled toil, no consent
generational · work off · unpaid wages · smuggling · serfdom · indentured servitude · sharecropping · human trafficking · caste systems · predatory lending · chattel slavery · poverty traps · wage garnishment · coyote · coercion · restitution · bankruptcy · collateral
- Russian serfdomserfs, peasants, unfree labor, bound labor, servitude
- child laborchild labor, child workers, child labor laws, hazardous work, hazardous occupations
- slaverychattel slavery, enslaved, slave, enslavement, slave traders
- coercion crimeskidnapping, extortion, blackmail, human trafficking, false imprisonment
- exploitationexploit, predatory, sex trafficking, take advantage, human trafficking
- historical lawattainder, Justinian Code, Roman law, curtesy, Napoleonic Code
debt bondagewage labor
Work exchanged for payment
at-will employment · free agency · self-employment · emancipation · independent contractor
debt bondagefinancial freedom
economic independence · financial security · financial autonomy · debt-free · economic autonomy
debt, debts, debtor, debtors, indebted, indebtedness, bond, bonds, bondage