Introduction: Child labor is a global problem that leads children to acquire adult responsibilities at an early age in order to obtain financial resources to help improve the household economy. This paper studies the characteristics of working children in Colombia in 2010, taking into account the type of employer. Methods: Analytical observational cross-sectional study which was performed using data from the National Demographic and Health Survey Colombia 2010. In the analysis were included all children between 6 and 17 years respondents in the survey. Results: 51.496 children were included in the study. Compared to - child not-workers; child workers, regardless of their employer, they are older, they come from poorer households, they are usually men, they don´t go to school, and they belong to the subsidized regime or they are not enrolled in Social Security System. Children working with their families have worse health, more often they belong to indigenous ethnic group, they receive food assistance, they usually don´t live with their mother and they live in rural areas. Children working with another person, less often are affiliated to special social security system, they are less likely to have visited a doctor during the last year, their head of household is typically a woman, and more often they live in rural areas. Finally independent child workers more often belong to the Afro-descendant ethnic group, and live in households where the head of household is a woman. Conclusions: Working children have common features regardless of their type of employer, but according to the type of employer also are special features
