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Child labor violations are on the rise. Here’s what parents should be on the lookout for

In the U.S., child labor violations have risen in recent years — including some that have proven deadly — with teens working in construction, food services, agriculture and more, according to the Department of Labor.

“The hardest type of investigation we do is when we do have to investigate a case where a minor gets seriously injured or worse,” Juan Coria, the department’s Wage and Hour Division administrator for the Southeast, told McClatchy News.

Coria describes young workers as “very vulnerable,” and strongly recommends that parents discuss their children’s jobs with them and be a part of their decision when it comes to starting a new job.

Child labor investigations and violations have been trending upward since 2015. While this is due to a “combination of factors,” Coria says, part of the reason is an increase in young workers in the workforce nowadays.

Here’s what parents should know and be on the lookout for in terms of child labor violations.

Dangerous jobs

Nearly 3,000 minors were working “in violation of the law” nationwide in 2021, with three dying as a result — including a 16-year-old construction worker after a 160-foot fall in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Labor Department.

Each year, roughly 160,000 children in the U.S. suffer injuries while working, including 54,000 that are serious, according to a Wage and Hour Division fact sheet.

“One injury, one fatality is one too many,” Coria told McClatchy News.

Coria — who oversees Wage and Hour Division activity, including child labor, throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee — says more 14- and 15-year-olds are joining the workforce lately, too.

There are 17 hazardous occupation orders for nonagricultural jobs that ban workers younger than 18 from taking them on, according to the Labor Department.

These include using meat slicers, bakery machines, trash compactors, driving a motor vehicle, storing explosives and more.

If a child comes home and talks about taking on one of these dangerous jobs as part of their work day, parents should take that as a red flag and “initiate a conversation,” Coria says.

He notes that when it comes to power-driven machines — especially those that are sharp — having a minor worker clean them is also in violation of federal law and some employers are unaware of this.

“Unfortunately we’ve had to investigate situations where a young worker was just cleaning the machine and it accidentally went off and injured them,” Coria says.

In Memphis, Tennessee, a Schlotzsky’s deli let 16- and 17-year-olds clean and use a meat slicer on a regular basis in violation of child labor laws, McClatchy News previously reported. Ultimately, the employer was cited after the 16-year-old suffered a thumb injury on the job.

Most common violations

Since October 2017, five of the 17 hazardous order occupations make up roughly 90% of child labor violations discovered by the Wage and Hour Division, Coria noted.

“They’re pretty common sense, but at the same time, people may not be aware that these are prohibited occupations,” he said.

The top five most common violations, according to the Wage and Hour Division, include:

  • Driving a motor vehicle

  • Jobs that require power-driven hoisting apparatuses such as forklifts

  • Jobs involving using power-driven meat processing machines, including meat slicers

  • Using and cleaning power-driven bakery machines, including batter mixers

  • Jobs involving the use of power-driven machine products such as compactors and balers

For those ages 14 through 17, driving while on the job is strictly prohibited, Coria says, even if some teens have a driver’s license.

There is one exception, however: 17-year-olds “may drive cars or small trucks during daylight hours for limited times and under strictly limited circumstances,” according to the Labor Department.

“There are employers who are good at running their business,” Coria says, but “may not be experts in federal labor laws.”

Working too many hours

Young workers are only allowed to work a certain amount of hours, which varies during summer, when minors are allowed to work more hours, and the school year, when education should be the main focus, Coria says.

If parents notice their child working long hours during the school year, that is a red flag, according to Coria.

For 14- and 15-year-olds, they are allowed to work three hours during a school day and 18 hours in a school week, according to the Labor Department.

These teens can work up to eight hours on non-school days and up to 40 hours a week when school is not in session, the agency says. For those 16 and older, there are no restrictions on hours worked.

“Children of any age are generally permitted to work for businesses entirely owned by their parents, except those under age 16 may not be employed in mining or manufacturing and no one under 18 may be employed in any occupation the Secretary of Labor has declared to be hazardous,” the Wage and Hour Division fact sheet says.

Ultimately, while the Wage and Hour Division enforces child labor laws, Coria says the division can also be used as a resource to prevent the violations from happening to begin with.

More information on child labor laws for minors, parents and employers can be found here.

Additionally, Coria noted that states have their own labor laws, and some have more “stringent” restrictions for young workers. Information on state labor laws can be found here.

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