The Ongoing Fight Against U.S. Child Labor

Child labor law violations in the United States rose in recent years in a manner the Department of Labor has called "alarming". In the fiscal year of 2024, there were more than 4,000 of these infractions recorded, down from a recent peak of almost 5,800 in FY 2023. According to the most recent DOL report on the topic, the general increase might have been in connection with more effective enforcement and awareness. The peak was at least in part connected to a high-profile case of child labor uncovered at a meat production plant cleaning company, which has now been found to have employed more than 100 minors in hazardous, overnight cleaning operations in Nebraska and Minnesota.

The case that opened the eyes of many for the harsh realities of present-day child labor ended in February 2023 when Packers Sanitation Services Inc. paid $1.5 million in civil penalties on top of taking mandated steps to strengthen compliance within the company. Meat packing is an industry that has been notorious for employing children in hazardous conditions in the United States, with 145 compliance actions taken in the fiscal years 2023 and 2024 combined. A much bigger general violator of child labor laws is the hospitality industry at more than 1,100 compliance actions over the two given years. Other industries with many infractions were janitorial services and retail, where like in hospitality children run the risk of working inapproriate hours.

Human trafficking is another aspect that is sadly intertwined with child labor and in the fiscal years 2023 and 2024, the DOL notified the Department of Health and Human Services in relation to the suspected human trafficking of 43 workers they suspected were minors as well as making 11 other referrals. A recent survey found that around 60 percent of youths affected by child labor trafficking were form other countries, while around 40 percent were from the United States. The research found that victims commonly knew their trafficker and that in 40 percent of cases they were a family member. This could lead in some cases to the problem being overlooked, the report found. It also advocated for providing official and appropriate vocational opportunities for minors as well as safe housing for all young people in the country to make them less vulnerable to laboral exploitation.