Introduction
You’ve just decided to meet up with a couple of old friends after a long time. Wondering about which place to go, you realise you just have to go with the classic. Nothing like a McD Value Meal served fresh by immigrant child labour, right?
McDonald’s is just one of a series of food chains that have been charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for illegally employing child workers.[i] Walmart, General Motors, Hyundai and PepsiCo are some of the other big names accused of violating child labour laws in a recent investigation.
In fact, since 2015, child labour violations have increased about 300%.
History
After the great Depression of the 1930s, millions of Americans were left unemployed and struggled to make ends meet. This resulted in a major increase in the exploitation of child workers. Thus, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 1938, was signed into a law by President Franklin Roosevelt. The FLSA established standards for minimum wages, overtime pay, child labour and employer record-keeping. Amended many times since it was introduced, the FLSA today protects over 140 million Americans and provides legal recourse to corporate exploitation.[ii]
Current Scenario
A mostly Republican-led phenomenon, at least 10 US states are relaxing labour regulations to make it easy for employers to hire underage workers, with very little responsibility. This comes against the federal government’s crackdown on labour violations.[iii] Arkansas passed a bill that eliminates the need to verify the age of minors. Minnesota wants its teens to work in construction, while New Jersey is pushing for its 16-year-olds to work more than most adults do by instituting 50-hour work weeks.
Particularly damning is the bill passed in the state of Iowa.[iv] Not only would it allow 14-year-olds to work on holidays until 11 pm, it also would allow 16-year-olds to serve alcohol. The bill also includes provisions for children to work in assembly lines, including in meat packing industries, cleaning razor sharp chainsaws, or joining in demolition of buildings.
Such a deviation from previously accepted notions warrants a deeper look, at the core of which lie some broader problems.
Labour Shortage
Called as the “real year of the Great Resignation”, 2022 saw more than 50 million people quitting their jobs, the highest United States had ever seen beating the previous year’s record.[v] Lockdown allowed many people to reconsider the role of jobs in their lives (especially the elderly) and focus on remote work expanded opportunities, while the US stimulus package facilitated that push. But some states are stretched because of another, irreconcilable issue: deaths due to Pandemic.
USA remains the worst affected country with over 1.1 million pandemic related mortality,[vi] about 25% of which belonged to the labour force.[vii]
States like Minnesota, for example, lost about 90,000 workers during the pandemic[viii] and is now trying to increase its workforce by employing children.
Cheap Labour
Although exacerbated by the pandemic and lockdowns, child labour violations have been a growing trend over the past few years. One reason for that is that it’s cheap. States in the US are legally allowed to pay only 85% of the minimum wage for student workers who work part time. This reality stands in stark contrast to the fact that the minimum wage in the US has remained unchanged since 2009, while the cost of living has surged by 43%.[ix] This is not helped by a new bill introduced in Nebraska that aims to ensure that while the minimum wage in 2026 be $15, teens only be paid $10.[x]
Low Penalty
The current laws dictate a maximum possible fine of $15,138/child for child labour violations, which the US Department of Labour maintains is not sufficient to deter large corporations.
Migrant Children
Immigration has long been a trouble for United States. These are usually families in search of better quality of life or adults desiring better pay. But a recent investigation[xi] has showed that the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is rapidly increasing. Just last year, about 130,000 minors crossed the border alone, to live with someone they have often never met. They move here to support their families by sending back money, often sacrificing their own childhood. Under intense pressure to earn money, these children often agree to jobs in hazardous condition for subminimum wage. Sometimes, these minors drop out of school to continue working. Corporations conveniently turn a blind eye to the young workers in their factories, citing fake documents that employment agencies create for these children. The US Department of Labour believes that it is often these children who don’t have a choice, and are forced to work because of circumstances, that often get mixed in this tangled web of deceit. This contrasts with the Republicans’ argument that such laws give work experience to children.
Remedies
Former US Secretary of Labour, Robert Reich, suggests 4 measures[xii] to counter child labour violations:
1.) Increase the funding of the Department of Labour so it can crackdown on violations. Officers are now responsible for twice the workload they had 40 years ago.
2.) Increase the penalty. Current fines are too low, and are treated as “costs of doing business”.
3.) Hold corporations accountable for their supply chains. Big companies contract the smaller employment agencies to find children, which allows these corporations to “play dumb” and avoid liability.
4.) Reform immigration laws so undocumented children aren’t exploited.
An angry and disappointed Robert ends with,
“Are corporate profits really more important than the safety of children?”
Author: Saksham Shrivastava, Research Intern, CS3, USI
Endnotes
[i] “The Sad Truth Behind Happy Meals: How McDonald’s is exploiting child workers” Firstpost, May 04, 2023,
[ii] Brett Daniel, “A Simple Overview of the Fair Labor Standards Act,” SPARK, October 27, 2022, https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/2022/10/a-simple-overview-of-the-fair-labor-standards-act.aspx#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20the%20FLSA%20was%20to%20facilitate%20better%20working,the%20public%20and%20private%20sectors.
[iii] Catherine T. Barbieri, Samuel A. Haaz.” Conflicting Trends in Child Labor Laws Send Mixed Messages to Employers”, Fox Rothschild LLP — Attorneys at Law, April 26, 2023, https://www.foxrothschild.com/publications/conflicting-trends-in-child-labor-laws-send-mixed-messages-to-employers
[iv] Scott McFetridge, Hannah Fingerhut. ”Iowa governor signs bill loosening child labor laws”, AP News, May 27, 2023,
https://apnews.com/article/iowa-governor-child-labor-laws-e8cb29e2a45b956489c4a192b7ddeba5
[v] Greg Iacurci,” Why 2022 Was the ‘Real Year’ of the Great Resignation.” CNBC, 1 Feb. 2023, https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/why-2022-was-the-real-year-of-the-great-resignation.html.
[vi] “United States of America: WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard With Vaccination Data”, World Health Organisation(WHO), Accessed 15 June 2023, https://covid19.who.int/region/amro/country/us
[vii] “COVID-19 Provisional Counts – Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm . Accessed 16 June 2023.
[viii] Gordon Severson, ”MN lost 90,000 workers during pandemic; now has one of the tightest labor markets in the country”, Kare.com, December 8, 2022, “https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/mn-lost-90000-workers-during-pandemic-has-one-of-the-tightest-labor-markets-in-the-country/89-1f4b0b5e-60c2-4f75-a57b-f9dd27601bee
[ix] BLS Data Viewer.
https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0 . Accessed 16 June 2023.
[x] Jennifer Sherer, Nina Mast. “Child Labor Laws Are under Attack in States across the Country: Amid Increasing Child Labor Violations, Lawmakers Must Act to Strengthen Standards|” Economic Policy Institute, March 14, 2023,
https://www.epi.org/publication/child-labor-laws-under-attack/
[xi] Hannah Dreier, “Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.” New York Times, February 25, 2023,
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html
[xii] Robert Reich.” Why Child Labor in America is Skyrocketing|Robert Reich” Posted May 16, 2023, Youtube, 4:19.