Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Labor has designed a new contact form for its Wage and Hour Division intended to help streamline the department’s response to potential child labor issues and complaints, according to a notice published Friday in the Federal Register.
- The announcement is a follow up to a June DOL announcement in which the agency said it had begun the process of developing such a form after it found a “significant increase” in the illegal employment of children during its 2023 fiscal year. That year, DOL said it recorded a 14% year-over-year increase in child labor violations and assessed more than $8 million in penalties, up 8% from the previous year.
- DOL requested public comments on its proposed new form. The deadline for submission of comments is 30 days from the date of the notice’s publication.
Dive Insight:
Under the Biden administration, child labor violations have been one of DOL’s most visible enforcement areas. The agency has issued a number of fines, particularly in the restaurant sector.
Last June, DOL fined a Nevada franchisee of Blaze Pizza $277,000 over allegations that it illegally employed workers under age 18, including by having such workers use prohibited machinery and violating restrictions on work scheduling during school nights. It fined an Alabama franchisee of Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers more than $119,000 after making similar allegations against the company.
The agency also recently brought child labor enforcement actions against a janitorial service, a Florida water park and an Alabama manufacturing facility for Hyundai, the latter of which allegedly jointly employed a 13-year-old who worked as many as 50 to 60 hours per week.
Aside from the fines generated by its investigations, DOL has also changed its approach toward assessing violations. In late 2023, it announced civil penalties for nonserious injury and noninjury child labor violations would be assessed on a per violation basis rather than on the previously used per child basis.
The Fair Labor Standards Act’s maximum statutory cap for child labor violations is $15,138 per violation but the law’s enhanced penalty provision, which applies to violations that cause the death or serious injury of a child, has a cap of $68,801 per violation. The agency has issued more than $15 million in penalties for child labor violations during the 2024 fiscal year, up 89% from the previous year’s $8 million.
In contrast to the Biden administration’s strict enforcement of child labor regulations, a number of states have rolled back some child labor laws in recent years. While those measures aim in part to address worker shortages, attorneys who previously spoke to HR Dive cautioned employers to be wary of potential conflicts between federal and state laws.
