The US government on Monday said it would step up the fight against child labor in the United States, as the number of illegally employed minors in the country has risen by 69% since 2018.
In the past fiscal year, the United States Department of Labor identified 835 companies employing 3,800 children in violation of the law and observed a 26 percent increase in children specifically hired in dangerous positions.
These are “alarming trends,” an official in Joe Biden’s administration said during a press briefing.
They accompany the influx of children from Latin America to the United States fleeing violence or poverty in their country of origin, most of them arriving without parents.
To curb this surge, the Labor and Health Ministries, which are responsible for dealing with migrants arriving alone in the country, have planned to set up a special working group to better share their information.
At the same time, the Department of Labor will launch an initiative aimed at better enforcement of the law, particularly by targeting more regions and sectors where violations are most prevalent.
There are also plans to take a closer look at partnered companies and temp agencies that use child labour.
“Too often companies look the other way and claim that their recruitment agency, their contractor or their supplier is responsible,” complained US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh in a press release and called for broad mobilization.
“It’s not a 19th-century problem—it’s a problem today. We need Congress to step up, States to step up,” he said.
For example, under current law, the maximum penalty for violating child labor laws is $15,138 per case.
“It’s not high enough to deter large profitable companies,” the Labor Department said.
In the United States, child labor is legal from the age of 14, with limited hours for children under 16 to allow them to continue attending school. Minors are also prohibited from certain dangerous positions, for example in factories or slaughterhouses.
The New York Times on Saturday published a poll showing the growing presence of immigrant children, some as young as 12, in many sectors of the American economy, from auto factories to construction, construction or shipping