Illegal child labor persists in the U.S. as legal protections backslide

 

(ECNS) -- Illegal child labor continues to rise in the U.S. as legal safeguards weaken, according to a report released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

The report, U.S. state lawmakers continued to weaken child labor protections in 2026, said at least 13 states have introduced bills weakening child labor protections this year, with four enacting them.

It warned that opponents of strong child labor standards have continued to erode state standards and—in effect—chip away at the basis for federal standards, which have also come under threat.

In fiscal year 2025, more cases of federal child labor violations were uncovered than during any other year since the Great Recession, and hazardous work violations ticked up again after declining in the year prior, the report noted.

Amid this growing child labor crisis, a few states are taking necessary action to shore up or strengthen standards, but in far too many states industry-backed attacks continue to succeed in rolling back child labor laws, it said.

The report also noted that enforcement of federal child labor standards appears to have diminished under the Trump administration, which has proposed weakening existing standards.

Since Donald Trump was inaugurated in January 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has published news releases about only three child labor enforcement actions, compared with 26 cases in the final year of the Biden administration, the report said.

People may assume child labor has long been eradicated in the U.S., but that has never been the case. In recent years, illegal child labor employment in the country has persisted despite repeated bans.

The persistence of illegal child labor is underscored by a 2023 case involving Packers Sanitation Services Inc., the largest food safety and sanitation service provider in the U.S., which employed at least 102 children aged from 13 to 17 years in hazardous overnight jobs at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states.

These children worked overnight shifts at multiple meat processing plants across the U.S., using hazardous chemicals to clean meat processing equipment. At least three minors suffered injuries during their work.

"The child labor violations in this case were systemic and reached across eight states, and clearly indicate a corporate-wide failure by Packers Sanitation Services at all levels," explained DOL Principal Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) Jessica Looman.

"These children should never have been employed in meat packing plants and this can only happen when employers do not take responsibility to prevent child labor violations from occurring in the first place," Looman said.

This is not an isolated case.

According to the 2023-2024 child labor report released by the DOL, WHD concluded 1,691 compliance actions involving 9,822 young workers in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. WHD assessed a two-year total of $23,203,878 in Civil Money Penalties (CMPs).

The report revealed that in the U.S., children as young as 11 to 13 years old were employed for long hours, sometimes operating dangerous equipment and working in prohibited occupations.

"On the kill floors of meat processing plants, children are using harsh chemicals to clean back saws, head splitters, brisket saws, jaw pullers, meat bandsaws, and neck clippers. In sawmills, children are operating chop saws, rip saws, and powered wood processing machines. Teens are hauling and stacking wood for processing by automated machinery. Children are operating power driven lifts to move pallets. In poultry processing plants, children are using sharp knives to debone chickens. In construction, minors are working on roofs and operating power-driven woodworking machines. Over the last two years, several children have been seriously injured, and some have been killed while at work," the reported unveiled.

The U.S., which fancies itself a "human rights defender" and is quick to point fingers at other nations over human rights violations, is the only one among the 193 UN member states that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

These children, who deserve a happy and innocent childhood, have been turned into slaves of the modern society of the country.

If human rights mean protecting the most basic dignity and safety of every individual, then allowing children to operate heavy machinery late at night in a factory is clearly a direct violation of those rights. Before pointing fingers at other countries over human rights, the U.S. should reflect on its own child labor problem at home.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members." For many children in the U.S., that measure remains troubling.

(By Zhang Dongfang)