Human Rights | Child labor violations increased drastically in the United States

Stateside the authorities have announced new measures aimed at eradicating child labour. This is reported by the Reuters news agency.

The administration announced the new measures after the number of child labor violations skyrocketed. In addition, numerous media outlets, including Reuters, have reported on the use of children in several dangerous fields.

Since 2018, the number of child labor violations has increased by nearly 70 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In the last fiscal year alone, a total of 865 companies were deemed to have violated child labor laws.

of the United States according to the authorities, children have been used as labor in, for example, the car and food industries. For example, children have allegedly made the popular Lucky Charms cereal and Cheetos chips. It worked out The New York Times – in the investigation of the newspaper, where the journalists revealed the use of child labor in the Hearthside Food Solutions company that manufactures the food in question.

The US Department of Labor confirmed to Reuters that it has opened an investigation into the company’s actions. The company announced that it was cooperating with the authorities and said that it was “horrified” by the findings of the newspaper’s report.

One of the reasons for the increase in the use of child labor is the arrival of underage children traveling alone to the United States. These children are easy prey for, for example, recruiters of large factories, through whom the children end up working in illegal or very heavy jobs.

Current federal law prohibits children under the age of 16 from working in most factory settings. In addition, people under the age of 18 are not allowed to work in the most dangerous jobs.

The US administration has, among other things, established a new task force to investigate violations. The working group works as a collaboration between different ministries.

In addition, the administration wants to increase the amount of compensation from the current $15,138 per child. According to officials, the amount is not a sufficient deterrent for companies.