USA: 10 year olds found among 305 children working illegally at McDonalds : The Guardian

A US department of labor investigation uncovered child labor violations at three McDonald’s locations in Louisville, Kentucky, which included finding two 10-year-olds working unpaid, sometimes until 2am.

The three McDonald’s franchisees cited in the investigation own a total of 62 locations across Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio, were found to employ 305 children who were working more than legally permitted hours and performing job tasks prohibited by law for their age.

Civil penalties totaling $212,754 were issued against the franchisees for the violations.

The franchisees include Bauer Food based in Louisville, Kentucky, Archways Richwood based in Walton, Kentucky, and Bell Restaurant Group based in Louisville. Around 93% of McDonald’s locations worldwide are operated by franchisees.

The investigation found the franchisees employing 14- and 15-year-olds who were working outside of the hours and over the numbers of hours minors are permitted to work and exceeding the daily and weekly limits during school days and school weeks, including cases where the workers were on the job during school hours.

The news comes as states across the US have moved to relax child labor laws.

“We are seeing an increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or handle types of work that endangers them or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows,” said wage and hour division district director Karen Garnett-Civils in Louisville, Kentucky. “An employer who hires young workers must know the rules. An employer, parent or young worker with questions can contact us for help understanding their obligations and rights under the law.”

The child labor violations are the latest among several recent cases involving McDonald’s franchises.

In February 2023, the department of labor fined a franchise operator of seven McDonald’s restaurants in Erie and Warren, Pennsylvania for illegally allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work at times and over hours not permitted by federal child labor laws, and cases of assigning nine workers under the age of 16 to operate deep fryers. The violations impacted 154 minor employees at the restaurants and led to a fine of $92,107 in civil money penalties.

Another Pennsylvania-based McDonald’s franchisee of 13 locations in the Pittsburgh area was fined by the department of labor in December 2022 for child labor violations covering 101 minor workers. The violations include allowing the minors to work later than 9pm, more than eight hours on school days, more than 18 hours during school weeks, and more than three hours a day and after 7pm on school days. A civil penalty of $57,332 was assessed for those violations.

In June 2022, the US Department of Labor fined a McDonald’s franchisee in Tennessee a $3,258 civil penalty for illegally assigning a 15-year-old worker to use a deep fryer, considered a hazardous job task not permitted for minors, and experienced a burn while doing so.