DOL Brings Its "Full Authority" to Bear on Child Labor
Author: Michael Cardman, HR & Compliance Center Senior Legal Editor
December 7, 2023
With child labor violations on the rise, the US Department of Labor (DOL) is rolling out new procedures for assessing civil money penalties against employers that break federal child labor laws.
In a new Field Assistance Bulletin, the DOL says it wants to ensure it is "appropriately and consistently utilizing its full authority in every child labor enforcement action."
As of November 28, the DOL will apply the maximum civil money penalty (currently $15,138, and adjusted for inflation every year) in cases where there is no injury or where there is only a minor injury (meaning an injury that requires treatment no more extensive than First Aid and that results in a child missing school or work, or having their normal activities curtailed, for fewer than five days) for each violation rather than for each child, as it had previously been doing.
For example, if there are two violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) rules prohibiting work in hazardous occupations and one violation of the FLSA recordkeeping requirements, the employer will be assessed three separate civil money penalties, each of which can reach $15,138 - for a potential total of $45,414 for a single child.
The FLSA requires the DOL to consider whether a civil money assessment is appropriate given the size of the business and the gravity of the violation. The new Field Assistance Bulletin also assigns a percentage by which the maximum possible penalty may be increased or decreased depending on various factors such as repeat violations, willfulness, the number of minors employed and more.
The crackdown on child labor comes as the DOL is facing increased scrutiny of its enforcement efforts. Some members of Congress have been questioning the DOL's work. Meanwhile, the DOL's internal watchdog - the Office of Inspector General - recently announced it is initiating a review of the DOL's efforts to curtail child labor law violations and investigating the cause of the rising child labor law violations.
In fiscal year 2023, DOL investigators found almost 6,000 minors employed in violation of federal child labor laws - an increase of 50% over the previous fiscal year's total of about 4,000.