300 Kids Work Illegally At KY McDonald's; 10-Year-Old At Fryer: Feds

ACROSS AMERICA — Three Louisville, Kentucky, McDonald’s franchises have been fined more than $212,500 after the Labor Department determined they employed some 300 children found working longer hours than federal labor laws permit — including, at one of the restaurants, two 10-year-olds working without pay at 2 a.m.

One of those 10-year-olds was operating a deep fryer, a task off limits to children under 16, the Labor Department said in a statement this week.

The agency said the investigation was part of a larger probe into child-labor law abuses in the Southeast by its Wage and Hour Division. The investigation comes as lawmakers in multiple U.S. states seek to weaken child labor laws to ease a worker shortage. Some of the proposals would allow children to work outside the hours allowed under federal law or use dangerous equipment in hazardous conditions.

“Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers,” Karen Garnett-Civils, the Wage and Hour division director in Louisville, said in the statement.

Bauer: 10-Year-Olds Were Visiting Parent

The three franchises are Bauer Food Group LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC, both based in Louisville, and Archways Richwood LLC, based in Walton. Together, they operate 62 restaurants in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio.

The Labor Department said Bauer Food, which operates 10 McDonald’s restaurants, was found to have required 24 minor employees to work outside legally permitted hours. They included the 10-year-olds who, below the minimum age for employment, worked without pay, sometimes as late as 2 a.m., preparing and distributing food orders, cleaning the store, working the drive-thru and operating the cash register, according to the agency.

Bauer Food was fined $39,711.

Franchise owner-operator Sean Bauer said the two 10-year-olds weren’t employees but were visiting their parent, a night manager.

“Any ‘work’ was done at the direction of — and in the presence of — the parent, without authorization by franchisee organization management or leadership,” Bauer said in a prepared statement, adding the group has since reiterated its child visitation policy to employees.

Archways Richwood, which operates 27 McDonald’s Restaurants, was fined $143,566 for allowing 242 workers between the ages of 14 and 15 to work beyond legal limits on their hours, the Labor Department said. The Bell Group was fined $29,267 for allowing 39 14- and 15-year-old employees at four locations to work more hours than allowed. Two of the employees were allowed to work during school hours, in violation of federal law, according to the statement.

McDonald’s USA spokeswoman Tiffanie Boyd said the reports are “unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonald’s brand.”

“We are committed to ensuring our franchisees have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces for all employees and maintain compliance with all labor laws,” Boyd said, according to an account by The Associated Press.

Kids In Hazardous Jobs Up 25%

A separate Labor Department data report on child labor law violations in fiscal year 2022 showed infractions in which 688 minors worked at hazardous jobs, an increase of more than 25 percent from the previous year’s total of 545, and the highest annual increase since fiscal year 2021.

Among them was a 15-year-old who was injured while using a deep fryer at a McDonald’s in Morristown, Tennessee, last June.

“One child injured at work is one too many,” Garnett-Civils said in the statement. “Child labor laws exist to ensure that when young people work, the job does not jeopardize their health, well-being or education.”

In all, the Labor Department levided fines in 3,876 child labor violations in 2022, up from 2,819 the year before. Fines increased as well, to nearly $4.4 million, up from just under $3.4 billion in fiscal year 2021.

States Weaken Child Labor Laws

About a dozen states have considered or passed legislation over the past couple of years that would allow kids as young as 14 to work longer hours, when school is in session and in dangerous jobs, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis.

Under legislation signed by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, 14- and 15-year-olds don’t have to get a work permit to take on a paid job, which can include jobs in the state’s important meatpacking industry. Amid criticism, she also signed legislation that stiffens penalties for child labor violations.

Iowa lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Kim Reynolds Thursday that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol in restaurants if their parents say it’s OK, and lawmakers are looking at similar laws in Wisconsin.

In Minnesota — where state labor investigators earlier this year accused Tony Downs Food Company in Madelia of employing at least eight children under 18 in late-night or early-morning shifts operating meat saws and grinders, forklifts and ovens — lawmakers are considering more leeway to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in the construction industry.

Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota are all considering relaxing their child labor laws, something lawmakers in New Jersey and New Hampshire did last year.

In March, legislation introduced in the U.S. House and Senate would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in certain mechanized logging operations with parental supervision. The legislation has strong backing from the logging industry.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.