The Labor Department found two 10-year-olds among more than 300 minors working at numerous McDonald’s locations in four states.
In a news release on Tuesday, the Labor Department said that its Wage and Hour Division found the two 10-year-olds working at a location in Louisville, Ky. The division found that three franchisees — Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC, and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC — employed 305 children to work more hours than legally permitted and perform tasks that federal law prohibits.
The children were found to be working in 62 locations operated by the three franchisees in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio. The franchisees were fined more than $212,000 in total, reports The Hill. Most of the restaurants, 45 of the 62, were in Kentucky, according to data released by the department.
The two 10-year-old children prepared and distributed food orders cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window, and operated a register, investigators found. One of them was also allowed to operate a deep fryer, a task prohibited for workers under the age of 16 under federal law.
“Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers,” Karen Garnett-Civils, the Wage and Hour Division district director in Louisville, said in a statement. “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.”
Garnett-Civils said the latest incidents came amid 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.”
Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president and chief people officer at McDonald’s USA, told CNN: “These 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.”
