US sees sharp rise in child labor violations

Media reports show underage migrants, mostly from Central America, doing dangerous jobs, while some states pass legislation allowing minors to work to ease staff crunch

Editor's note: Despite a violation of child labor laws, businesses in some US states are attempting to fill vacant jobs with minors because of a national labor shortage. This page takes a closer look at how children have been able to secure jobs that are permitted only for adults.

They worked shifts at 13 meatpacking companies in eight US states. They used caustic chemicals to clean razor-sharp saws as well as blood and animal parts off the floor by night and went to school by day.

In February, the Labor Department found that Packers Sanitation Services Inc — known as PSSI and owned by the Blackstone Group in New York, the world's largest private equity company — employed at least 102 underage children at slaughterhouses. It fined PSSI $1.5 million in civil penalties — $15,138 for each child, the maximum penalty under federal law. The company denied knowingly using child labor.