Children more vulnerable to exploitation due to U.S. policies
Exploitative child labor has seen an uptick in the United States. This is due to companies illegally hiring children to do hazardous work and many states weakening child labor protections. Now, new governmental developments risk undermining prevention efforts and even making children more vulnerable to exploitation.
The good news is that US senators Cory Booker and Josh Hawley have reintroduced bipartisan legislation that would bar companies from receiving federal contracts if they’ve been found to have violated child labor laws. But will this be enough to protect children in the US from exploitation?
Hazardous child labor in the US
In recent years, major corporations have been found exploiting child labor with little consequence. Investigations have uncovered children working illegally in slaughterhouses and factories. Often the exploited children are unaccompanied migrants who arrived in the US seeking safety. Companies like Perdue Farms and JBS have faced financial penalties for violating child labor laws. However, these fines are often little more than “the cost of doing business.”
As Senator Cory Booker told NBC News,
“Right now in America, big corporations are exploiting children in workplaces where federal law says they shouldn’t be in the first place.”
This trend is particularly alarming in agriculture, where outdated federal labor laws continue to leave child workers unprotected. Megan Wurth, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, reports
“I have researched hazardous child labor on US farms and interviewed children working exhausting 12-hour shifts in the heat, exposed to toxic pesticides and other dangers. While hiring children to perform hazardous work at meatpacking plants and on factory floors is illegal, most of the dangerous child labor we saw on farms still is not.”
Under the Biden administration, time and resources were allocated to step up child labor enforcement. However, various new developments imposed by the Trump administration could hinder these efforts, leaving children more vulnerable to exploitation.