What is the Department of Labor doing to combat the worst forms of child labor in the United States?
• DOL is committed to ensuring that U.S. child labor laws are strictly enforced. Since 2009, DOL has added 350 new field investigators to increase enforcement in industries that employ vulnerable workers, including young workers. Every onsite investigation conducted by DOL’s WHD has a child labor component. Child labor complaints, although not numerous, are given the highest priority within the agency. Each year, WHD regional and local offices undertake child labor compliance initiatives in a variety of industries, such as grocery stores, shopping malls, theaters, and restaurants, homing in on industries that traditionally employ large numbers of young workers and are most likely to have problems with compliance. Ending illegal child labor is a top DOL priority, and WHD investigators use every tool available — from imposing civil money penalties to using the “hot goods” provision to prevent interstate commerce in goods produced by child labor — to end these violations. • Many working c
