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1 big thing

American companies using illegal child labor

1 big thing

Axios

News

42K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The federal government says the illegal use of child labor in the U.S. is on the rise. In the last fiscal year 835 companies employed more than 3,800 children illegally, according to the Labor Department. The department announced new crackdowns Monday following a New York Times investigation published over the weekend into child labor law violations involving migrant children. Plus, a test for Trump as conservatives gather in DC. Guests: Axios' Nathan Bomey and Josh Kraushaar Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Naomi Shavin, Lydia McMullen-Laird and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected] . You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893. Go Deeper: Department of Labor plans child labor crackdown after alleged violations Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Good morning. Welcome, Naxios today. It's the first of March and it's Wednesday. I'm Nailibu Nu.

0:10.0

Today on the show, a test for Trump as conservatives gather in D.C.

0:14.0

But first, the American industries and companies using illegal child labor. That's today's one big thing.

0:22.0

The illegal use of child labor in the U.S. is on the rise according to the Department of Labor.

0:31.0

It reports that since 2018, there's been a 69% increase in children being employed illegally by companies.

0:40.0

On Monday, the Department announced new crackdowns on the heels of a New York Times investigation

0:45.0

published over the weekend into child labor law violations involving migrant kids.

0:51.0

These minors were found to be illegally employed in as many as 20 states,

0:56.0

and in facilities making products for companies including J.Crew, General Motors, Ben and Jerry's and more.

1:02.0

Axios' Nathan Bomi has been reporting on this. Nathan, first, can you remind us what constitutes illegal child labor in this country?

1:10.0

Well, it's not illegal for a young person to work at age 14 or 15 or 16,

1:17.0

but they're not allowed to work in any sort of dangerous job.

1:21.0

And they're also not allowed to work too many hours in a given week or in a given day.

1:25.0

They're not allowed to do night shifts, that sort of thing.

1:28.0

So that is one aspect of child labor violations.

1:31.0

And then the other aspect is just kids under 14 in America are not allowed to have jobs.

1:36.0

Nathan, I think it's really shocking to people that this number is going up in the U.S.

1:43.0

Yeah, I think that child labor seems to a lot of people like an issue that was from the past or from some foreign country.

1:52.0

But the reality is that child labor violations are happening here and they're happening now.

1:57.0

A lot of it happens underground.

1:59.0

These are companies that do things that you might not know about in some cases.

2:03.0

But in other cases, they're actually products that we all buy and we have in our homes.

...

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