Since 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has put enforcement of child labor laws in the hands of the DOL.

It’s a job that the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) takes seriously. Last year, from April to July, the employment ranks of those ages 16 to 24 increased by 1.7 million to 18.6 million as almost half of all Americans in that age group found a summer job. Employers should be aware of the work rules that apply. Recall the severed arm injury article we wrote in January 2012. These recent actions offer a few examples:

· A grocery store chain in Alabama and Mississippi paid $53,000 in fines and $12,000 in back pay after WHD found violations at 14 locations. Common mistakes involved minors loading and operating power-driven scrap paper balers and paper box compactors, making deductions for uniforms and other items that caused wages to fall below the minimum wage, failing to pay for rest breaks and misclassifying some employees as exempt.

· A Pennsylvania pallet company was fined $50,000 for allowing minors to work with power-driven woodworking machines. The investigation came about after one child lost several fingers in an accident.

Read full article in Infinisource Newsroom.