A McDonald’s in Kentucky was fined by authorities this week after it allowed children to do unpaid work, with one of them illegally using the fryer.
The US Department of Labor said on Tuesday its investigators discovered two 10-year-old children working in the kitchen of a Louisville McDonald’s restaurant.
They were employed — but not paid — by Bauer Food LLC, a Louisville-based operator of 10 McDonald’s locations, officials said, and sometimes worked until 2 a.m. preparing and distributing orders, cleaning the store, the drive -Thru window to use and operation of cash registers.
One of the two children was allowed to operate a fryer, which is prohibited by law for workers under the age of 16.
are children under the age of 14 generally not allowed to work in any capacity under federal law, and 14-15 year olds have a limit on the number of hours they can work, particularly on school days.
“Under no circumstances should a 10-year-old child ever work in a fast-food kitchen with hot grills, ovens and fryers,” Karen Garnett-Civils, district manager of the Louisville Department of Labor’s Wage and Hours Division, said in a statement.
305 minors
The two 10-year-olds were among 305 minors found to be working longer than the legal hours at 62 McDonald’s locations in Kentucky, Maryland, Indiana and Ohio.
The restaurants were operated by three franchisees, according to the Department of Labor: Bauer Food, Archways Richwood LLC, and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC.
Bauer Food employed a total of 24 children under the age of 16 to work overtime, while Archways Richwood had 242 underage workers working overtime and Bell Restaurant Group allowed 39 children to work overtime, the authorities said Labor Department investigations found.
In total, they were fined $212,544 for violating child labor laws.
Bauer Food, Archways Richwood and Bell Restaurant did not respond wealth‘s requests for comments.
Certainly Bauer Food told NBC News that the 10-year-olds who worked at their sites were the children of a night manager visiting their parents at work. The company said the children were not approved by management to work at the restaurant and that it had taken steps to make workers aware of the policies for children visiting their parents or guardians at work.
A McDonald’s spokesman was not immediately available when contacted wealthbut Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president and chief people officer at McDonald’s USA, told CNN on Wednesday that the reports were “unacceptable” and “deeply disturbing.”
“We are committed to ensuring our franchisees have the resources they need to promote safe workplaces for all employees and ensure compliance with all labor laws,” she said.
The Department of Labor found that in 2022, 688 minors were illegally employed in dangerous jobs — the highest number since 2011. Among them was a 15-year-old who was injured while operating a deep fryer at a McDonald’s in Morristown, Tennessee, in June.
“We are seeing an increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or perform types of work that endangers them, or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows,” he said Garnett Civils. “An employer hiring young workers needs to know the rules.”
The Labor Department’s findings come as Republican lawmakers in several states seek to relax child labor laws.
On Wednesday, Iowa’s Legislature passed a bill by GOP lawmakers that would limit child labor protections, including limiting the number of hours teens can work at school. It would also allow minors to work in jobs they are currently not allowed to do, such as meat processing, operating heavy machinery and serving alcohol.
The law would go into effect when signed by Governor Kim Reynolds has expressed its support for the proposed changes.
Legislatures in Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin I also swam the possibility relaxing laws around child labor.
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