Is it legal to work in the USA if you are 13 years old?
In non farm jobs, No.
Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
31–40 of 190 posts
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#32this is why food is cheap people. I used to drive corn and pea combines in high school, and in the farming community it's not uncommon to have kids driving tractors as well (granted this is usually a family run farm). It's likely that the people working in the factories there knew the kids or families and made an exception to allow them to start early (still technically illegal I know). it's not child slave labor, its kids trying to make money.
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#33Did the company make more than $1.5M in additional revenue due to employing those 100+ kids (plus the others that are likely to have never been identified)?
Presumably variable gross profit is the measure to refer to/compare against, rather than revenue.
So if I rob a bank for $2MM, but spend $1.95MM on contractors to do the job, I should only be fined $50k?
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#34Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#35this is why food is cheap people. I used to drive corn and pea combines in high school, and in the farming community it's not uncommon to have kids driving tractors as well (granted this is usually a family run farm). It's likely that the people working in the factories there knew the kids or families and made an exception to allow them to start early (still technically illegal I know). it's not child slave labor, it…
> it's not child slave labor, its kids trying to make money.
It's price dumping by abusing children who're happy to have a couple dollars to spend on Fortnite characters or whatever the rage is these days.
Pay your workers fairly.
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#36I got my first job at 15. Is that no longer legal? Is the issue here the specific conditions?
Yes, specific conditions. For example, here in Ontario, Canada you can employ children as young as 14 but their hours cannot conflict with school hours (including no overnight schedules). And certain jobs are simply 18+, such as working in factories. Abattoirs are one of the more dangerous and stressful (physically and mentally) jobs out there, and would likely fall in that category of hazardous work unsuited to children.
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#37On a related note Arkansas just rollback regulations to employ kids. If the past month is any indication of what happens when you rollback regulations there is no way this will end poorly for some of the kids.
(Think you may have meant, "no way this will not end poorly".)
It was definitely sarcasm, I didn't think the /s was required in this case.
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#38There are millions of undocumented workers in the US using fake identities to get jobs. Both major parties support this system. Some Republican interests enjoy the access to dirt-cheap labor. Some Democratic interests want immigrants to be able to find jobs despite it being illegal to employ them. So we end up with a system where employers have no easy way to verify that an employee is who they say they are and has a…
"This is such an easy problem to solve" How? If someone uses a fully faked/stolen identity, with a valid SSN / passport # / etc (which every single company is required to check), how do you propose we catch them?
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#39I got my first job at 15. Is that no longer legal? Is the issue here the specific conditions?
14 is generally the minimum. But there are restrictions, can't work night shifts during school, can't work in hazardous conditions, etc.
Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably variable gross profit is the measure to refer to/compare against, rather than revenue.
So if I rob a bank for $2MM, but spend $1.95MM on contractors to do the job, I should only be fined $50k?
no. but when you are calculating if the job is worth the risk, you would look at the $50k vs the jail time.