The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress's audit agency, reports that the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division cited 44,857 child labor violations in 8,688 cases from fiscal 2015 through fiscal 2025, and that yearly counts generally rose. The report is dated September 18, 2026; GAO made it public September 29.
What GAO counted
Cited violations rose from 1,605 in fiscal 2015 to 6,860 in fiscal 2025, peaking at 7,624 in fiscal 2023. The number of children affected rose from 1,015 to 5,268. All cases the division completed, not only child labor cases, fell from 20,025 to 10,063 (conciliations excluded); officials said full-time investigative staff fell from 995 in fiscal 2015 to 618 in March 2026.
Division officials said the counts should not be used to describe how common illegal child labor is; they are the violations the division found and cited. Each counts in the fiscal year its case closed.
Conditions behind the violations
Across the full period, 59 percent involved 14- and 15-year-olds scheduled to work longer or later than allowed in nonagricultural work, such as more than 3 hours a day when school is in session. Another 18 percent involved occupations the department deems hazardous for children. Accommodation and food services accounted for 62 percent, an industry officials said the division targeted.
Violations tied to a death or injury numbered 489: 23 children died and 384 were injured. Violations involving power-driven meat processing machines and slaughtering and meatpacking plants rose from 99 in fiscal 2022 to 809 in fiscal 2023. GAO says public federal data on 260 child work deaths from 2013 through 2023 lack detailed cause or industry information for more than half.
What the department does
The division began a child labor enforcement initiative in February 2023. Since November 2023 it assesses penalties for noninjury and nonserious-injury violations per violation rather than per child. GAO's chart shows penalties assessed of $1.4 million in fiscal 2015, $8.0 million in 2023 and $37.2 million in 2025.
GAO says field officials in three of five regions called the targeting data not detailed enough, the division has not consistently set outreach goals, and the department discontinued its interagency task force in 2025.
Recommendations and response
GAO recommends that the department assess and mitigate gaps in child labor death, injury and illness data; create a process to evaluate data for targeting investigations; assess its outreach; track questions about hazardous-occupation rules; and strengthen collaboration with other agencies.
GAO's summary says the department generally disagreed with the first; the Bureau of Labor Statistics' letter says the concerns "are not information gaps but rather represent program features and data protection requirements" under federal law. The Wage and Hour Division deferred to the bureau on the first, agreed with the second (saying it would strengthen its agency-wide planning process), the fourth and the fifth, and neither agreed nor disagreed with the third but said it will set measurable outreach goals. GAO says the department should fully implement all five; each is listed as open.