How to Report Child Labor Law Violations: Filing and Penalties

To report a child labor law violation, call the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243 or submit a complaint through the WHD’s online contact form.¹ Your identity stays confidential. You don’t need to be the child’s parent, and you don’t need to work for the employer. Federal investigators found nearly 10,000 minors illegally employed during fiscal years 2023–2024, so a single tip can matter.²

Is What You Saw Actually a Violation?

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the federal baseline for employing minors, covering minimum ages, working hours, and off-limits jobs.³ State laws often add stricter rules on top, so a situation that clears federal law may still break your state’s.

Age

The federal minimum age for most non-agricultural work is 14. Children under 14 generally cannot be employed at all, with narrow exceptions like acting and newspaper delivery.⁴ A 12- or 13-year-old working the counter at a store or restaurant is a red flag.

Hours for 14- and 15-Year-Olds

Even when 14- and 15-year-olds are legally employed, federal law tightly limits when and how much they can work:⁵

School days: no more than 3 hours, only between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
School weeks: no more than 18 hours total.
Non-school days: no more than 8 hours.
Non-school weeks: no more than 40 hours.
From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff extends to 9:00 p.m.

A teenager closing at 10 p.m. on a school night, or logging 25 hours in a school week, is a violation. These rules get broken often because employers don’t track minor employees’ schedules carefully or assume the kids volunteered for the extra time.

Hazardous Jobs

Workers under 18 are barred from occupations the Secretary of Labor has declared particularly dangerous. The Department of Labor has issued 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders covering things like power-driven machinery, roofing, excavation, and logging.⁴ A minor running a forklift, operating a meat slicer, or working on a construction site is the kind of violation that draws the heaviest penalties.

Agriculture Is Different

Farm work runs on a separate, more permissive rulebook: younger ages are allowed, and children working on a farm owned or operated by their parent are exempt from federal age and hazardous-work restrictions entirely.⁶ If what you saw involves agriculture, check the WHD’s agricultural rules before assuming it’s illegal.⁷

What to Have Ready Before You File

You don’t need airtight evidence. Investigators gather their own proof. But detail speeds things up.

Start with the business: full name, physical address, phone number, and the owner or manager’s name if you have it. Then note what you know about the minor or minors involved, including names if you have them and approximate ages.

The core of the report is what you witnessed. Be specific. What work was the child doing? What hours, on what dates? If pay is the issue, note the rate and how the child was paid. Were they working during school hours? Were they operating equipment that seemed dangerous for their age?

Photos, schedules, pay stubs, and contact information for other witnesses all help. Don’t wait to file just because you don’t have documents. The investigator can subpoena records you’d never be able to get on your own.

Where to File

Federal: Wage and Hour Division

The WHD is the primary federal enforcement agency for child labor.⁸ Two ways to file:

Phone: 1-866-487-9243, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time.⁹
Online: submit through the WHD contact form, and a representative will follow up by phone or email within 7 to 10 business days.¹⁰

Anyone can file. Complaints are confidential, and the WHD will not disclose your name, the nature of the complaint, or even whether a complaint exists to the employer.¹ Giving your contact information helps investigators follow up but isn’t required.

State Labor Agency

Every state has its own labor agency enforcing state child labor rules, which often go further than the FLSA with tighter hour limits, work permit requirements, or broader lists of prohibited jobs. The Department of Labor keeps a directory of state offices.¹¹ You can file with both the federal WHD and your state agency at the same time. There’s no rule against it, and the state agency may have jurisdiction over conduct the federal government doesn’t cover.

What Happens After You File

The agency reviews the complaint to decide whether it has jurisdiction and whether the facts would amount to a violation if confirmed. Not every report triggers a full investigation. The agency may determine the conduct is legal, or fold your report into an existing case about the same employer.

When an investigation moves forward, an investigator contacts the employer, visits the worksite, reviews payroll and timekeeping records, and interviews employees privately. The goal is to establish the facts and bring the employer into compliance, which can mean ordering back wages, restructuring schedules, or removing minors from prohibited jobs.

Investigations typically take three to six months. Complex cases with many affected workers or uncooperative employers can run longer. You probably won’t get status updates. The process is confidential on both ends.

Penalties the Employer Can Face

Employers found in violation face civil fines that the Department of Labor adjusts annually for inflation:

Standard violations: up to $16,035 per minor.¹²
Violations causing serious injury or death of a worker under 18: up to $72,876 per violation.¹²
Willful or repeated violations causing serious injury or death: up to $145,752.¹²

Penalties apply per violation, so an employer with several minors working illegal hours over several weeks can accumulate fines quickly. Willful violations can also carry criminal fines of up to $10,000, with imprisonment of up to six months possible only for a second offense after a prior conviction under the same provision.¹³

How Long You Have to File

If the violation involves unpaid or underpaid wages, the clock is running. Under the Portal-to-Portal Act, FLSA wage claims must be filed within two years of the violation. If the employer’s conduct was willful, meaning they knew they were breaking the law or acted with reckless disregard, that window stretches to three years.¹⁴

For complaints about illegal working conditions, hazardous assignments, or hour violations rather than wages, there’s no formal statute of limitations on reporting to the WHD. But evidence gets stale. Employees move on, schedules get discarded, memories fade. File as soon as you know. Back wages can only be recovered inside the two- or three-year window, so every week you wait is a week the minor can’t be paid back for.

Protection From Retaliation

The FLSA makes it illegal for an employer to fire, demote, cut hours, or otherwise punish any employee for filing a complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or testifying in a related proceeding.¹⁵ The protection covers current employees, former employees, and anyone about to testify, so an employer who fires someone preemptively to keep them from cooperating has also broken the law.

Confidentiality is the first layer of protection. The employer won’t be told who filed. If retaliation happens anyway, that’s a separate violation. Report it to the Wage and Hour Division, which can open a new investigation into the retaliation itself.¹⁶ The affected employee can also file a private lawsuit seeking reinstatement, lost wages, and an equal amount in liquidated damages.¹⁷

1
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Child Labor Report to Congress 2023-2024
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Workers Under 18
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Age Requirements
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 213 – Exemptions
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Agricultural – FLSA Advisor
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Child Labor
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Contact Us
10
Wage and Hour Division. Contact the Wage and Hour Division
11
U.S. Department of Labor. State Labor Offices
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 215 – Prohibited Acts
16
U.S. Department of Labor. Retaliation
17
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act