According to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the UK on September 29, due to significant gaps in data on child labor, information is lacking regarding deaths of more than half of the American workers under the age of 18.
The report found that between 2013 and 2023, an average of 24 children under the age of 18 died due to work-related incidents each year. Of the 260 cases of child deaths, more than half lacked detailed information on the cause of death or the industry in which the children worked.
In 109 death cases with industry records, 75% of the children were engaged in agricultural work; in 111 death cases with cause-of-death records, two-thirds of the deaths were caused by traffic accidents.
The report indicates that lack of coordination among agencies is one of the root causes of data collection issues. The GAO found that since January 2025, cooperation between the U.S. Department of Labor and other federal agencies in addressing violations related to child labor has “significantly decreased”.
The data gaps mentioned in the report include: work-related death data lacks information about the “industry in which the worker worked and the cause of death”. In 2021, the methods for collecting data on injuries related to child labor changed, making it impossible to compare this data with earlier years’ data. A survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor, along with two other federal datasets containing data on child labor injuries, has also been discontinued.
The report found that during the fiscal years 2015 to 2025, 59% of cases of child labor violations involved employers scheduling children aged 14 or 15 to work for longer hours than permitted by the federal child labor law, or scheduling them to work later than allowed. During this period, 62% of child labor violations occurred in the hospitality and catering industries.
The report also found that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has not fully addressed the challenges it faces in enforcing laws against child labor. Since January 2025, “the cooperation between the Department of Labor and federal agencies in preventing and detecting violations related to child labor has significantly decreased.”
This report was released at the request of Bobby Scott, a Virginia congressman and a senior member of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The request called for the GAO to assess the scope of child labor issues in the United States, the oversight provided by government agencies, the capabilities of government agencies to monitor and enforce child labor laws, as well as the effectiveness of current measures to address illegal child labor.
Scott said, "The GAO report shows that the Trump administration's turmoil has affected children through the instability of federal agencies."
He added, “Due to the chaos in this government, the federal government has lacked coordination in addressing the issue of child labor, and the enforcement of child labor laws has been ineffective. Additionally, cuts to budgets for key institutions such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have caused real harm. If the federal government does not have the necessary information to know where children work, whether they are harmed, and where the greatest risks lie, it will be unable to effectively prevent child labor issues.”
Scott has proposed a bill—the Children’s Protection Act—aiming to improve data collection and use, and provide a basis for enforcing laws against child labor.
The report was released at a time when violations of child labor laws in the United States have increased sharply over the past decade. Since 2021, 19 states have taken measures to relax regulations on child labor. The number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws in the United States has increased from 1,012 in fiscal year 2015 to 5,272 in fiscal year 2025.
