It’s that time of year when upwards of four million teens are headed into summer jobs. The National Consumers League cautions young workers that not all jobs are safe jobs.
Every two minutes, a young worker is injured on the job. One teen dies due to workplace injury every five days. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that annually 230,000 workers under the age of 18 are injured on the job and between 60-70 die due to workplace injury.[1]
Many teens are working in unsafe conditions without proper training or supervision. Too many are injured or killed on the job because they are working in industries or with machinery that are prohibited by federal or state child labor laws. Some are injured and killed because they are working at jobs that should be (but are not) prohibited for minors.
NCL provides the 2007 Five Worst Teen Jobs as a caution for teens and their parents about summertime employment. To make a summertime job a positive experience, NCL recommends that parents and teens:
· Know The Laws That Protect Working Teens: Read what a teen can and cannot do
· Be Aware: Read NCL’s Tips for Parents of Working Teens and Tips for Working Teens
Any employment can have safety issues, and teen workers have been injured in many jobs not represented on this list. The five identified in this report have substantial injuries and safety issues.
NCL annually compiles the five worst teen jobs using government statistics and reports, results from the Child Labor Coalition's survey of state labor departments, and news accounts of injuries and deaths. Estimates and sketchy government statistics underscore the need for a national collection of youth employment data and reporting mechanisms on injuries and fatalities among working youth.
A 10-year-old Florida youth accidentally ran over his 2-year-old brother while driving a pickup truck in a Florida orange grove. The boy had driven the truck since he was 8 years old, while family members were working in the grove. (December 2006)
A 13-year-old Illinois youth died after he became entangled in the beaters of a forage wagon. The youth was helping his cousin feed cattle in a farm pasture. The death occurred when the youth climbed on the front of the wagon to dislodge clumps of hay. The legs of his pants became entangled in the rotating beaters. The youth was spending the summer at a relative's farm in Minnesota where the accident occurred. (September 2005)
A 12-year-old Indiana youth died when he was sucked under corn and suffocated as he worked to grind corn into feed on his family’s farm. (July 2004)
A 12-year-old Iowa youth died while helping a farmer hitch a hay wagon to a truck. The boy was one of several neighbor boys who had worked at the man's farm over the past several years. The youth failed to get the tongue of the wagon hitched to the rear of the truck and the wagon rolled forward, pinching the boy's head between the wagon and the truck's bed. (Summer 2004)
A 17-year-old Alabama youth died at a poultry plant. He fell onto a conveyor belt that carries live chickens into the plant to be processed. (April 2004)
Common Dangers
Farm machinery runovers and rollovers; hand-harvesting with sharp cutting tools; inappropriate heavy loads; suffocation in silos and other storage areas; augers and other dangerous machinery; livestock; chemicals and pesticides – exposure through handling or residue; heat; and dehydration.
Agriculture is the most dangerous industry for young workers, accounting for 42 percent of all work-related fatalities of young workers between 1992 and 2000. Unlike other industries, half the young victims in agriculture were under age 15.[2] According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, among young agricultural workers aged 15-17, the risk of fatal injury is four times the risk for young workers in other workplaces.[3]
The majority of recorded accidents occur among youth who live and work on family farms. However, a significant number of injuries and fatalities occur among youth who work as hired farmworkers, and farmworker advocates estimate that there are many more accidents that go unreported.
Federal Child Labor Law
Children as young as ten years old may work under special circumstances as hired farmworkers in non-hazardous employment.
Workers 16 years and older may be employed in hazardous agricultural work, including handling and applying chemicals; working inside fruit, forage or grain storage units; and operating equipment, such as corn pickers, hay mowers, feed grinders, power post hole diggers, auger conveyors, and power-driven circular, band, or chain saws.
Children of any age who work on the farms of their parents or guardians are not prohibited from performing hazardous work, such as those activities or machinery mentioned above.
Currently, although youth below the age of 18 are prohibited from working in meat processing, the prohibition does not include poultry slaughtering and processing or seafood processing.
Work in Heights
A 17-year-old Guatemalan teen died after falling from a roof while working in construction in South Carolina. He died of head injuries after falling through a hole in the insulation of a building under construction and fell 25 feet to the concrete below. (May 2006)
A 17-year-old Nebraska youth died when he was pinned in a skid steer loader he had been operating at a construction site. He was pronounced dead at the scene from head injuries. (June 2004)
A 16-year-old South Carolina youth died from a fall at a construction site. He and his father were working on a framing crew, building condominiums when he fell two stories from a job-made elevated work platform (scaffold). (March 2004)
A 17-year-old Ohio youth was struck by lightening while roofing. (August 2003)
Common Construction Dangers
The top causes of death are falls from roofs or structures, crushing or run over by construction equipment operated by someone else, electric shocks from equipment installation or tool use, and lifting operations.[5]Common Work-at-Heights Dangers
Working on any elevated surface six feet or more, such as washing windows or other surfaces, cleaning gutters, painting, tree harvesting, and tree limb cutting. Falls from roofs, from ladders, from trees, and from scaffolds or staging are the most common types of fatal falls.[6]Construction is a dangerous occupation for all workers and construction sites are full of hazards. In 2005, construction continued to have the greatest number of workplace deaths of any major industry.[7]
Despite existing prohibitions that address specific types of hazardous construction work (such as all work performed on or about a roof and trenching), construction accounts for a substantial number of young worker deaths. It is the third leading cause of death among young workers. According to NIOSH, youth 15-17 years of age working in construction had greater than seven times the risk for fatal injury as youth in other industries, and greater than twice the risk of workers 25-44 years of age working in construction.[8]
Fatalities among working minors involve roofing, siding, and sheet metal work; electrical work; and concrete work. The predominant fatal events are falls, contact with electric current, transportation incidents, and being struck by objects.[9]
Falls result in significant numbers of workplace fatalities and injuries among workers of all ages, including workers under age 18. Falls are not industry-specific events, but can occur anywhere, anytime a young worker is on an elevated surface six or more feet from the ground. Since the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) was implemented in 1992, falls have consistently ranked among the leading causes of workplace fatality.
Federal Child Labor Law
Construction work is prohibited for anyone under 16 years of age, except that minors who are age 14 or 15 may perform office work away from the construction site. Specific construction activities such as all work performed on or about a roof (including roofing), excavation, and demolition are prohibited for workers under age 18.Yet, other hazardous tasks associated with construction are not currently prohibited. For example, minors 16 years and older may work in heights, as long as it is not on or about a roof. Therefore, a minor under age 18 cannot paint or weathercoat a roof, install or repair gutter and downspouts, install or service television and communication equipment (such as cable and satellite dishes), or install or service any appliances attached to roofs.
As long as the work does not involve a roof, minors 16 years and older are not prohibited from working on a ladder, scaffold, in trees, or on structures (such as towers, silos, bridges, etc.).
Outside Helper:
Landscaping, Groundskeeping, and Lawn Service
A 15-year-old Florida youth died of electrocution while trimming trees. The youth was standing on an aluminum ladder holding a pole saw. (May 2005)
A 16-year-old Oklahoma youth died when he was struck by lightening while working as a general laborer for a landscaping company. The youth was standing in the bed of a dump truck, where he was manually moving pallets of rocks from the truck to a front-end loader. The youth had worked for the company for three weeks. (July 2004)
A 15-year-old Maryland youth was killed when he fell into a mulch spreading truck. The machine, called a bark blower, churns mulch with a large spinning device called an auger and then disperses it through a hose. The machine had jammed and the teen had gotten on top of the truck to see why the mechanism wasn’t working. He had been with the company for a couple of weeks. (May 2004)
A 16-year-old Nebraska youth died when the front end loader he was operating overturned, pinning him underneath. The youth landscaper and his supervisor had just completed trimming and removing trees from a residential property. (July 2001)
Common Dangers
Tractor and ATV runovers and rollovers; tree limb cutting; lifting/carrying inappropriately heavy loads; chemical, pesticide, and fuel handling or exposure; power tools and heavy equipment operation and contact; flying debris; contact with underground or overhead electrical cables; operating and exposure to grinders, chippers, sod cutters, and chainsaws.
Landscaping laborers and lawn service workers physically install and maintain landscaped areas. In addition to initially transporting and planting new vegetation, they also transplant, mulch, fertilize, water, and prune flowering plants, trees, and shrubs, create beds, and mow and water lawns. Groundskeeping laborers maintain a variety of facilities including athletic fields, golf courses, cemeteries, university campuses, and parks.
Landscaping, groundskeeping, and lawn service workers use hand tools such as shovels, rakes, pruning saws, saws, hedge and brush trimmers, and axes, as well as power lawnmowers, chain saws, snow blowers, and power shears. Some use equipment such as tractors and twin-axle vehicles. These jobs often involve working with pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals. Recent anecdotal evidence indicates that young workers are using power tools and machinery and are being injured as a result.
Federal Child Labor Law
Minors who are age 16 and older may be employed in landscaping, to include operating power mowers, chain saws (on wood), wood chippers, and trimmers. The operation of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) or tractors for non-agricultural labor is only prohibited if the equipment is used for transporting passengers, an activity prohibited for minors under age 18).
A 17-year-old California youth died when the forklift he was operating at a grain and hay store rolled over on him. The youth lost control of the forklift and it overturned, pinning the youth as he attempted to jump free. The youth had been employed with the company for only one hour and had taken the initiative to operate the forklift. The youth was hired to perform tasks around the store like sweeping floors, pulling weeds, and washing cars. (June 2004)
An 8-year-old Iowa youth was killed while helping his father and a neighbor chop hay for silage on their dairy farm. The youth was helping, driving to and from the field location on a 4-wheel all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and assisting in the hookup for each silage wagon. The youth drove forward up a slight embankment causing the ATV to roll over on its top and pinning him to the ground. (Summer 2004)
A 14-year-old Iowa youth died while helping to clear farmland of fence posts. The youth was operating a utility tractor equipped with a homemade rollbar and seatbelt. The tractor rolled completely over backwards, crushing the youth. (Summer 2003)
A 13-year-old Arkansas youth died when the ATV the minor was driving tipped over on levee between catfish ponds. The minor was pinned under the water and drowned. (March 2003)
Common Forklift Dangers
Operating or riding as a passenger on a forklift, standing on it for elevation, or being struck by one or the load from one. Forklifts are not only used in warehouses, but also in big box stores, feed and grain stores, and garden/landscaping retail.Common Tractor and ATV Dangers
Both of these vehicles are commonly used in landscaping, groundskeeping, farming, ranching, and many jobs involving a large track of land that needs to be traversed, such as golf courses, parks, and cemeteries.Forklifts
Workers of all ages are killed and seriously injured by forklifts. Each year in the United States, nearly 100 workers are killed and another 20,000 are seriously injured in forklift-related incidents.[10] Although most deaths associated with forklifts involve driving or operation, nearly half of all forklift-related deaths are associated with work activities other than operating the forklift.[11] According to NIOSH, many of the non-operator fatalities involved working around the machine: being run over, struck by, or pinned by a forklift; being struck by a load that fell from a forklift; falls from a work surface elevated by a forklift; or riding as a passenger on a forklift.Federal Child Labor Laws about Forklifts
In non-agricultural employment, youth who are under age 18 are prohibited from operating forklifts or similar industrial vehicles. However, youth who are age 16 and older are not prohibited from working around forklifts or riding as a passenger on one. In agricultural employment, youth are allowed to operate forklifts at age 16.Tractors
Tractor-related incidents are the most common type of agricultural fatality in the U.S. Increasingly, tractors are being used in non-agricultural industries, such as construction, manufacturing, and landscaping. CFOI data for 1992-1997 identified 1,845 tractor fatalities in all industries among all workers, with 46 of the fatalities involving minors under age 18. Tractor overturns are the most common event among tractor fatalities (47 percent), and was the primary cause of tractor-related fatality among youth workers (63 percent).[12]Federal Child Labor Laws about Tractors
In agricultural employment, minors under age 16 are prohibited from operating tractors over 20 PTO (power take off) or connecting or disconnecting an implement or any of its parts to or from a tractor. Youth may operate tractors at age 14 if they have completed an approved tractor or machinery certification program.In non-agricultural occupations, operating tractors is not explicitly prohibited for youth 16 and older, although operating tractors would be prohibited for youth under 18 if they are used for transporting passengers. There is no prohibition for 16- and 17-year-olds to connect or disconnect an implement or any of its parts to or from a tractor.
ATVs
Increasingly ATVs are being used in both agricultural and non-agricultural employment. ATVs have replaced horses and small tractors on many farms and ranches. Just like tractors, ATVs are rollover risks for both drivers and passengers.The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that in 2004, persons under age 16 were the victims in 28 percent of all reported ATV-related deaths in the general population. In 2004, ATV use was associated with 44,700 serious injuries of youth under 16.[13] Additionally, CPSC reported at least 130 children under age 16 were killed on ATVs in 2004. [14] The data from CPSC include injuries associated with work activities, as well as recreational use.
Federal Child Labor Laws about ATVs
ATVs are not explicitly addressed in the federal child labor laws, although one must be 18 or older to use them for the purpose of transporting passengers.
A 19-year-old door-to-door salesperson was greeted at the door by a resident wielding a gun. The youth was uninjured. (August 2004)
For two years, a young adult, traveling sales crew member from New York worked on several crews as an “enforcer.” His job was to beat crew members upon a manager’s request if sellers missed quota regularly or complained about the job. (2004-06)
A 16-year-old Texas youth was robbed and shot in the stomach by two teens. The teen had been selling candy door-to-door for about two weeks before the incident. (April 2003)
A 19-year-old Ohio magazine salesperson was assaulted by three men expressing interest in buying a subscription from her. According to police reports, the victim was waiting for pickup by co-workers after selling door-to-door in the neighborhood and was approached, abducted, and sexually assaulted. (April 2003)
An 18- and 19-year old magazine salesperson were ejected from a vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene after a vehicle accident in which 15 salespersons were crammed into a 1992 Chevrolet Suburban, which rolled on a highway in New Mexico. (September 2002)
Common Dangers
Youth recruited to sell candy, magazine subscriptions, and other items door-to-door outside their own neighborhood, sometimes crossing city and state lines. Reports of forced labor, physical abuse, abysmal working and living conditions, and threats associated with these jobs.At any given time, there are as many as 50,000 youth under age 18 involved in youth peddling crews. Children as young as ten years old are recruited to sell candy, outside their own neighborhoods or on street corners, and are unsupervised by adults.
Older youth (16 and older) are targeted by sales crews with promises of high pay and nationwide travel. Often, the reality is long hours of work for little or no pay; malnourishment; exposure to extreme weather; and physical, sexual, and psychological abuse by crew leaders and other salespersons. Sometimes, those who do not “produce” are abandoned hundreds of miles away from home without a cent in their pockets. Others are threatened if they want to leave the crew, die in highway accidents, or are assaulted on the streets or in customer’s homes.
Door-to-door sales is dangerous work due to increased risk of motor vehicle injury (as either pedestrian or passenger) and vulnerability to assaults and abductions by customers and strangers. Often, the vehicles used for transportation of the workers have not been inspected for road-worthiness, and accident reports often include drivers who are not insured or licensed.
Other hazards include crew leaders and co-workers with criminal convictions and behavior. Traveling sales jobs offer attractive features for someone a step ahead of the law – mobility, a hotel room, a product to sell (which serves as an excuse for entry into homes), a way out of town, and access to new territory.
Parent Watch, a watchdog group based in New York City, has compiled a list of dozens of felonies involving door-to-door salespeople. For 20 years, the organization has tracked traveling youth crew cases involving rape or sexual assault, murder, and deaths from traffic accidents attributed to faulty equipment or negligent driving.[15]
In addition to safety concerns, door-to-door traveling sales jobs often do not adequately compensate young workers for their work. Promises of trips or outings often replace a paycheck. Accounting of hours work and income earned is spotty or remuneration is arbitrary. There are documented cases of physical and verbal abuse by supervisors. Often the businesses that present themselves to consumers as non-profit programs that help keep kids off of drugs are in fact for-profit companies.
Federal Child Labor Law
Door-to-door and street selling (or youth peddling) is permitted employment for minors who are 14 years and older. Some states set lower or higher age limits for this employment.
Employment can be a positive experience for teens. But, safe and positive work experiences don't just happen. It is important for working teens and parents to know the child labor laws and protections in the workplace. Employers must commit to full compliance with child labor laws and remain vigilant for safety in the workplace. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and state agencies must enforce the law and regularly review and adjust laws to reflect new hazards in machinery, processes, and workplaces.
[1] NIOSH Alert: Preventing Deaths, Injuries, and Illnesses of Young Workers, July 2003, p. 2.
[2] NIOSH Alert: Preventing Deaths, Injuries, and Illnesses of Young Workers, July 2003, p. 4.
[3] Report on the Youth Labor Force, U.S. Department of Labor, 2000, pp. 58-67.
[4] National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2003, Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 22, 2004.
[5] Construction Industry Research Center, University of Tennessee, April 22, 2004.
[6] NIOSH Recommendations to the U.S.Department of Labor for Changes to Hazardous Orders, May 3, 2002, p. 105.
[7] Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2007.
[8] NIOSH Recommendations to the U.S. Department of Labor for Changes to Hazardous Orders, May 3, 2002, p. 115.
[9] NIOSH Recommendations to the U.S. Department of Labor for Changes to Hazardous Orders, May 3, 2002, p. 37.
[10] NIOSH Alert: Preventing Injuries and Deaths of Workers Who Operate or Work Near Forklifts [DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2001-109].
[11]the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) data for 1992-1997
[12] NIOSH Recommendations to the U.S. Department of Labor for Changes to Hazardous Orders, May 3, 2002, p. 120-1.
[13] Consumer Federation of America press release, October 7, 2005
[14] Consumer Federation of America press release, October 7, 2005