AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Hundreds of migrant children are working long hours under grueling conditions in the U.S. Most of them come into the country alone in need of ways to support themselves and their families back home. But overnight shifts and dangerous work violate long-standing child labor laws. Brandeis professor David Weil has worked as a senior official in the U.S. Labor Department under then-President Obama. He joins me now. Welcome to the program.
DAVID WEIL: Thanks for having me.
RASCOE: Reuters and the New York Times have recently published investigations about how children as young as 13 are working full-time jobs, like in factories and at construction sites, which is against the law. Has this practice grown in the past several years? Because it just - it feels so shocking to even state that.
WEIL: It really is shocking, and it has really exploded in the last few years. There's always been problems of child labor in different sectors, but we haven't seen such widespread numbers of children working in meatpacking and in auto manufacturing and food production since really the 1930s.
RASCOE: Part of the issue is that you have these big-name companies like Hyundai and General Mills, and then they use these subcontractors and these subcontractors then use staffing agencies to make their hires. And so it seems like everything is being outsourced, and that makes it easier for companies to pass the buck. Like, is that right?
WEIL: Yes, I think that's very true. And, in...
This story is the second in an ongoing series on the Cost of Fraud, as Open the Books tallies the hidden fees on American tax returns. Click here to read the first story on fraudulent autism billi...