Like any McDonald’s employee, they made and delivered food orders; They served customers at the drive-thru, did the cash register and cleaned the store. But they were only 10 years old.

The US authorities imposed sanctions against three franchises of the fast food company McDonald’s after they discovered that they employed more than 300 minorsincluding two 10-year-old boys, one of whom was even allowed to operate a deep fryer, the use of which is legally restricted to those over the age of 16.

The minors worked at 62 McDonald’s locations in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio. Most (45) are in Kentucky.

U.S. law does not completely prohibit child labor, but it does regulate it.

The offenses committed by these franchises include allowing minors to work more hours than permitted, which is limited to 3 per day on school days.

“Unacceptable and worrying”

According to estimates by the Department of Labor, there are three concessions in total will be subject to fines in the amount of US$212,544.

In the case of the two 10-year-old boys, they were found unpaid until 2 a.m. at one of McDonald’s locations in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bauer Food LLC, the franchise that operates that location, took notice those kids were the kids of a night manager they visited at work and that according to the American press, the company had not given them permission to be in that part of the restaurant.

Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president of McDonald’s USA, described this information as “unacceptable and deeply distressing”, which, according to a statement, fell short of expectations for this multinational brand.

The sanctions against McDonald’s come in a context where there has been an increase in cases of employment of minors in conditions that violate labor laws.

According to the Department of Labor, there were at least 688 minors illegally employed in hazardous jobs in the US in 2022..

This is the highest number recorded since 2011.