AP Study: Illegal Child Labor in the United States

Study: Illegal Child Labor in the United States
Sponsored by The Associated Press

Appendix A: Coding of Hazardous Occupations

The Fair Labor Standards Act restricts hours of employment for those age 14 and 15 to no more than 18 hours in a school week and 40 hours in a non-school week. In addition it restricts work in 17 hazardous occupations for those age 17 or under, with additional restrictions for those age 15 or under. The restricted occupations, and the CPS codes used to identify them for this study, are as follows.

FLSA hazardous occupation CPS occupation code

Restricted for all age 17 or under:

1. Manufacture or storage of explosives -- none
2. Motor vehicle operations -- 802-812, 814, 843-859
3. Coal mining -- 613-617
4. Logging and sawmilling -- 494-496 --
5. Power-driven woodworking machine operation -- 726-733
6. Exposure to radioactive substances none
7. Power-driven hoisting apparatus operation -- 848-849
8. Power-driven metal machine operation -- 703-725, 628-655
9. Mining other than coal covered in (3)
10. Meat packing/slaughtering -- 686
11. Power-driven bakery machine operation -- 763
12. Power-driven paper products machine operation -- 734
13. Manufacture of brick, tile, or kindred products -- none
14. Power-driven saw or shears operation -- 726-728, 769
15. Wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking -- none
16. Roofing operations -- 595
17. Excavation operations -- none

Restricted for 14- and 15-year-olds:

1. Any manufacturing occupation -- 628-655, 703-799
2. Any mining occupation -- 613-617
3. Food processing, and laundering occupations -- 748
4. Any work in workrooms or workplaces where goods are manufactured, mined, or processed none{1} (continued)
5. Public messenger service -- 355{2}
6. Operation or tending or power-driven machinery (except office and other specified machines) -- 848-849
7. Any of the 17 hazardous occupations above
8. Operations in connection with transportation -- 553-577,584-599, warehousing, communications, and construction -- 823-834, 866-874 (except office or sales work not in direct contact with transportation media or construction site)
9. Specific occupations in retail, food service, -- 505-519, 769 gasoline service establishments (including operation of slicing machines, and car repair work)

FOOTNOTES

{1} Other than the occupations involving operation of manufacturing/processing machines or work in mining (covered above), no occupations specifically identify work performed where the employee is in close physical proximity to manufacturing, mining, or processing.

{2} Messengers are identified by CPS code 357, but these are not coded as necessarily illegal because it includes a potentially large number of private (within-firm) messengers.

-----

Return to PANGAEA HomePage