Meatpacking Giants to Pay $8 Million for Child Labor Violations

Two multibillion-dollar meatpacking companies will each pay $4 million after federal investigations revealed they had illicitly employed dozens of children through staffing agencies, the Labor Department announced this week.

Perdue Farms, a meat processing company headquartered in Salisbury, Maryland, was accused of employing children since 2020 in “hazardous occupations” at a poultry processing plant in Accomac, Virginia, which included the use of electric knives and a heat-sealing press. The children were hired through Staff Management Solutions, which was fined $125,000 for the child labor allegations, according to the Labor Department.

The agreement with JBS USA, based in Greeley, Colorado, follows a 2022 probe that found the company’s cleaning contractor employed dozens of children at its facilities, according to the Labor Department. Packers Sanitation Services, of Kieler, Wisconsin, was fined $1.5 million as a result.