This is part 5 of an ongoing Pulitzer-Prize winning series. Click here for the earlier parts in the series, or to discuss the series as a whole.
The New York Times spoke with more than 100 child roofers in nearly two dozen states, including some who began at elementary-school age. They wake before dawn to be driven to distant job sites, sometimes crossing state lines. They carry heavy bundles of shingles that leave their arms shaking. They work through heat waves on black-tar rooftops that scorch their hands.
Archive link doesn’t work well with the photo-heavy page. Here’s the original link (might be paywalled, YMMV)
A $500 fine for a company violating child labor laws and workplace safety laws is absurdly low. Should be 100 times that or it’s useless.
Ms. Sánchez and other subcontractors said they have turned to children because there are not enough adults willing to do this work. Roofing industry experts say firms have struggled with a labor shortage amid residential building booms across the South and an uptick in hurricanes and other natural disasters.
In other words, “we’d rather kill children than pay adults a fair wage”.
I’d argue that 100x that wouldn’t do much either, just encourage more consolidation. We really need to move into fines as a percentage of gross revenue, and jail sentences.