Letter to Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor

• Child farm workers frequently work long hours. We interviewed children who worked ten hours a day at age twelve, and others working twelve hours a day or more at the age of fourteen. Many worked six or six and a half days a week, sometimes beginning work as early as 3 a.m. These long hours of work interfere dramatically with the education of child farmworkers, leaving them too exhausted to study, and forcing them to miss classes. Ultimately, many drop out. Only 55% of farmworker children in the United States ever graduate from high school.
  
  
• Child farmworkers are routinely exposed to dangerous pesticides. Many of the children we interviewed reported pesticide exposure and experiencing one or more symptoms of pesticide exposure, suffering rashes, headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Some reported working in fields while they were being sprayed, or when they were still wet with pesticides. Many were unaware of the dangers and symptoms of pesticide poisoning.
  
  
• Many young farmworkers are forced to work without access to minimum sanitation requirements. Many of the children interviewed for our report had never seen a porta potty at their work sites. Half of the children interviewed said they had no access to water for hand washing, which significantly heightens the risk that pesticides will be ingested when workers eat their lunch. We also found that employers frequently provided inadequate amounts of drinking water, contaminated water, or no water at all, even though temperatures for workers may exceed 100 degrees.
  
  
• Children working in agriculture suffer a high rate of injuries from knives and heavy equipment, and account for 40% of work-related fatalities among minors, even though they make up only 8% of children who work. They suffer injuries from sharp knives, falls from ladders, and may be crushed or maimed by tractors and other motorized farm equipment.
  
  
• Child farm workers are vulnerable to musculoskeletal trauma, carbon monoxide poisoning, and heat illnesses. Many of the young workers we interviewed reported suffering mild to moderate heat illness, from working in hot weather conditions, with symptoms including dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Others reported chronic back and/or neck pain from constant bending, lifting and twisting.
  
  
• Young farm workers are often cheated from receiving their rightful wages. One-third of those we interviewed reported earnings that were significantly less than minimum wage. Some earned as little as $2 an hour.
  
  
• Young female farm workers are routinely subjected to sexual advances by farm labor contractors and field supervisors. Many do not speak English, do not know that sexual harassment is illegal, and fear losing their jobs or other retaliation if they report the abuse. Among farmworker advocates interviewed by Human Rights Watch, sexual harassment was a top concern.

• dramatically increases agricultural workplace inspections targeting child labor and minimum wage violations,
  
• ensures that all violators are sanctioned to the fullest extent of the law,
  
• utilizes the FLSA's "hot goods" provision, which prohibits the interstate movement of goods produced in violation of child labor or minimum wage laws, whenever possible;
  
• vigorously enforces the OSHA Field Sanitation Regulations, which require employers to provide workers with drinking water, toilets, and hand washing facilities.
  

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