Walmart forced to ban workers under 18 under federal labor law as summer job season nears 

Your teen might need a new summer or after-school gig.

Walmart — long seen as a common starting place for American teens to get their feet wet in the workforce — is being forced to crack down on a no-workers-under-18 rule in several stores, due to standards set by the US Department of Labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act that ban teens from operating or cleaning dangerous equipment, according to The Sun.

Under the regulations, kids under 18 can’t operate or even clean power-driven meat slicers, saws or meat choppers in store delis. It’s a major snag for the megachain, which offers customers access to fully stocked deli counters — including sliced meats, cheeses and hot foods — at nearly all of its Supercenters.

The newly enforced rules are also a problem because of the far reach of Walmart’s bakeries, with many locations offering specialized sections with fresh breads, pastries and the like.

Additionally, teens will be banned from operating large power equipment, such as forklifts, skid-steers and cherry pickers — all of which increase the likelihood of Walmart Supercenters being limited to 18-and-up workers.

Though federal law states that employers are legally responsible for the “safety and well-being of teen workers”), and the FLSA was passed back in 1938, the modern day crackdown for the retailer is occurring as the store and other retailers make way for another wave of minimum wage raises, which will occur in parts of Southern California starting this July. Some areas of the state will see minimum pay rise to over $18 an hour.

Concurrently, employers are coming under increased pressure to comply with labor rules, under the Golden State’s 2024 PAGA reforms.

Walmart recently faced a round of layoffs that cut or relocated around 1,000 corporate workers, the details of which were released in a memo sent last week by Walmart executives Daniel Danker and Suresh Kumar, which was obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

The execs explained their decision as an attempt to make operations more efficient.

“In some cases, we’ve had different teams working on similar problems,” the executives wrote.