Children are supposed to be ordering happy meals, not making them. A press release put out by the U.S. Labor Department on Wednesday details the shocking violation of federal child labor laws that McDonald's restaurants are guilty of across Kentucky as well as other states.

In the most egregious example, at a McDonald's restaurant in Louisville, investigators found two 10-year-olds were working unpaid and until as late as 2 a.m. That restaurant is operated by Bauer Food LLC.

The statement explains that the two 10-year-old children were employed – but not paid – and are below the minimum age for employment. Their tasks included preparing and distributing food orders, cleaning the store, working at the drive-thru window and operating a register. Worse still, one of the two children was allowed to operate a deep fryer, a prohibited task for workers under 16 years old.

According to the released data, 45 of the 62 restaurants in violation of child labor laws are in Kentucky. The others are in Indiana, Maryland and Ohio. More than 300 children were found to have been working at McDonald's locations nationwide. The affected restaurants are all operated under one of three franchisees — Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC.

Bauer Food LLC responded to the controversy saying that the two 10-year-olds alleged to have been employed at the Louisville McDonald’s restaurant were children visiting their parent, who worked as a night manager at the restaurant, but they were not approved by franchisee organization management to be in that part of the restaurant.

The franchisee claimed it had since taken steps to clarify to all employees the company's policies concerning children visiting a parent or guardian at work.

McDonald's responded to the allegations in a statement, where Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president and chief people officer at McDonald's USA said: “These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonald’s brand.” She continued that “It is not lost on us the significant responsibility we carry to ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone under the Arches.”