Many new Chinese immigrants make a living working in or managing restaurants; their offspring often spend their childhoods on the restaurant floor. But when parents bring their kids to work, accidents are common, lawyer Dai Yu warns.

In addition to the danger of debilitating injury, there is the risk that children who suffer such injuries will be unable to benefit from workplace injury compensation, because their parents are often the ones in charge of the restaurant. Dai examines the strikingly different cases of two girls hurt in Brooklyn Chinese restaurants, one of whom was awarded over $1 million in damages, the other of whom did not see a penny.

Ms. Liu (alias), who runs a Chinese takeout joint in Brooklyn, took her four-year-old daughter to work every day because there was no one at home to take care of her. But while her parents were minding the frantic bustle of the restaurant, the daughter stuck her hand in a meat grinder, causing her to become permanently handicapped.

According to law, this girl was unable to receive compensation because the owners of the restaurant were her parents. But in a similar case, where a five-year-old girl was injured in a restaurant run by her grandfather, the girl was awarded over $1 million.

Looking after children on the restaurant floor is dangerous and can lead to accidents, Dai warns, especially around sharp implements and hot cooking surfaces.

As the tide of Chinese immigration to the United States swells, more and more families are starting small-scale restaurant businesses and, while parents work hard all day to make a living, their children, left alone to play on the restaurant floor, are at risk, Dai says. And because restaurant owners cannot sue themselves, injured children may not be awarded any damages.

In the case where the injured girl won over a million in damages, her father had left her in the care of her grandfather, a restaurant manager, while at work. The parents were able to sue the restaurant owner and receive compensation.