>

Aww, I appreciate you saying that. That's very kind of you.
For those of you who didn't read the article, the actual fine was $172,750 with 90% of it being suspended for the restaurant to "adhere to a settlement agreement and commit no additional violations."  The issues cited in the article involve teenagers below the age of 18.  Some of the violations related to the employment of a single teen, including "62 of the violations attributed to one worker" over the course of a year. >

“Commit no additional violations.” What, if they kept violating the law the state would just be like “well I already fined them a lot so I don’t care.” >

If they get caught with more violations, then the punishment would cost an extra $155,475 and the restaurant owners would actually be on the hook for all that money. >

Why defer it? Why wait? They broke the law hundreds of times. >

This allows them to more easily prevent future violations, oddly enough. The fact of the matter is, that $172,000 fine may have been seen as alright. Each time they violate the law they're only risking $250, which could easily be offset by the labor.
Now, a single future violation is risking 150 grand. >


Each time they violate the law they're only risking $250, which could easily be offset by the labor.

I think you misinterpret what they are being fined for. According to the article, it was for allowing or scheduling under-age workers too many hours. It's not that they weren't paying them.
You could argue that the labor cost of a younger worker is less. But it's not $250 less. >

It's worth $250 to get a teenager to fill a shift versus shutting down for the day when they can't find anyone else. 
This removes that incentive. >

We must not have read the same article because the one I read didn't suggest this was what was happening at all. You're making a lot of assumptions based off extremely limited information.
There are lots of business with lots more egregious labor violations that you could be or should be getting mad about. This one got caught and fined and they even have to create PSAs about it. Would your preference be to see the owners drug out into the street and shot? >

Not the person you responded to, but my take is that after 691 violations, even if its all from one individual, you shouldn't be operating a business at all. I will admit, over scheduling a teen is not as bad as the headline seems to imply, but the general feeling is that business owners get off light for their crimes. If I was caught with 691 charges for basically anything I doubt I'd get a break of any kind. >

That depends what they are and the circumstances, not all crimes are equal weirdly enough, sure 691 counts of murder wouldn't look good on you, but 691 counts of littering due to a hole in your bin, they might cut you some slack >

So $25 per violation? That seems low... >

Saw, headline, opened calculator, came here, and found my comment >

We could probably find some highschoolers to do these calculations for a lesser cost. >

Middle schoolers would probably do it for less, just sayin. >

Ah, so I wasn't the only one who had to start working right after finishing elementary school!
Can confirm about the cheapness of getting kids to do the work! I spent summers doing heavy labor at the horse racing track, started at $50 per week, but repairing those lottery machines at the gas station I had to do for free and year round too.
Dad realized it was easier to teach me to do the work for him than do it himself. >

I thought your story was gonna end by saying you learned how to skim money off the lottery machines and now you're comfortably retired >

Actually, dad did figure out how to print winning lottery tickets and cash them without getting caught, and explained to me in detail how to do it, but then explained that we weren't going to do that because we'd need an accomplice and the only buddy he had was sure to get greedy, demand too much too often, and get us all caught.  
Naw, I escaped with a combination of deception and a McJob. Convinced my dad it was his own idea to send me away to live with a cousin so I could start college early. Cousin demanded $2000 up front to take me in, dad said I could leave when I came up with that on my own, so I got a real job as soon as I legally could and saved every penny of my $4.95 an hour.  
Starved a lot to do it though, because I was only allowed to eat food from the kitchen at home when I was actually at home. By the next year I had scurvy. Buddy noticed and forced me to eat an entire bag of oranges to cure it.  
Ya know, sometimes I don't realize how neglected I was growing up until I get into telling one of these stories. >

Holy shit. Are you okay? >

Better than dad!  
Many years later, after his third wife left him, he demanded I come home and take care of him in his old age. For free, obviously. Insisted I abandon my stepsons, who very much needed me at the time.  
I laughed. I had the fun of quoting all his worst lines back at him, like "That sounds like a personal problem" or "Gee, you should really hire someone to take care of that for you."  
He doesn't even get a shitty nursing home unless he arranges for one on his own. I've disowned him, only associate with other "black sheep" family members.  
Turns out nobody in the family had any idea what had been going on at the time, but they sure know now!  
And sometimes, for Christmas, dad gets hung up on. But only if someone is stupid enough to loan him their phone, because I'm good at using that Block button! On Facebook, on email, blocked dad on everything!  
According to family reports, he's been going absolutely bananas obsessing over my refusal to speak to him. Reached out to everyone in the family who might remotely be willing to let him watch their kids open presents Christmas morning like the good old days.   
Entire family, black sheep and overly religious sides together, are conspiring to prevent him from contact with any kids, as obviously he can't be trusted to treat them decently, so no happy Christmases for him ever again! 
Something about revenge being a dish best served cold. :) >

I am very proud of you. Surviving all that is a gauntlet and to thrive on the other side takes just as much work. I hope you and your family continue to flourish. >

How will the Belchers ever recover? >

Luckily for them there are practically no limits (for non-hazardous industries) on how old your own kids have to be to work, or how much they work as long as they still go to school. >

Checks out. Started working full time for my parents when I was 12 in NJ. Hey, I made manager at 14, though >

Who were you managing? >

Myself. For several years, I've basically been in complete charge of pretty much everything in my life. >

I'm a school counselor and am in charge of making permits for the high school I work at. Let me tell you, this shit happens a lot. Like, almost every single student I work with I already know is a child labor violation. When I get a permit request, I tell the students the hours they can work and in what days, I list them for the employer to see before they sign their part of the permit, and then I go over grades and school attendance requirements. Here's the thing though, these aren't violations of them hiring 11 year olds or making kids work til midnight on a school night, this is stuff like kids working 5 hours vs 3 on a school night (3 is the limit for 15 year olds in CA). This happens to every kid because truth be told, what employer needs a 3 hour shift and what student wants to go in for 40 bucks?
I tell the students very clearly: if you are being denied breaks or ever working longer than you want to, come back and see me and I'll take care of it. Even if it's within the legal hours, schools in CA reserve the right to make the limits more stringent than the CA law so if something doesn't work for you, or your grades drop, I'd like request a talk. I imagine that's way more helpful than a random hour amount. >

Dude, good on you, and an important lesson on rules.
Understanding the difference between taking advantage of rules vs. being taken advantage of by rules + the ways you can react to each...that can't be learned from theory, it's gotta be real world. You are teaching them something truly useful.