The hatless trick is at it again. Now she is telling some of our 14 year old employees that they are protected under child labor laws, and that they don’t have to close at night(we close at 10 m-th & 11 fri. & sat.) because they can only work from 4pm to 7pm.

Well, she’s half right. They are protected under child labor regulations and we shouldn’t have them closing at night. However, they can work any time between 7am to 9pm during the summer…as long as they don’t work over 40 hours.

I have two questions:

1) I know I should fire her but what kind of problems will she try to create if I do? Yes, we have 14 year olds closing on rare occasions(never two together) so "legally" we have been in the wrong.

2) Am I interpreting the law correctly? I know it doesn’t make it right but other businesses in the area(ice cream, pizza joints etc…) have 14 year olds working late hours as well. In fact, most of them pay the younger kids under minimum wage. We start all of our kids at minimum wage except for those with experience.

Sorry for the long post but any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Red