I love a burrito bowl with extra guac as much as the next person, but not at the expense of the kiddies! Chipotle has been fined $1.3 million for child labor laws violations. Sheesh! One. Point. Three million?! Yeah, they must have violated a lot of laws. Apparently 13,253 to be exact. Again, sheesh!
I am baffled, honestly. Now as a restaurant owner I can’t overtly bash the next guy. I know how tedious and tiring running restaurants can be. It can be a lot to keep up with all the different rules and laws, but at the end of the day, it still has to be done.
So what could have Chipotle possibly done to warrant $1.3 million in fines? Well, according to Delish, there were kids (those under the age of 18) working without the proper paperwork. Yikes. There were kids who were working 18-hour shifts past midnight, which is illegal. Double yikes. They also had kids working 48 hours a week. Triple yikes.
Now, these violations weren’t the result of one Chipotle not doing what they were supposed to be doing. It’s a result of 50+ locations scattered over the country not doing what they were supposed to be doing. Whew. Chipotle isn’t about to be shut down and we won’t be losing our favorite tex-mex chain anytime soon but they will have to pay up. They were offered the out of only paying $500,000 to a ‘state youth worker fund’ so they’re more likely to do that than shell out $1.3 million. I’ll keep you posted though.
