Restaurant supply company accused of violating child labor laws
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Standard Restaurant Supply's storefront. Photo: Kim Bojórquez/Axios
A Salt Lake City restaurant supply company was fined $16,595 by the U.S. Department of Labor after federal investigators found it violated child labor laws.
Details: The business, Standard Restaurant Supply, allowed 22 minors between ages 14 and 15 to work up to 46 hours a week and past midnight, the Labor Department announced this week.
- It's unclear whether the violations occurred when school was in session.
- Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 14- and 15-year-olds cannot work more than eight hours per day or more than 40 hours a week when school isn't in session.
- During the academic year, 14- and 15-year-olds are prohibited from working more than three hours a day on a school day or more than 18 hours a week when school is in session. During the school year, they cannot work past 7pm.
Between the lines: Ellery Kingston is the company's president and Eric Kingston serves as business director, public records show.
- The company has familial ties to the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group, a Utah-based polygamous sect that holds some similar beliefs to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
- In a 2003 blog post on the group's official website, Ellery Kingston wrote about Standard Restaurant Supply and the business lessons he learned from his late mother, Ardous Kingston Gustafson, who was a member of the cooperative.
- Last year, 10 former members of the Kingston Group sued the polygamous sect and most alleged being subjected to unpaid labor as children, The Guardian reported. The Kingston Group denied the allegations.
Of note: Standard Restaurant Supply and the Davis County Cooperative Society did not return Axios' requests for comment.
What they're saying: "Our investigators continue to see an increase in child labor violations in several industries," Kevin Hunt, district director of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division, said in a statement. "We will take vigorous action whenever we discover young workers' safety and well-being are being jeopardized by employers who fail to follow the law."
The big picture: The penalty comes nearly a year after the Labor Department's Southwest Region Division announced it would boost enforcement efforts in Salt Lake City.
- Meanwhile, the Labor Department said this week it hit another Utah-based business, Sodalicious, with a nearly $14,000 penalty for allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work past 7pm during the school year at four of its locations.
- Sodalicious CEO Kevin Auernig told Axios he was previously under the impression that age group could work past 7pm on a school day under state child labor code.
- After resolving the matter with federal investigators last summer, Auernig said the company no longer employs anyone under age 16.
Zoom out: The Biden administration last month announced it would crack down on such violations following a New York Times investigation into the use of migrant child labor as companies struggle to fill jobs amid a worker shortage.