Chipotle Mexican Grill was fined nearly $1.4 million over accusations that the fast-food chain routinely violated Massachusetts child labor laws, with the authorities estimating more than 13,200 violations between 2015 and 2019, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office said on Monday.
The authorities examined the records of six restaurants across the state, in Seekonk, Hyannis, Methuen, Randolph, Framingham and Norwood. They found that between 2015 and 2019, Chipotle regularly let dozens of 16- and 17-year-old employees work more than nine hours per day and more than 48 hours per week, in violation of state law, according to the Massachusetts attorney general.
Chipotle also let minors work later into the night than legally allowed. On a night before a school day, 14- and 15-year-old children cannot work later than 7 p.m. and 16- and 17-year-old children cannot work later than 10 p.m. in Massachusetts, the authorities said.
The authorities used their findings in the six-restaurant sample to estimate that Chipotle had violated child labor laws about 13,253 times across 50 locations in the state, according to the attorney general’s office.
Chipotle was also cited for violations of sick time rules, failing to make timely payment of wages, and records violations, the authorities said.
The fast-food outlet did not admit to the thousands of estimated violations in agreeing to a settlement, which the attorney general’s office described as the biggest child labor case in state history.
Cheap labor, often supplied by minors, has traditionally been a key feature of the fast-food industry in America. Federal and state officials routinely investigate whether minors are working too many hours or too late into the night.
It was not immediately clear if Chipotle had demanded that the minors work the long hours or if the teenagers had asked for more hours.
The investigation began after a parent complained that a child had worked past midnight at one Chipotle restaurant in Beverly, Mass.
The number of violations was unusual, a “big number,” said Patricia Smith, senior counsel at the National Employment Law Project and a former solicitor of the United States Department of Labor.
“That’s a pattern,” she said. “That’s not an occasional slip through the cracks.”
As part of a settlement, in addition to the fines, Chipotle will pay $500,000 for education and oversight programs about child labor and for training young workers, the authorities said.
Attorney General Maura Healey noted in a statement that the national burrito chain employs thousands of young people across the country.
“It has a duty to ensure minors are safe working in its restaurants,” she said Monday. “We hope these citations send a message to other fast-food chains and restaurants that they cannot violate our child labor laws and put young people at risk.”
Laurie Schalow, the chain’s chief corporate reputation officer, said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that Chipotle is “committed to ensuring that our restaurants are in full compliance with all laws and regulations, and we believe that in hiring workers beginning at age 16, we can provide younger employees with valuable experiences and provide a compelling work environment.”
