Iron River restaurant fined nearly $100K for child labor law violations

IRON RIVER, Wis. (Northern News Now) - A pizza restaurant in Iron River has been fined nearly $100,000 for violating child labor laws.

Pizza Parlor owners and its operator Ironbluebear Inc. will pay $99,882 in civil money penalties in regular installments for violating child labor standards.

The employers made an initial payment of $33,294 and will pay the balance in installments through Sept. 30, 2025.

Investigators found Pizza Parlor and owner Michelle Drougas illegally employed 11 children.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), six children were employed to operate and clean a meat grinder.

Additionally, seven children drove motor vehicles on public roadways to deliver orders.

Officials say these duties are prohibited by hazardous occupations orders under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Pizza parlor had another violation as one they employed a child younger than 16 to use an oven heated between 500 and 900 degrees Fahrenheit to help prepare and cook pizza.

According to the DOL, workers who are 14 and 15 years old can be employed in food preparation and limited cooking tasks, but they can not perform any baking activities.

The employers also assigned children to work in violation of federal limits on hours.

Federal regulations state that children ages 14 and 15 may not work later than 7 p.m. between the day after Labor Day and May 31 and 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day.

Their work hours may not exceed eight on a non-school day or 40 during a week when school is not in session.

They may work no more than three hours on a school day and no more than 18 hours during a week when school is in session.

Pizza Parlor agreed to do the following on top of the issued fines:

• Apply stickers provided in the Wage and Hour Division’s Youth Employment Compliance Assistance Toolkit to hazardous equipment to alert employees under 18 years of age not to operate the equipment.
• Require all young workers to wear shirts and/or name tags color-coded to signify their ages, including one color for 14 and 15 year old children, another for 16 and 17 year old teens, and a third color for workers 18 and older.
• Post and provide child labor and anti-retaliation fact sheets to each employee.

“Learning new skills in the workforce is an important part of growing up – but we must protect children and ensure their first jobs are safe and do not interfere with their education or well-being,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Kristin Tout in Minneapolis, whose office is responsible for enforcing the law in Wisconsin.

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