News Notes: Holiday Wage-and-Hour Mistakes Prove Costly For Retailer

If you’re considering hiring minors to help out during the holiday season, be sure to double-check the rules. Toys ‘R’ Us has just agreed to pay $200,000 to settle Labor Department allegations that the toy retailer violated federal rules covering the employment of minors. The government charged that 14- and 15-year-olds were hired to work more than three hours a day and more than a total of 18 hours during school weeks. Plus, during holidays, these teens allegedly worked more than eight hours a day. Toys ‘R’ Us denied that it violated the law.