Sonic Drive-In restaurants pay more than $70,000 for breaking child labor laws

The owners and operators of six Sonic Drive-In restaurants in northwest Nevada have paid more than $70,000 in civil penalties for allegedly violating federal child labor laws.

Federal investigators in the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division determined SDI of Neil LLC, which operates as Sonic Drive-In, committed more than 170 violations of the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Those included assigning employees under the age of 16 to work longer hours than federal regulations allow and assigning them tasks considered too dangerous for younger workers, such as operating manual deep fryers, the department said Monday in a statement.