Every spring, an awareness blitz is undertaken to educate employers about the intricacies of Maine’s child labor laws. Trade organizations tell their members about what is and is not permissible when it comes to employing children, and the state Department of Labor sends out notifications that a booklet is available that outlines work restrictions.

Yet every year, about 400 businesses are fined for violations of the laws. In the last decade, a couple of companies have been prosecuted for at least 1,500 violations.

Fines topped $388,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30. Earlier this year, Fashion Bug agreed to pay $185,000 for 740 child labor law violations, and in 2000, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $205,650 for more than 1,400 violations.

“There gets to be a point where the law has been in effect for 11 years, why don’t people know about it,” said Gwendolyn Thomas, an attorney with the Maine Attorney General’s office, who prosecutes companies for child labor law violations.

It’s the length of time that teens are working that’s getting most companies into trouble, not contact with hazardous materials such as the hydrogen sulfide gas that left a Sullivan boy seriously injured late last month at the University of Maine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture in Franklin. The 16-year-old remains hospitalized in Boston.

“Somebody seems to get in trouble with them just about every year,” said Jim McGregor, executive vice president of Maine Merchants Association. “People tend to get themselves into trouble due to hours not because of safety.”

Most of the businesses are penalized because teens are working past a state curfew on when they’re supposed to leave their jobs, said Anne Harriman, director of the labor department’s wage and hour division. Kids, too, are working too many hours in a day or in a week, she said.

Fines start at $250 per violation and can increase to as much as $10,000 per violation. If a teen works one hour longer than the daily or weekly hour limit, that’s a violation, she said.

“It doesn’t take very long for violations to add up,” Harriman said.

But businesses complain that the state is too restrictive. Federal laws give more leeway in the number of hours minors can work.

“The feds don’t care when a 16- or 17-year-old works,” said Dick Grotten, director of the Maine Restaurant Association. “They feel they’re old enough to make their own decisions.”

Maine’s laws, however, were written in the early 1990s, when the state was experiencing a truancy problem, Harriman said. Restrictions on teen employment were put in place to keep kids in the classrooms.

According to business trade groups, the state has too many laws for teen labor. There’s one set of rules on hours of employment for teens between 16- and 18- years old and another set for minors under 16. Each set outlines when they can work on school nights, the last night of a school week, and during summer months.

Plus there are two sets of restrictions – for the same age groups – on where at a business teens actually can work. Minors under 16 are prohibited from working near toxic chemicals, but after they reach that birth date, it’s OK.

Grotten said the rules are difficult to keep up with. An employer, for example, may have several dozen teens working during one day. The boss has to track the ages of the teens, what time each of them arrived at work and what time they are scheduled to leave.

“And if you screw it up, you get caught,” Grotten said.

More than 3,000 businesses are inspected for adherence to child labor laws each year, Harriman said. Four inspectors look at everything from time cards to working conditions, she said, and there are not enough inspectors to review the number of complaints that are coming in to her office.

In the early 1990s, Maine was one of the first states to examine the number of hours 16- and 17-year-olds were working. State lawmakers were concerned that federal child labor laws were too lenient, and that those laws didn’t even address work conditions the federal government considered to be the most dangerous for teens, Harriman said.

Teens, for example, cannot work alone in a cash-only business, which is one of the five most hazardous occupations for teens, she said. Nor can they have direct contact with pesticides or drive a business vehicle on a public road. The state, too, put restrictions on teens selling products door-to-door. Only Girl Scout cookies or other products to raise money for school groups are permissible to be sold.

Yet one Bangor High School junior said she wishes the state wasn’t so strict on the number of hours she can work.

For Kate Ludwig, the job gives her a different life experience. She said she loves being with her family and enjoys her school friends, but work “is a nice little escape.”

At the Ground Round, Ludwig said her managers are vigilant about making sure she punches the time clock at just the right time. They’ll look at her, she said, and say, “Hey, it’s time to go.”

“They’re really good at that,” Ludwig said. “There’s no under the table stuff.”

But for teens that can balance both school and work, the child labor laws get in the way.

“It’s hard to go to school and go to work at the same time,” Ludwig said. “It gets pretty hectic. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I need to be busy. I get more done when I’m busy.”

One of Kate’s managers, Mark Evans, said he believes the state is too strict. He said he would like to see a state law that ties teens’ grade-point averages to workable hours.

“If they can work 40 hours and maintain their grades, then they should let them work,” Evans said.

The state Legislature, though, has considered extending work hours for teens that have good grades.

“But it never seems to make it,” Harriman said.

Over the years, Harriman said she’s had employers tell her that teens have changed their schedules with other workers and that they were not aware that the switches caused a violation until it was too late. But, she said, she’s also had employers who commit violations hoping that they won’t get caught.

“Most of the employers, they’re not bad employers,” Harriman said. “They’re wrapped up in other things. But once they’re fined, you’d think they’d wake up.”

For more information on child labor laws, visit www.safeteen.org.