Department of Labor investigation finds window cleaning company employed children to complete dangerous tasks; required to pay $29K in penalties

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A Grand Rapids window cleaning company must pay $29,210 in civil money penalties for employing three children to complete dangerous tasks while cleaning residential windows and gutters and installing Christmas lights, including one that suffered serious injuries requiring surgery when they fell from a roof.

The penalty, included in consent findings approved by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of the Administrative Law Judge on Oct. 30, 2024, resolves alleged child labor violations by Absolutely Clean Services Inc. following an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division.

Investigators determined Absolutely Clean Services allowed two of the three employed children to operate a motor vehicle with a gross weight over 6,000 pounds as part of their work duties and failed to maintain accurate employee records, including the birth date of at least one child.

"A child was injured while working a dangerous job for which they never should have been hired. There is no excuse for violating the law and putting children at risk," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Mary O'Rourke in Grand Rapids. "Nearly 100 years ago, federal child labor laws were enacted to prevent employers from jeopardizing the safety and well-being of young workers."

In addition to the penalties assessed, the consent findings require the company to train all supervisors and team leads on tasks prohibited for children to perform on the job and to post fact sheets about Hazardous Occupations Order 2, which prohibits children from driving motor vehicles,and Hazardous Occupations Order 16, which prohibits children from working on roofs.

The employer has made an initial payment of $14,605 and will pay the balance due by Jan. 6, 2025.

"Employers have no business employing minors to work on roofs or drive cars on public roads," added Regional Solicitor Christine Z. Heri in Chicago. "Every company employing minors has the paramount responsibility to make sure they are kept safe, and - as this case demonstrates - the department will use every legal resource available to protect them."

In June 2024, the company paid 16 employees $36,532 - representing $18,266 in back wages and an equal amount in damages - after investigators found Absolutely Clean Services violated overtime rules by miscalculating total overtime hours worked per week and paying overtime after 80 hours in a bi-weekly pay period rather than after 40 hours per week. Investigators determined 13 employees were owed $16,404 in unpaid overtime wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. Additionally, four employees were owed an additional $1,862 in unpaid minimum wage plus an equal amount in liquidated damages due to one missed payroll. The back wages and damages were separate from the consent findings resolving the child labor violations.

Learn more about the department's resources on young workers' protections.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from. The division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.

Download the agency's new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices - available in English and Spanish - to ensure hours and pay are accurate.