{"id":639271,"date":"2026-03-07T19:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/639271\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T19:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:08:11","slug":"chicago-area-mcdonalds-improperly-hired-teens-to-work-long-hours-lawsuit-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/639271\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago-area McDonald\u2019s improperly hired teens to work long hours, lawsuit alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\"><strong>LOCKPORT, Ill.<\/strong> &#8211; The owner of a suburban McDonald\u2019s restaurant was accused of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">improperly hiring several teenagers<\/a> and working them for long hours without breaks over several months, in violation of child labor laws.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WFLD\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">The Illinois Attorney General\u2019s Office sued the company owned by Nicholas J. Kory, which owns and operates the McDonald\u2019s in southwest suburban <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/will-county\/lockport\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lockport<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">The lawsuit alleges that Kory\u2019s company improperly employed dozens of 14 and 15-year-olds to work at the McDonalds without the necessary work authorization.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">The restaurant managers also had the underage employees work &#8220;excessive&#8221; hours during the school year, including hours late at night, even as late as 1 a.m., in violation of child labor laws, according to the lawsuit. The children were also worked as long as 17 hours straight.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">An audit of the restaurant by the Illinois Department of Labor found at least 568 violations of state law between Jan. 1, 2023, and July 8, 2023, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">Child labor laws restrict the employment of children under the age of 16. They need to obtain employment certification from a local school authority and can only work outside of school hours in &#8220;non-manufacturing and non-hazardous jobs,&#8221; according to the attorney general\u2019s lawsuit. The law also limits the number of hours a day and days per week they can work.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">For these alleged violations, the IDOL fined the business more than $2.1 million, which the business had not paid, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">&#8220;Now, the Illinois Attorney General files this action to hold Lockor and Kory accountable for their egregious, unlawful employment of children in violation of State law,&#8221; the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\">Requests for comment to Kory\u2019s attorney and McDonald\u2019s were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n<p data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/static.fox32chicago.com\/www.fox32chicago.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026ch02099-4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Read the full lawsuit here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/will-county\/lockport\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lockport<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-06e3e0fd=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOCKPORT, Ill. &#8211; The owner of a suburban McDonald\u2019s restaurant was accused of improperly hiring several teenagers and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":639272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,6082,5386,1818,112515,50,68,17075],"class_list":["post-639271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-lockport","tag-news","tag-us","tag-will-county"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116189469678086245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}