Well, the alternative is to fight it in court.

It’s part of getting a traffic ticket. Agree, confess, mail your check to the judge. Or take time off to show up and contest it.

You've never heard of a consent decree or plea bargain? They're common legal tools to avoid lengthy and expensive trials.

Yep. Once again they prove that ‘the law’ only applies to the poor. If you or I killed some one its life in prison, if a corporation kills someone in pursuit of profits its a fine. When will prison/the death penalty come for the corporate world poisoning the plant from unchecked greed?

The child labour fees plus the fine probably works out cheaper than employing off legal working age workers, so it isn’t really a fine.