I meant it is a family business, not my family business. Like their website has a picture of their ancestor hauling a boiler on a cart pulled by a team of oxen

I meant it is a family business, not my family business. Like their website has a picture of their ancestor hauling a boiler on a cart pulled by a team of oxen and it's currently run by two brothers of the same last name and the same name as the business (so I think it's a safe bet it's still in the same family). The point was to contrast it with BigCo that has MBAs writing the rules and shareholders it's accountable to. I do a substantial amount of business with that yard (and less of the corporate one, because they won't sell material and are generally way higher friction to do business with) and it looks like a very fine place to work. But this is also coming from someone who has worked in adjacent low margin industries so I have no delusions of ping pong tables in the break room. To reiterate what I said before, they're taking young able bodied men who are willing to do physical labor (this is a demographic that can basically find new jobs at will, you can't really trap them in a shit job) and teaching them marketable skill. The fact that those employees don't just turn around and get a different job with that skill says something about the value proposition of working there. Is it really so unbelievable to you that a business can not follow the letter of the law and not treat people like crap at the same time?