A Spanish Fork legging company paid more than $84,000 in fines for child labor law and pay violations and for firing the employee who reported the violations to authorities, according to FOX 13.

But Legg-A-Licious’s owner told FOX 13 the violations were a misunderstanding — and that she fired the whistleblower over “performance issues."

Owner Karen Fager told FOX 13 that she didn’t know she was breaking the law by hiring 13-year-olds.

"Ignorance is expensive. They were paid $8 an hour. That’s above minimum wage. They didn’t work more than three hours a day. They didn’t work more than 12 hours a week,” Fager told FOX 13.

The business ultimately paid out $84,048, FOX 13 reports. About $41,500 went to pay fines and the rest was given to six employees, including the whistleblower, in back wages.

For more, visit FOX 13.

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Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.