Section 17. For the enforcement of the provisions of this chapter, the commissioner, the assistant commissioner and the associate commissioners, and the director, inspectors, and other representatives of the division of occupational safety may enter places of employment, other than places of employment of persons engaged in domestic service in the home of the employer, and examine the methods of protection from accident, the means of escape from fire, the sanitary provisions, the lighting and means of ventilation, and make investigations as to the employment of minors and as to compliance with all provisions of this chapter, and shall have access to all records pertaining to wages, hours, and other conditions of employment which are found essential to such investigations.