How To Legally Hire Minors for Your Business

Hiring minors can be a good way to increase summer employment. Small businesses often want ready workers who need experience and don’t mind irregular hours or minimum-wage jobs. Before hiring a group of high school students, small-business owners should review their state’s child labor provisions. Federal and state laws limit the types of work and hours a minor may work.

What Is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)?

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), enacted in 1938, regulates many labor practices, including child labor. Each state also has its own child labor laws. These laws protect minors by limiting the types of jobs they can perform and number of hours they can work. If your state’s child labor law conflicts with the FLSA, the stricter of the two prevails.

The FLSA child labor laws balance the right to work and the right to education. Young workers have the right to a safe workplace, to receive wages as required by law, and to work hours that don’t conflict with their schooling.

Federal child labor laws set the youth minimum wage, limit hiring for hazardous occupations, and restrict the number of days of employment during the school year. The purpose of child labor laws is to avoid the abuses of the 19th century, when children often labored 14 hours a day in dangerous work environments.

What Jobs Are Permitted for Minors?

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) divides minors into age groups for employment purposes. This gives employers a clear guide for new hires. Business owners hiring minors as part-time workers can tell at a glance what groups are fit for what jobs by knowing their age bracket.

General Exemptions

The FLSA does not apply to young people (no matter their age) working:

• As actors in motion pictures, television, radio, or theater productions
• In newspaper delivery to consumers
• At home, making wreaths composed of natural holly, pine, or other evergreens (including the harvesting of the evergreens)
• At a business operated by the parents, unless the work involves manufacturing, mining, or an occupation declared hazardous, or on a farm owned or operated by the parents

Other exceptions may apply.

Minors Ages 13 and Younger

The federal Labor Department sets the minimum age for employment at 14. This doesn’t prevent parents from paying their own children “wages” for household work. However, most businesses can’t hire minors under 14 in any capacity.

Paying a neighbor’s teenage daughter for babysitting one night is not “employment.” If it becomes regular, it might be. Parents may employ their younger children in permitted work. Federal law also allows younger minors to work limited hours in specified occupations, such as acting, newspaper delivery, and certain agricultural work.

Minors Ages 14 and 15

Minors aged 14 to 15 face the strictest restrictions on the hours and types of work they can do. Work-hour restrictions depend on whether school is in session and are subject to the following guidelines and restrictions:

• When school is in session, 14- and 15-year-old employees may work only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. They may only work three hours per day and no more than 18 hours per week.
• When school is not in session (or between June 1 and Labor Day), 14- and 15-year-old employees may work between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. They may work eight hours per day and up to a total of 40 hours per week.
• On any non-school day, they may work eight hours per day. During any non-school week, they may work up to 40 hours.
• Employees aged 14 and 15 who work in a business operated by their parents may work any time of day and any number of hours. They can’t work in manufacturing, mining, or an occupation declared hazardous.

If you have further questions about work permission, speak with an employment law attorney.

Minors Ages 16 and 17

No restrictions apply to the number of hours worked per day or days per week for teenagers ages 16 and 17. However, minors may not perform hazardous jobs.

The following chart summarizes the restrictions, exemptions, and prohibitions for employing each minor age group. 

Can Minors Work in Hazardous Jobs?

Workers under 18 may not work in what the federal government classifies as “hazardous jobs.” Parents employing their own children in nonagricultural businesses must comply with the hazardous-occupation rules, but the federal agricultural child-labor restrictions don’t apply. Exemptions exist for apprenticeships or student learners in a few jobs where 16- and 17-year-olds are genuine student learners. The following jobs are classified as hazardous:

• Manufacturing and storing of explosives
• Driving a motor vehicle or being an outside helper on a motor vehicle
• Coal mining
• Forest firefighting and fire prevention, timber tract management, forestry services, logging, and sawmill occupations
• Power-driven woodworking machines (exemptions for student learners)
• Exposure to radioactive substances
• Power-driven hoisting apparatus
• Power-driven metal-forming, punching, and shearing machines (exemptions for student learners)
• Mining, other than coal mining
• Meat and poultry packing or processing (including the use of power-driven meat-slicing machines)
• Power-driven bakery machines
• Balers, compactors, and paper-products machines (exemptions for student learners)
• Manufacturing brick, tile, and related products
• Power-driven circular saws, band saws, guillotine shears, chain saws, reciprocating saws, wood chippers, and abrasive cutting discs (exemptions for student learners)
• Wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking operations
• Roofing operations and all work on or about a roof (exemptions for student learners)
• Excavation operations (exemptions for student learners)

Other businesses may be defined as hazardous.

What Are Additional Exemptions for Minors?

Despite the push to keep kids in school, reality sometimes intrudes. Rules have exceptions. In a few cases, exemptions apply to younger workers doing specific jobs under particular circumstances.

Exemptions for Nonagricultural Jobs

A few exemptions apply to minors in nonagricultural jobs, but additional conditions apply. In these cases, all other restrictions still apply:

• Minor employees who drive on public roads in a job-related capacity must be at least 17 years old, have a valid driver’s license, and have no moving violations on their record
• Minors ages 14-17 excused from mandatory school attendance beyond eighth grade may work in businesses that use machinery to process wood products (e.g., sawmills, furniture makers, cabinet makers) but can’t operate or assist in operating power-driven woodworking machinery

Other specific restrictions may apply.

Exemptions for Agricultural Jobs

Because the United States began as a farming nation, minors have more exemptions and partial exemptions for agricultural work. The restrictions on hazardous jobs and school hours still apply. Minors may work on a farm their parents own or operate without restrictions. The following also apply:

• At age 14 or 15, student learners in a vocational agriculture program may engage in certain hazardous jobs. The work must be incidental to the training, short-term, and under direct supervision.
• Employers may hire workers aged 12 and 13 for nonhazardous work outside of school hours if the minor‘s parents work on the farm or if the minor gets the parents’ written consent. Other restrictions, such as maximum hours and minimum pay rates, still apply.

Agricultural states may have laws more restrictive than the federal laws cited here. Before hiring minors for agricultural work, check your state’s department of labor for the most recent rules.

Employers Must Comply With Paperwork Requirements

Employers should verify the age of all minors during hiring. Federal law doesn’t require employers to obtain age certificates, but they may rely on a valid age certificate issued under a state system recognized by the Department of Labor as evidence of a minor‘s age. Some states may also require either the employer or the minor to obtain work permits through the state’s department of labor.

Discuss Your Questions About Hiring Minors With an Attorney

Small-business owners and managers wear many hats, but the complexities and high stakes of employment law matters are often best left to experts. Meet with an employment law attorney in your area if you have questions about hiring minors.