ABA Family Legal Guide

Law and the Workplace

The Hiring Process

Are there laws that govern hiring workers under eighteen years of age?

Yes. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulates the employment of minors. With few exceptions (such as newspaper delivery), children under fourteen years of age may not be employed. Children under the age of sixteen may only work in nonhazardous jobs, and their hours of work are limited. During the school term, work hours are limited to a maximum of three hours a day and eighteen hours a week. Outside the school term, children under sixteen may work up to eight hours a day and forty hours a week. In either case, children under sixteen years old may work only from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. in the summer). Workers who are sixteen and seventeen years old are not limited in the number of hours they may work, but are prohibited from working in hazardous jobs.

Many states have their own rules for youth employment. An employer must follow these if they are more restrictive than federal law. For example, many states require all minors to get work permits from school authorities.