FLSA Child Labor Provisions: Hours, Hazardous Jobs, and Penalties

The Fair Labor Standards Act child labor provisions set the federal floor for when young people can work, how long, and at what jobs. The rules live in 29 U.S.C. § 212 and 29 CFR Part 570, and they turn on age: once you’re 18, none of them apply; at 16 and 17, you can work unlimited hours but not in 17 hazardous occupations; at 14 and 15, both the hours and the job list are tightly restricted; under 14, almost no non-farm work is allowed.¹²

The Age Tiers

Federal regulations at 29 CFR § 570.2 build a tiered system. At 18, federal child labor restrictions drop away entirely and any job is open, including those the Department of Labor has flagged as hazardous.²

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds can work in any non-hazardous job for unlimited hours. This is the general entry point into full-time and unrestricted part-time work.

At 14 and 15, the picture narrows sharply. Manufacturing, mining, and construction are off the table, the list of permitted jobs is specific, and both daily and weekly hours are capped.

Under 14, non-agricultural employment is generally not allowed. The narrow exceptions are acting and performing, delivering newspapers, and working for a business owned by a parent.

What 14- and 15-Year-Olds Can Do

Under 29 CFR § 570.34, permitted work for this age group includes office and clerical tasks, cashiering and sales, price tagging, shelving, bagging groceries, running errands on foot or by bicycle, and cleanup using non-power-driven equipment such as vacuum cleaners and floor waxers.³

Kitchen work is spelled out in unusual detail. A 14- or 15-year-old can cook on an electric or gas grill that doesn’t involve an open flame, and can use a deep fryer only if it has an automatic basket-lowering device. Microwaves may be used only to warm prepared food, with the oven not heating above 140°F. Cleaning kitchen equipment is limited to surfaces and liquids at or below 100°F.

What They Cannot Do

Under 29 CFR § 570.33, the prohibited list for 14- and 15-year-olds includes:⁴

Operating power-driven machinery such as lawn mowers, food slicers, food grinders, and trimmers. Office machines and vacuum cleaners are the exceptions.
Driving or riding in motor vehicles as part of the job, including working as a helper on a delivery vehicle.
Most cooking and baking, including open-flame cooking, rotisseries, broilers, and pressurized fryers.
Work at heights beyond window washing from sills, and any work requiring ladders or scaffolds.
Handling meat or working in freezers, except briefly entering a freezer to grab items and wrapping or stocking pre-packaged meat in areas separate from the cooler.
Loading or unloading trucks, aside from light hand tools and personal items like a backpack or lunch box.
Peddling goods away from the employer’s establishment, including holding signs on street corners.
Operational work in construction, transportation, warehousing, or utilities. Office and sales roles in those industries are still allowed.

Hours for 14- and 15-Year-Olds

This is where the FLSA is tightest. Under 29 CFR § 570.35, the caps depend on whether school is in session:⁵

School in session: no more than 3 hours on a school day, including Fridays; no more than 18 hours in a school week; work only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
School out: up to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week. From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff moves to 9 p.m.

All work has to fall outside school hours. Scheduling a 14-year-old during the school day violates federal law even if total weekly hours stay under 18.

There are limited exceptions. Minors enrolled in approved school-supervised work-experience or career-exploration programs may be exempt from some of the school-hours and school-day restrictions, and participants in qualifying work-study programs get slightly relaxed limits on school-day scheduling.

The 17 Hazardous Occupations Banned Under 18

Seventeen categories of work are closed to anyone under 18, regardless of experience or employer permission. These are the Hazardous Occupations Orders in 29 CFR Part 570, Subpart E:⁶

HO 1: Manufacturing or storing explosives
HO 2: Driving motor vehicles or working as an outside helper on vehicles
HO 3: Coal mining
HO 4: Forest firefighting, logging, and sawmill operations
HO 5: Operating power-driven woodworking machines
HO 6: Exposure to radioactive substances
HO 7: Operating power-driven hoisting equipment (forklifts, cranes)
HO 8: Operating power-driven metal-forming, punching, and shearing machines
HO 9: Mining other than coal
HO 10: Power-driven meat-processing machines and slaughtering
HO 11: Operating bakery machines
HO 12: Operating balers, compactors, and paper-products machines
HO 13: Manufacturing brick, tile, and similar products
HO 14: Operating circular saws, band saws, chain saws, and similar cutting equipment
HO 15: Wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking
HO 16: Roofing
HO 17: Excavation

A capable 17-year-old with training still cannot legally perform any of these jobs unless a specific student-learner exemption applies.

Driving Exception for 17-Year-Olds

HO 2 bans on-the-job driving, but 29 CFR § 570.52(b) allows 17-year-olds to drive if every one of these conditions is met:³

The vehicle weighs 6,000 pounds gross or less and has seat belts for the driver and all passengers.
Driving stays in daylight and within a 30-mile radius of the workplace.
The minor has a valid state license, has completed a state-approved driver education course, and has no moving violations at the time of hire.
No towing, no route deliveries or sales, no transporting passengers for hire, and no urgent time-sensitive deliveries such as pizza runs or bank deposits at closing.
No more than three passengers at any time, and no more than two delivery trips per day.
Driving is “occasional and incidental,” meaning no more than one-third of worktime in any day and no more than 20% in any week.

Miss any one condition and the employer is in violation. Restaurants and retail stores commonly slip on this rule by asking a 17-year-old to make a delivery run.

Student-Learner Exemption

Under 29 CFR § 570.50(c), 16- and 17-year-olds in a cooperative vocational training program recognized by a state or local educational authority can do limited work in otherwise-hazardous occupations, provided:

The hazardous work is incidental to the training and performed intermittently for short periods.
A qualified, experienced person directly and closely supervises the minor at all times.
The school provides safety instruction that the employer correlates with the on-the-job training.
A written agreement, signed by the employer and the school coordinator, is on file with both, names the student-learner, and sets out a schedule of progressive tasks.

The Department of Labor can revoke the exemption for any individual student if safety precautions aren’t being followed. A student who completes such a program can continue in that occupation after graduation even before turning 18.

Agricultural Work Runs on Different Rules

Farm work is more permissive. Children 14 and older can do any non-hazardous farm work outside school hours. Twelve- and 13-year-olds can work on a farm with written parental consent, or on a farm where a parent is also employed. Children under 12 can work on a farm owned or operated by their parent.⁷

The Department of Labor keeps a separate list of agricultural hazardous occupations that apply to workers under 16, covering large tractors, certain livestock, toxic chemicals, and chain saws, among others.⁸ Even in agriculture, children working for their parents on the family farm are exempt from the hazardous-work restrictions for minors under 16. That carveout doesn’t exist outside farming.

Parental, Newspaper, and Entertainment Exemptions

Under the definition of “oppressive child labor” in 29 U.S.C. § 203(l), a parent or legal guardian can employ their own child under 16 in a non-agricultural business. The exemption does not cover manufacturing, mining, or any hazardous occupation, and the child must be employed only by the parent. A child helping a parent do work for the parent’s employer falls under the regular rules.

Youth delivering newspapers directly to consumers are exempt from the FLSA’s minimum wage, overtime, and child labor rules altogether.⁷

Children employed as actors or performers in movies, television, radio, or theater are exempt from federal age and hour restrictions. States typically require their own work permits for these productions, with their own conditions.

The Youth Minimum Wage

Employers covered by the FLSA can pay workers under 20 a youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment. The 90 days are calendar days, not workdays, so the clock runs whether or not the employee is scheduled. Once the worker turns 20 or completes the 90 days, whichever comes first, the standard federal minimum wage applies.⁹

A break in employment doesn’t reset the count. If a teenager works two weeks, quits, and returns a month later, the days that passed during the gap still count. State and local minimum wage laws override this rule where they set a higher wage and make no exception for young workers.

When State Law Is Stricter, It Controls

Where federal and state child labor rules conflict, the stricter rule wins. The FLSA states that nothing in the federal law “shall justify noncompliance with any Federal or State law or municipal ordinance establishing a higher standard.”³

Employers cannot choose the more lenient rule. If a state caps 16-year-olds at 30 hours per school week and federal law sets no cap for that age group, the state cap applies. If a state lets 14-year-olds work past 7 p.m. and federal law does not, the federal rule applies. Many states also require work permits or employment certificates that have no federal equivalent, and those requirements apply on top of the FLSA.

Penalties

Civil penalties reach up to $16,035 per affected employee. If a violation causes a minor’s serious injury or death, the cap rises to $72,876 per violation. When that serious-injury or death violation is willful or repeated, the penalty can reach $145,752.¹⁰ These amounts are adjusted for inflation each year.

The size of a penalty turns on whether the violation contributed to an injury, the size of the business, and the employer’s history. Willful or repeated violations can double the penalty even without an injury.¹¹

Criminal prosecution is possible too. Under 29 U.S.C. § 216(a), willful violations of the FLSA can bring a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both. Jail is reserved for offenses committed after a prior FLSA conviction.¹²

How to Report a Violation

Anyone can file a child labor complaint with the Wage and Hour Division by calling 1-866-487-9243. Complaints are accepted from employees, parents, and third parties. The agency keeps them confidential and will not disclose the complainant’s name or whether a complaint exists. Retaliation against anyone who files or cooperates with an investigation is prohibited.¹³

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 212 – Child Labor Provisions
2
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.2 – Minimum Age Standards
3
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.33 – Occupations That Are Prohibited to Minors 14 and 15 Years of Age
5
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.35 – Hours of Work and Conditions of Employment Permitted for Minors 14 and 15 Years of Age
6
Legal Information Institute. 29 CFR Part 570 Subpart E – Occupations Particularly Hazardous for the Employment of Minors Between 16 and 18 Years of Age or Detrimental to Their Health or Well-Being
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #40: Overview of Youth Employment (Child Labor) Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Agricultural Occupations
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #32: Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #43: Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Nonagricultural Occupations
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
13
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint