How Old Do You Have to Be to Work at a Restaurant?

Under federal law, you have to be at least 14 years old to work at a restaurant, and what you’re allowed to do depends on which of three age brackets you fall into: 14–15, 16–17, or 18 and up.¹ At 14 the door opens with tight limits on tasks and hours. At 16 most hour restrictions vanish and the range of jobs expands. At 18, federal child labor rules stop applying.² State law can push the minimum age higher or add restrictions on top of these federal floors, so where you live matters too.

What 14- and 15-Year-Olds Can Do

The list of permitted tasks is broader than most people assume. If you’re 14 or 15, a restaurant can put you on:¹

Front-of-house work like cashiering, seating guests, taking orders, table service, and busing
Kitchen devices such as dishwashers, toasters, blenders, coffee grinders, warming lamps, and popcorn poppers
Electric or gas grills without an open flame, and deep fryers equipped with an automatic basket-raising device
Dispensing food from cafeteria lines and steam tables, and heating prepared food in microwaves that don’t exceed 140°F
Cleanup work: vacuuming, floor waxing, cleaning kitchen surfaces and non-powered equipment, and filtering or disposing of cooking oil when the surface temperature is at or below 100°F

The cooking allowance trips people up. A 14-year-old can flip burgers on a flat-top grill but can’t touch a rotisserie, a pressure cooker, a broiler, or a fryer without an automatic basket lift.³ The rule is about the specific equipment, not whether the task feels like “cooking.”

Tasks That Are Off-Limits at 14 and 15

Several common restaurant jobs stay closed to this age group:

Baking of any kind
Operating power-driven food processing equipment such as meat slicers, grinders, food processors, or commercial mixers
Working inside freezers or meat coolers, other than briefly stepping in to grab an item
Cooking with open flames, NEICO broilers, rotisseries, pressure cookers, fryolators, high-speed ovens, or rapid toasters

Hours You Can Work at 14 and 15

Federal law caps both how many hours you can work and when. In weeks when school is in session, you’re limited to 3 hours on any school day (including Friday) and 18 hours total for the week. In non-school weeks like summer break, the caps rise to 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.⁴

You can only work between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. year-round, with one seasonal exception: from June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff extends to 9:00 p.m.²

What Changes at 16 and 17

At 16, federal hour restrictions vanish. There is no cap on how many hours you can work, no limit on how late a shift can run, and no restriction on school-day hours under federal law. Most restaurant tasks also become available.

The remaining limits are narrow. Workers under 18 still can’t do jobs the Department of Labor has classified as hazardous. In a restaurant, the ones that come up most often are:⁵

Power-driven meat processing machines: slicers, saws, patty-forming machines, grinders, and choppers. That includes operating, feeding, setting up, adjusting, and cleaning them or their parts.
Certain power-driven bakery machines and commercial mixers.
Driving on public roads as part of the job, with a limited exception for 17-year-olds.

The 17-Year-Old Driving Exception

A 17-year-old can drive for work only under a narrow set of conditions. The driving must be occasional and incidental to the job, limited to a 30-mile radius from the workplace, and confined to daylight hours. The vehicle can’t exceed 6,000 pounds gross weight. You must have a valid state license, have completed a state-approved driver education course, and have no moving violations at the time of hire.⁶

The exception doesn’t cover route deliveries, urgent time-sensitive deliveries, carrying passengers for hire, or towing. An occasional supply run to a nearby store can qualify; running a delivery route for the restaurant does not.

Serving Alcohol Is a Separate Question

Federal law doesn’t set a minimum age for serving alcohol in a restaurant. It’s a state-by-state question, and the range is wide. Most states set 18 as the minimum age to serve beer, wine, and spirits, a handful allow servers as young as 16, and a few require servers to be 21.⁷

Many states also separate serving from bartending. It’s common for a state to let 18-year-olds carry drinks to tables while requiring bartenders who mix and pour to be at least 21. Cities and counties can add their own rules on top. If you’re under 21 and looking at a job that involves alcohol, confirm the specific state and local rules before assuming you qualify.

What You’ll Be Paid

Young restaurant workers are entitled to the same federal minimum wage as adults, $7.25 per hour.⁸ Many states set a higher floor, and when they do, the higher rate applies.

There’s a youth wage exception. Employers can pay workers under 20 a reduced wage of $4.25 per hour for the first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job. The 90 days run on the calendar, not by days actually worked, so the window closes fast even if you only pick up a few shifts a week. After that, the full minimum wage takes over.⁹

If you regularly earn more than $30 a month in tips, you’re a tipped employee no matter your age. Employers can pay a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour and use your tips to make up the difference, but your total pay must reach at least $7.25 per hour for every workweek. If tips fall short, the employer has to top you up, and they have to explain the arrangement to you before using it.¹⁰ Some states don’t allow the tip credit or require a higher direct wage.

One thing federal law doesn’t require: meal or rest breaks, for minors or anyone else.¹¹ Most states fill that gap for young workers with a required 30-minute meal break after a set number of consecutive hours, often five.

Work Permits

Federal law doesn’t require work permits, but many states do.² These permits, sometimes called employment certificates, confirm your age and that you meet the legal requirements to work. The typical process asks for a parent’s signature, proof of age like a birth certificate, and sometimes a note from your school about academic standing. Some states issue the permit through the school, others through a local labor office. In most, it’s free. Your employer is also required to keep an age certificate on file for any worker under 18.¹²

Check Your State Law Before You Assume

Everything above is the federal floor. States can and often do set stricter rules, and when they’re more protective of the young worker, they control.¹³ A state might raise the minimum age for certain equipment, impose hour caps on 16- and 17-year-olds where federal law imposes none, require longer meal breaks, or lock out more types of restaurant tasks.

Hours are where this matters most. Federal law gives 16-year-olds unlimited work hours, but many states cap school-night shifts or prohibit work past 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. If you only look at the federal rules, you can end up out of compliance with your state without realizing it. Your state’s department of labor website is the place to confirm the specifics.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 2A – Child Labor Rules for Employing Youth in Restaurants and Quick-Service Establishments Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 58 – Cooking and Baking Under the Federal Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor – Hours Restrictions
5
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Young Workers – Restaurant Safety – Standards
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.129 – Limited Driving of Automobiles and Trucks by 17-Year-Olds
7
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Minimum Ages for On-Premises Servers and Bartenders
8
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 15 – Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Breaks and Meal Periods
12
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 218 – Relation to Other Laws