What is child labor? The child labor provisions
of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) prohibit employers from hiring
minors (individuals under the age of 18) to work at dangerous occupations,
for an excessive number of hours, and at unsuitable times of the day
or night. States also have child labor laws and when state and federal
laws differ, the stricter law applies. There are separate rules for
minors under 18, under 16, and under 14 years of age, both on the
number of hours and times of the day and year they may work, as well
as the types of work that they are allowed to perform. In addition,
there are rules on proof of age, minors driving motor vehicles, minimum
wage rates, children working in agriculture, and work under federal
contracts. Severe penalties may be imposed on employers that violate
child labor laws. Employers are prohibited from retaliating or otherwise
discriminating against an employee who files a complaint or participates
in a legal proceeding under the Act.
YouthRules! is
an initiative by the federal government to promote positive and safe
work experiences for teens by distributing information about young
workers to youth, parents, employers, and educators. Components of
the initiative include a website, printed materials, outreach events,
training seminars, and partnering activities. Early work experiences
can provide great opportunities for teens to learn important work
skills. Federal and state rules regarding young workers attempt to
strike a balance between ensuring sufficient time for educational
opportunities and allowing appropriate work experiences. YouthRules! is an attempt to bring teens, parents, educators, employers, government,
unions, and advocacy groups together to ensure young workers have
safe and rewarding work experiences.
The
YouthRules! webpage is a gateway providing quick access to information about
federal and state labor laws that apply to young workers. The webpage
includes information designed to educate teens on what the rules are,
as well as to provide information for parents, educators, and employers (
https://www.youthrules.gov/index.htm).
Also, as part of the YouthRules! initiative, the Department of Labor (DOL) and its partners develop
and distribute informational materials, develop curricula for educators,
provide training on the federal and state rules governing young workers,
increase awareness through public service announcements, and develop
other tools designed to increase compliance with federal and state
laws.
Only the following occupations are open to children under
14 years of age:
Agriculture. Nonhazardous
agricultural jobs are open to children over 12 if they have written
parental consent and do not work during school hours. If no 12-year-old
workers are available, an employer can apply for a waiver from the
DOL to allow children over 10 to work in hand-harvesting jobs. However,
they can work for no more than 8 weeks per year and only if there
is no risk of adverse health effects resulting from the use of pesticides.
Newspaper delivery. There is no federal age restriction applicable to newspaper carriers
who deliver to subscribers and who sell newspapers on the street.
However, the deliveries must be to individual subscribers or consumers
and not to drop stations, newsstands, or distribution centers.
Acting and performing. Actors and performers are exempt from federal child labor laws, but
most states regulate their employment.
Employment by parent. Parents may employ their own children in any occupation except manufacturing,
mining, and other occupations where the minimum age requirement is
18 years.
Children who are under the age of 16 are generally excluded
from all manufacturing, mining, processing, public messenger, or machine-tending
work. They are also excluded from transportation, warehouse work,
construction, communications, and public utility occupations, except
for office or sales work in connection with these. They are also prohibited
from operating a motor vehicle or providing service as a helper on
a motor vehicle. They may not perform any job on the “hazardous” list
applying to minors under the age of 18.
There is a minimum age of 16 for employment in agriculture
during school hours except where the worker is employed by his or
her parent.
Children who are 14 and 15 years old may do the following
types of work:
• Office and clerical work, including the operation of
office machines.
• Work of an intellectual or artistically creative nature
such as, but not limited to, computer programming, the writing of
software, teaching or performing as a tutor, serving as a peer counselor
or teacher’s assistant, singing, playing a musical instrument, and
drawing. Artistically creative work is limited to work in a recognized
field of artistic or creative endeavor.
• Cooking with electric or gas grills (but not over an
open flame) or with deep fryers that automatically lower and raise
the baskets to and from the hot oil.
• Cashiering, selling, modeling, art work, work in advertising
departments, window trimming, and comparative shopping.
• Price-marking and tagging by hand or machine, assembling
orders, packing, and shelving.
• Bagging and carrying out customers’ orders.
• Errand and delivery work by foot, bicycle, and public
transportation.
• Cleanup work, including the use of vacuum cleaners and
floor waxers, and the maintenance of grounds, but not including the
use of power-driven mowers, cutters, trimmers, edgers, or similar
equipment.
• Kitchen work, preparing and serving food. Permitted machines
include, but are not limited to, dishwashers, toasters, dumbwaiters,
popcorn poppers, milk shake blenders, coffee grinders, automatic coffee
machines, devices used to maintain the temperature of prepared foods
(such as warmers, steam tables, and heat lamps), and microwave ovens
that do not warm above 140°F. Minors are permitted to clean kitchen
equipment (not otherwise prohibited), remove oil or grease filters,
pour oil or grease through filters, and move receptacles containing
hot grease or hot oil, but only when the equipment, surfaces, containers,
and liquids do not exceed a temperature of 100°F. Minors are also
permitted to occasionally enter freezers momentarily to retrieve items
in conjunction with restocking or food preparation.
• Cleaning vegetables and fruits, and the wrapping, sealing,
labeling, weighing, pricing, and stocking of items, including vegetables,
fruits, and meats, when performed in areas physically separate from
a freezer or meat cooler.
• The loading onto and unloading from motor vehicles light,
non-power-driven, hand tools, and personal protective equipment that
the minor will use as part of his or her employment at the worksite
and personal items such as a backpack, a lunch box, or a coat that
the minor is permitted to take to the worksite. Such light tools would
include, but are not limited to, rakes, handheld clippers, shovels,
and brooms. Light tools would not include items like trash, sales
kits, promotion items or items for sale, lawn mowers, or other power-driven
lawn maintenance equipment. The minors would not be permitted to load
or unload safety equipment such as barriers, cones, or signage.
• Inside or outside places of business where machinery
is used to process wood products (for 14- or 15-year-olds who by statute
or judicial order are exempt from compulsory school attendance beyond
the eighth grade) if the youth is supervised by an adult relative
or an adult member of the same religious sect or division, does not
operate or assist in the operation of power-driven woodworking machines,
is protected from wood particles or other flying debris within the
workplace by a barrier, and is required to use, and uses, personal
protective equipment to prevent exposure to excessive levels of noise
and sawdust.
• Work in connection with cars and trucks if limited to
dispensing gasoline and oil, courtesy service, car cleaning, washing
and polishing by hand; but not including work involving the use of
pits, racks, or lifting apparatus, or involving the inflation of any
tire mounted on a rim equipped with a removable retaining ring.
• Certain work in connection with riding inside passenger
compartments of motor vehicles. Each minor riding as a passenger in
a motor vehicle must have his or her own seat in the passenger compartment
and wear a seat belt.
Lifeguard work allowed for minors
age 15. The employment of 15-year-olds (but not 14-year-olds)
as lifeguards and swimming instructors is permitted at traditional
swimming pools and water amusement parks (but not including the elevated
areas of power-driven water slides), when the minors have been trained
and certified by the American Red Cross, or a similar certifying organization,
in aquatics and water safety. This rule does not permit working as
a lifeguard or swimming instructor at natural environment swimming
facilities, such as rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, quarries, reservoirs,
wharfs, piers, canals, or oceanside beaches.
Minors 14 and 15 years old may not work in the following
occupations, which is not an exhaustive list:
• Most work in manufacturing, mining, or processing occupations.
• Work deemed hazardous for the employment of minors between
the ages of 16 and 18 or detrimental to their health or well-being.
• Occupations that involve operating, tending, setting
up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling, or repairing hoisting apparatus.
• Work performed in or about boiler or engine rooms or
in connection with the maintenance or repair of the establishment,
machines, or equipment.
• Occupations that involve operating, tending, setting
up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling, or repairing any power-driven machinery
including, but not limited to, lawn mowers, golf carts, all-terrain
vehicles, trimmers, cutters, weed-eaters, edgers, food slicers, food
grinders, food choppers, food processors, food cutters, and food mixers.
Youth 14 and 15 years of age may operate certain office equipment,
vacuum cleaners, and floor waxers.
• The operation of motor vehicles.
• Outside window washing that involves working from window
sills, and all work requiring the use of ladders, scaffolds, or their
substitutes.
• Most baking and cooking activities.
• Work in freezers and meat coolers and work in the preparation
of meats for sale. Minors may enter freezers only momentarily to retrieve
items.
• Youth peddling, which entails the selling of goods or
services to customers at locations other than the youth employer’s
establishment, such as the customers’ residences or places of business,
or public places such as street corners and public transportation
stations. Prohibited activities associated with youth peddling not
only include the attempt to make a sale or the actual consummation
of a sale, but also the preparatory and concluding tasks normally
performed by a youth peddler in conjunction with his or her sales,
such as the loading and unloading of vans or other motor vehicles,
the stocking and restocking of sales kits and trays, the exchanging
of cash and checks with the employer, and the transportation of minors
to and from the various sales areas by the employer. Prohibited youth
peddling also includes such promotion activities as the holding, wearing,
or waving of signs, merchandise, costumes, sandwich boards, or placards
in order to attract potential customers, except when performed inside
of, or directly in front of, the employer’s business providing the
product, service, or event being advertised. (Exceptions: Minors may
conduct sales for their employers on property controlled by the employer
that is outside, but may properly be considered part of the employer’s
establishment, such as garden centers, sidewalk sales, and parking
lot sales. Minors may also sell goods or services as volunteers and
without compensation on behalf of certain organizations, such as the
Girl Scouts.)
• Loading and unloading of goods or property onto or from
motor vehicles, railroad cars, or conveyors.
• Catching and cooping of poultry in preparation for transport
or for market.
• Public messenger service
• Occupations in connection with the transportation of
persons or property by rail, highway, air, water, pipeline, or other
means; warehousing and storage; communications and public utilities;
and construction. (Office or sales work in these industries is allowed
if it does not involve the performance of any duties on trains, motor
vehicles, aircraft, vessels, or other media of transportation or at
the actual site of construction operations.)
No employee under 17 years of age may drive a motor vehicle
on public roads as part of his or her job if that employment is subject
to the FLSA. Minors 17 years of age may drive on public roadways as
part of their employment, but only if all of the following requirements
are met:
• The driving is limited to daylight hours.
• The 17-year-old holds a state license valid for the type
of driving involved in the job performed.
• The 17-year-old has successfully completed a state-approved
driver education course and has no record of any moving violations
at the time of hire.
• The automobile or truck does not exceed 6,000 pounds
gross vehicle weight.
• The automobile or truck is equipped with a seat belt
for the driver and any passengers, and the employer has instructed
the youth that the seat belts must be used when driving the vehicle.
• The driving is only occasional and incidental to the
17-year-old's employment. This means that the youth may spend no more
than one-third of his or her workday and no more than 20 percent of
his or her work time in any workweek driving.
In addition, the driving may not involve:
• Towing vehicles
• Any other vehicle than an automobile or truck (e.g.,
bus, motorcycle, ATVs, golf cart)
• Route deliveries or route sales
• Transportation for hire of property, goods, or passengers
• Urgent, time-sensitive deliveries (Urgent, time-sensitive
deliveries are trips that, because of such factors as customers' satisfaction,
the rapid deterioration of the quality or change in temperature of
the product, and/or economic incentives, are subject to timelines,
schedules, and/or turnaround times that might impel the driver to
hurry in the completion of the delivery. Prohibited trips would include,
but are not limited to, the delivery of pizzas and prepared foods
to the customer; the delivery of materials under a deadline (such
as deposits to a bank at closing); and the shuttling of passengers
to and from transportation depots to meet transport schedules. Urgent,
time-sensitive deliveries would not depend on the delivery's points
of origin and termination and would include the delivery of people
and things to the employer's place of business as well as from that
business to some other location.)
• Transporting more than three passengers, including employees
of the employer
• Driving beyond a 30-mile radius from the youth’s place
of employment
• More than two trips away from the primary place of employment
in any single day to deliver the employer’s goods to a customer (other
than urgent, time-sensitive deliveries that are prohibited)
• More than two trips away from the primary place of employment
in any single day to transport passengers, other than employees of
the employer
Even though the DOL does not require recordkeeping, employers have the burden of proving
that they have met the requirements for on-the-job driving by 17-
year-old employees. The DOL suggests that employers keep a copy of documents related to the
employee’s age and licensing and driving history; and maintain logs
of on-the-job driving by 17-year-old minors.
Children under the age of 18 may not do particularly
hazardous jobs or jobs that are detrimental to their health or well-being.
These include:
• Occupations in or about plants manufacturing explosives
(DOL regulations explain the definition of explosives and explosive
materials for purposes of this section).
• Forest fire fighting and forest fire prevention, working
in timber tracts, in forestry services, logging, and the operation
of any sawmill, lath mill, shingle mill, or cooperage stock mill.
• Mining.
• Operating power-driven woodworking machines.
• Occupations involving radioactive substance exposure.
• Operating power-driven metal forming, punching, and shearing
machines.
Work of operating, tending, riding on, working from, repairing,
servicing, or disassembling an elevator, crane, derrick, hoist, or
high-lift truck, except operating or riding inside an unattended automatic
operation passenger elevator. Tending such equipment includes assisting
in the hoisting tasks being performed by the equipment.
• Slaughtering, meatpacking, and rendering. This includes
setting up, adjusting, repairing, or oiling the machines or cleaning
the machines or their individual parts or attachments.
• Operating bakery machines. This does not apply to portable,
counter-top food mixers that are comparable to those used in private
homes and certain pizza-dough rollers used under specific conditions.
• Operating and unloading paper products machines.
• Making brick, tile, and the like.
• Operating circular saws, band saws, guillotine shears,
chain saws, reciprocating saws, wood chippers, and abrasive cutting
discs.
• Wrecking, demolition, shipbreaking, roofing, and excavation
operations.
• Any occupation in roofing operations or that requires
working on or about a roof.
Note: 16- or 17-year-old
workers may work in some of these hazardous occupation jobs if they
are enrolled in a cooperative vocational education program that is
certified by the DOL.