Teens, know the rules before you look for a job
By Dana Dratch • Bankrate.com

Most typical teen jobs -- bagging groceries, retail store clerking or movie ticket collecting -- are perfectly legal. However, if you're a 17-year-old considering a job delivering pizzas or operating a meat slicer, think again. It might be against the law.

The Fair Labor Standards Act spells out exactly what jobs teens are allowed to do at every age, along with the hours they may work and what they must be paid. Many states impose additional restrictions (and the laws vary widely) on suitable employment, age of workers, hours and required breaks.

Businesses want you
Teens are a desirable work force. Federal labor law gives businesses a financial incentive to hire teens. Unless state law says otherwise, businesses may pay teens $4.25 an hour, 90 cents less than minimum wage, for the first 90 days of employment, roughly the entire summer season.

The FLSA also allows farms, colleges, universities and retail establishments to obtain a certificate allowing them to pay teens just 85 percent of minimum wages, $4.38 per hour, year-round provided the workers are full-time students.

And just which young workers can earn this lower pay is meticulously regulated.

Hours, age and injuries
When business owners break the law, it's usually out of ignorance, says Tammy McCutchen, administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor. The most common infractions are working teens too many hours or too late at night.

"It's sort of common sense not to have a kid using a power saw," she says. "It's not common sense that during the school year [teens under 16] are only allowed to work until 7 p.m."

In many cases, what a teen can or can't do depends on age. Kids younger than 14 can legally hold a few outside jobs, such as baby-sitting, a newspaper route, acting or performing and working on a family farm. At 14, they can take jobs in offices, retail stores, amusement parks and movie theaters.

But they can't operate any power-driven machinery and can work only before or after school hours, and then for no more than 3 hours a school day. Additionally, these jobs must fall between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., and a youth can work only 18 total hours in a school week. On breaks and during the summer, 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds can work up to eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, and may work as late as 9 p.m.

Federal law also allows kids of any age to work in the family business, as long as the work isn't manufacturing or on the hazardous occupations list. There is a notable age exception for one of the most dangerous occupational areas: agriculture. The FLSA lets kids as young as 12 put in unlimited hours before and after school on commercial farms with a parent's permission.

Even with less dangerous jobs, teen injuries are a real concern, says McCutchen. On average, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports that nearly 55 younger workers are hurt on the job each day. Cuts, sprains, strains, bruises, burns and broken bones are the most common.

More jobs at sweet 16
As expected, the labor laws loosen up as teens get older.

Once a youth reaches 16, there are no federal restrictions on hours. But certain hazardous occupations remain off-limits and some common tasks also are forbidden. While 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds can handle power-driven tools, the law says they cannot operate specifically prohibited machinery like meat slicers or automobiles.

Federal regulation of teen employment ends at 18, but that doesn't mean business owners are on their own. Many states have rules regarding employment of young adults between 18 and 21, especially when the job involves alcohol.

When looking for employment your safest bet, says John Richard Carrigan, member of the state labor law and developments committee for the labor and employment law section of the American Bar Association, is to "know your state laws."

Before you accept
Confused by the all the age and job limitations? Then don't hesitate to call state and federal departments of labor and "ask questions before you're on the payroll," says Carrigan. That way, you're simply posing a hypothetical, he says, and not dodging state or federal regulation.

"Age is critically important," says Carrigan, partner in the Greenville, S.C.-based labor and employment law firm of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC. "Some occupations legal for a 10-year-old in some states are only legal for a 12-year-old in another." The state's legal age of majority also makes a big difference, he says.

-- Updated: May 19, 2003