Minor Work Hours Checker

The federal floor every state builds on

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets hour limits for 14 and 15 year olds in non-farm jobs and nothing at all for 16 and 17 year olds. For the younger band the caps are 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-school day, and 40 hours in a non-school week, worked only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The evening cutoff moves to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day. A 14 or 15 year old also may not work at all during school hours, with one exception: students enrolled in an approved Work Experience and Career Exploration Program may work during school hours, up to 3 hours on a school day and 23 hours in a school week.

• Under 14: non-farm employment is generally prohibited, with narrow exceptions for newspaper delivery, acting and performing, casual babysitting, work for a parent-owned non-hazardous business, and wreath-making from evergreens.
• 14-15: 3 hours per school day, 18 per school week, 8 per non-school day, 40 per non-school week, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (9 p.m. June 1 through Labor Day).
• 16-17: no federal hour cap and no federal curfew.
• 18 and older: no child labor limits apply.

"No federal limit" is not the same as "no limit". Roughly half the states fill the 16-17 gap with their own caps or curfews, and a few states are stricter than the FLSA even for 14 and 15 year olds. The source figures come from the Department of Labor's state child labor standards table and Fact Sheet #43. For a plain-language walkthrough, read our guide to teen work hour laws and minor restrictions.

Why the stricter rule always wins

When federal and state child labor rules both apply, the stricter one governs. Take Colorado, age 15, school in session. Colorado allows 6 hours on a school day and 40 hours in a week. The FLSA allows 3 and 18. The teen's real limits are 3 and 18, and federal law governs both.

Now flip it. Florida, age 15, school in session. Federal law allows 18 hours in a school week, but Florida caps it at 15, so Florida governs the week. The day is a tie: Florida sets 3 hours and the FLSA sets 3, so the checker reports that federal and Florida set the same limit rather than picking a winner. Mixed governance like this is normal, which is why the checker labels the daily cap, the weekly cap, the earliest start, and the latest end separately instead of naming one winner for the whole result.

The same logic runs the other way for the clock. A later earliest-start time is stricter, and an earlier latest-end time is stricter. Maryland lets a 15 year old work until 8 p.m., but the federal 7 p.m. bound is earlier, so 7 p.m. is the answer and federal law governs it.

What "no state cap" actually means for 16 and 17 year olds

In 33 jurisdictions the DOL table lists no hour cap for 16 and 17 year olds, among them Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana and Alaska. With no state cap and no federal cap, there is no legal ceiling on hours for that age band, and the checker says so plainly instead of printing a zero or a dash.

Other states cap hard. Washington allows 20 hours in a school week, New York and Pennsylvania 28, Florida and Kentucky and New Hampshire 30, Colorado and New Jersey 40, Oregon 44, California and Massachusetts and Rhode Island 48, and Maine 50 in a non-school week. A blank hours cell also does not mean a blank night cell. Alabama, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee set a school-night curfew for 16 and 17 year olds without setting any hour cap at all.

Several states publish the number only under conditions: Kentucky's 30-hour school week rises to 40 with parental permission, Washington's 20 hours rises to 28 with a special variance, and New York's 10 p.m. curfew moves to midnight with written permission from both the parent and the school. The checker always shows the default figure and puts the variant in the state note, because the permission-granted number is not the one you get automatically. For how state rules diverge on the adult side of the line, see state overtime rules side by side.

How to keep your own record of the hours you worked

An employer of a minor has to keep proof of age and accurate daily start and stop times for every worker under 18. That helps, right up until the employer is the one breaking the rule. A teen who relies only on the company's records has nothing independent to point at when the schedule quietly runs past 7 p.m. or the week creeps past 18 hours.

Keeping a parallel record is simple: note the start time, the end time, and any unpaid break, every shift. Our work schedule hours counter totals a posted schedule before the week starts, the timecard calculator totals a week of shifts after the fact, and the shift length calculator and part-time hours calculator handle single shifts and weekly averages. Timeclock44 does the same thing on a phone, which is usually where a teen actually has it.

If the hours are over the line, the Wage and Hour Division takes child labor complaints at 1-866-487-9243, and retaliation against a worker who complains is illegal. Rules change often, so confirm anything you plan to rely on with your state labor department first.