Can a 16-Year-Old Work at a Nursing Home? Jobs, Hours, and Pay

Yes, a 16-year-old can work at a nursing home. Federal child labor law clears 16-year-olds for any job that hasn’t been declared hazardous, so the door is open — but most hands-on resident care is reserved for certified nurse aides and licensed nurses, which means a teen’s role will usually be support work: dietary, activities, clerical, or housekeeping.¹

Jobs a 16-Year-Old Can Actually Do

The realistic openings for a teen fall into four buckets. None of them involve bathing, feeding, transferring, or medicating residents, but all of them put a teenager inside a working long-term care facility.

Dietary aide. Washing dishes, portioning cold foods, setting and clearing tables in the dining room, and delivering trays to resident rooms. The one caveat is equipment: commercial meat slicers, saws, choppers, and industrial bakery mixers are off-limits until 18 under the Department of Labor’s hazardous occupation orders.¹

Activities assistant. Helping run recreational programs, setting up games, reading to residents, assisting at group events, and going along on supervised outings. The role has to stay non-physical: no lifting, transferring, or personal care.

Clerical and front-desk work. Answering phones, filing medical records, data entry, and greeting visitors. Any position touching patient records requires HIPAA privacy training, which the facility must provide.

Housekeeping and laundry. General cleaning, folding and sorting linens, restocking supply closets. Commercial waste balers and compactors are covered by a hazardous order and off-limits.¹

What a 16-Year-Old Cannot Do

Two separate sets of rules keep teens out of bedside work. Understanding both makes it clear why the job list above is what it is.

Hazardous Occupation Orders

The Department of Labor has issued 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders that ban workers under 18 from specified dangerous work.² Inside a nursing home, the ones that come up most often are power-driven patient lifts (floor-based lifts, ceiling-mounted lifts, and powered sit-to-stand devices), power-driven meat-processing equipment, power-driven bakery machines, and balers and compactors.³

There is a narrow exception for patient lifts. The DOL adopted an enforcement position in 2011 that lets properly trained 16- and 17-year-old nursing aides or assistants help a trained adult operate certain patient lifts under supervised conditions.⁴ It only covers teens who are actually working in a nursing aide role and have completed the training. It doesn’t cover a kitchen aide or file clerk who happens to be nearby when a resident needs to be lifted.

Nurse Aide Certification Rules

The bigger barrier isn’t age at all — it’s certification. Nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid must use certified nurse aides for bedside care. Under federal regulation, a facility cannot use anyone as a nurse aide for more than four months unless that person has completed a state-approved training and competency evaluation program.⁵ Bathing, feeding, repositioning, and toileting are all nurse aide duties.

Medication administration goes further still: in most states only licensed nurses (RNs or LPNs) can give medications. A 16-year-old without a credential isn’t eligible, and a facility risks federal sanctions if it uses uncertified staff to do certified work regardless of the worker’s age.

Starting CNA Training at 16

Some states let 16-year-olds enroll in a state-approved nurse aide training program, and this is the route that opens up real patient contact. Federal regulation permits a facility to use a full-time employee in a state-approved training program as a nurse aide while the training is still underway.⁵ After the teen completes the program and passes the competency evaluation, the facility must confirm placement on the state nurse aide registry before letting them work independently.

Not every state sets the CNA minimum age at 16 — some require 17 or 18. Check with your state’s health department or nurse aide registry to confirm eligibility. For a teen thinking seriously about a healthcare career, certifying early turns the job from clearing dining trays into actual patient interaction, and the credential carries forward into future training.

Hours and Scheduling

Federal law places no caps on daily hours, weekly hours, or time of day for 16- and 17-year-olds working non-hazardous jobs.¹ State law almost always fills that gap, and it’s what will actually shape the schedule.

During the school year, many states cap daily work at eight hours on school days and hold weekly hours somewhere between 24 and 30. Late-night cutoffs on school nights typically fall between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., depending on the state.⁶ Summer and other school breaks loosen those limits, though some states keep a weekly ceiling around 40 to 48 hours. Most states also require a meal break after five or six consecutive hours. Where federal and state rules both apply, the employer follows whichever offers the teen more protection.

Pay

A 16-year-old at a nursing home is entitled to at least the federal minimum wage, with one exception. The FLSA allows a youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour for workers under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment.⁷ After 90 days, or when the worker turns 20, the regular minimum wage kicks in. Many states set a higher minimum wage that overrides the federal subminimum, so in practice the $4.25 rate is less common than it sounds.

Overtime applies the same way it does for adults. If the teen works more than 40 hours in a workweek — possible in states without tighter weekly caps — the employer owes one and a half times the regular rate.⁷

Paperwork and Screening Before the First Shift

A few things need to happen before a 16-year-old walks into a nursing home job.

Work permit. Work permits (also called employment or age certificates) are set by state law. Most states require them for 16-year-olds; a few only issue on request.⁸ The paperwork usually goes through the school guidance office or the state labor department. The teen brings proof of age (birth certificate, passport, or driver’s license), a parent or guardian signs, and the employer describes the job duties and schedule. Fees range from nothing to about $50.

Form I-9. Every new hire must complete Form I-9. A minor under 18 without a List B photo ID can still complete it: a parent or legal guardian establishes identity by writing “Individual under age 18” in the signature block and the List B field, and the teen presents a List C document showing work authorization.⁹ If the employer uses E-Verify, this workaround doesn’t apply and the teen has to present a photo identity document.

Background check. Nursing homes must screen all employees, not just clinical staff, before they start work. Federal regulation bars facilities from employing anyone found guilty of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or misappropriation of resident property, or with a disciplinary action against a professional license for similar conduct.¹⁰ Many states go further and require fingerprint-based criminal background checks for long-term care workers. Fingerprinting and processing usually runs $45 to $100, and who pays depends on state law and facility policy. Some facilities also require a tuberculosis screening before the teen enters resident areas, which can cost $40 to $150 out of pocket if the facility doesn’t cover it.

Why Employers Enforce These Limits

Nursing homes tend to be strict about teen job assignments because the fines for getting it wrong are steep. As of 2025, the maximum civil money penalty for a single child labor violation is $16,035. If a violation results in serious injury or death of a minor, the penalty rises to $72,876, or $145,752 if the violation was willful or repeated.¹¹ Penalties are assessed per violation rather than per child, so if a single teen is assigned two prohibited tasks, that’s two separate penalties. Expect a manager to be careful about which duties end up on your schedule.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
2
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Child Labor Rules – Hazardous Occupations
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2011-3
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 52 The Employment of Youth in the Health Care Industry
5
eCFR. 42 CFR 483.35 – Nursing Services
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Employment/Age Certificate
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 4.2 Minors (Individuals Under Age 18)
10
eCFR. 42 CFR 483.12 – Freedom From Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments