Can a Minor Work Without a Work Permit? Age Rules and Penalties

Whether a minor can work without a work permit depends on the state, the minor’s age, and the kind of job. Roughly 34 states require some form of employment certificate for workers under 18; the rest either don’t issue them or treat them as optional.¹ Federal law itself doesn’t require a permit. It restricts which jobs minors can hold and how many hours they can work, and the permit requirement comes from state law on top of that. When state and federal rules disagree, the stricter one wins.

So the practical answer for a family is: check your state first, then check whether the job itself falls into one of the federal categories that carries its own rules.

When a Permit Isn’t Required

A minor may not need a work permit in two situations. The first is geographic: the state simply doesn’t require one, or waives the requirement at a certain age (often 16, sometimes only after high school graduation).¹ The second is job-based: the work falls into a category that federal child labor law exempts from its restrictions.

The federal exemptions cover:

Work in a business owned by a parent, for minors under 16, as long as the job isn’t in manufacturing, mining, or a hazardous occupation.²
Delivering newspapers directly to customers.²
Casual babysitting and informal yard work, which sit outside the employer-employee relationship the Fair Labor Standards Act covers.³
Farm work: minors 12 or 13 can work on a farm outside school hours with written parental consent, and children of any age can work on a farm their parents own or operate.⁴
Acting and performing in movies, theater, radio, and television.⁵

One important caveat. A federal exemption releases the minor from federal child labor rules, but the state can still require a permit for the same activity. A handful of states require permits even for minors working in a family business. Confirm what the state wants before treating an exemption as a clean pass.

How the Answer Changes With Age

Age is the biggest single factor. Federal law draws bright lines at 14, 16, and 18, and states usually track those same breakpoints for their permit rules.

Under 14. Non-agricultural work is largely off-limits under federal law, and the exemptions above are the main paths to a legal job. Most states that issue permits won’t issue one below this age either.

Ages 14 and 15. These minors can work in a range of retail and service jobs, but federal law tightly caps their hours: no more than 3 hours on a school day (including Fridays), 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-school day, and 40 hours in a non-school week. They can only work between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., with the evening cutoff extended to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day.⁶ Most permit-issuing states require a certificate for this age group.

Ages 16 and 17. Federal law stops capping hours or restricting times of day at this age. The main federal rule left is the ban on hazardous occupations. Some states drop the permit requirement at 16, especially if the minor has already finished high school; others keep it in place all the way to 18.¹ Many states also layer their own hour limits back on for this age group.

Jobs No Permit Can Authorize

Some jobs are off-limits to anyone under 18, permit or no permit. The Department of Labor maintains 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders setting an 18-year minimum for certain non-agricultural work. The prohibited categories include:

Manufacturing or storing explosives.
Driving a motor vehicle on public roads or serving as an outside helper on a delivery route, with a narrow exception for some 17-year-olds under strict conditions including vehicle weight limits.
All work in coal mines and most work in other mines and quarries.
Logging, forestry services, and sawmill operations.
Operating power-driven woodworking, metal-forming, bakery, and paper-baling or compacting equipment.
Slaughter-floor work, power-driven meat processing, and hide and curing cellars.
Work involving exposure to ionizing radiation above set thresholds.
Operating or riding on cranes, derricks, non-automatic elevators, and high-lift trucks.
All roofing operations and excavation work.⁷

These orders apply to non-agricultural work. Agriculture has its own, less restrictive list of hazardous tasks.⁷

Gig Work, Tutoring, and Freelance Situations

The FLSA’s child labor provisions only reach situations where an employer-employee relationship exists. A teenager who tutors classmates, sells handmade goods online, or freelances as a graphic designer may sit outside the federal rules entirely.

The trap is in the label. Calling a minor an “independent contractor” doesn’t make it so. Federal and state agencies look at the real working relationship. If a business controls when, where, and how the minor works, that’s employment regardless of what the paperwork says. States also define employment differently under their own child labor statutes, and some sweep in arrangements the FLSA wouldn’t. A family relying on this route should read the state’s rules carefully before assuming no permit is needed.

What Happens if a Required Permit Is Missing

The consequences fall almost entirely on the employer. Federal law authorizes a civil penalty of up to $16,035 per minor for child labor violations. If the violation causes a minor’s serious injury or death, the penalty rises to $72,876, and doubles to $145,752 when the violation is willful or repeated.⁸ States add their own penalties on top, and the amounts vary.

The minor won’t be fined, but working without a required permit still creates real exposure. If the minor is injured on the job, the employer’s workers’ compensation coverage can become contested. That may push the family toward a lawsuit to recover medical costs rather than a straightforward workers’ comp claim. From the employer’s side, the liability picture is worse without a valid permit, not better.

Getting a Work Permit When the State Requires One

In permit-issuing states, the process is broadly similar. The minor collects documentation, gets sign-offs from a parent and the prospective employer, and submits everything to an issuing authority. That authority is usually a school official, though some states route applications through the labor department.¹

A typical application asks for proof of age, a letter or form from the employer describing the job and schedule, a school official’s confirmation that the minor is in satisfactory academic standing, parental consent, and in some states a physical fitness certificate from a doctor. Most states charge no fee, and the turnaround is usually a few days.

Two situations catch families off guard. Homeschooled minors have no guidance counselor to sign the school portion; depending on the state, the application may go through the local district office, the state labor department, or a parent-educator’s own signature. Summer applicants can run into closed school buildings; some states keep superintendents’ offices open through the break, and others offer online applications year-round. Either way, contact the state labor department before the job starts.

One more detail worth knowing. In most states, a permit is tied to a specific employer and set of duties. Changing jobs or taking on substantially different work usually means applying again; the old permit doesn’t transfer.¹

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Employment/Age Certificate
2
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 Subpart G – Exemptions
3
eCFR. 29 CFR 552.104 – Babysitting Services Performed on a Casual Basis
4
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 575 – Waiver of Child Labor Provisions for Agricultural Employment
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.35 – Hours of Work and Conditions of Employment Permitted for Minors 14 and 15 Years of Age
7
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 Subpart E – Occupations Particularly Hazardous for the Employment of Minors Between 16 and 18 Years of Age
8
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 579 – Child Labor Violations – Civil Money Penalties