Can You Get a Job at 14? Hours, Permits, and Pay

You can get a job at 14 in the United States, but federal law limits what you can do, when you can do it, and how many hours you can work. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the national floor, and many states pile on tighter rules; whichever standard protects the young worker more is the one that applies.¹ So before applying anywhere, check your state’s labor department alongside the federal rules below.

What Jobs Can a 14-Year-Old Take

Federal law lets 14- and 15-year-olds work in a range of non-hazardous jobs outside school hours. The common ones fall into a few buckets:²

Retail work like cashiering, bagging groceries, stocking shelves, and price marking.
Office work such as filing, data entry, and running standard office machines like copiers and computers.
Food service jobs including dishwashing, bussing tables, and cleaning equipment, plus some limited cooking.
Creative and intellectual work: tutoring, computer programming, acting, singing, and playing an instrument.

Farm work is also open. A 14- or 15-year-old can work on any farm outside school hours as long as the tasks haven’t been declared hazardous by the Department of Labor.³ A separate family-farm rule lets a child of any age work at any time on a farm owned or operated by a parent or someone standing in place of a parent.⁴ There’s also a broader parent-employer exception: a parent can employ their own child under 16 in their own business outside the usual hour and occupation limits, though manufacturing, mining, and jobs declared hazardous for 16- and 17-year-olds remain off-limits.⁵

What Counts as Allowed Cooking

The popular version of this rule says 14-year-olds “can’t cook.” That’s overstated. Baking is fully off-limits, and cooking over an open flame is off-limits, but plenty of kitchen work is allowed. A 14- or 15-year-old can use electric or gas grills without an open flame and deep fryers with automatic basket-lowering mechanisms.⁶

They can also run toasters, popcorn poppers, milkshake blenders, coffee grinders, and microwave ovens used only to warm food below 140°F. Cleaning kitchen surfaces and non-powered equipment is allowed only when surface temperatures don’t exceed 100°F, and the same 100°F limit applies to handling oil and grease for disposal.⁶ Rotisseries, pressure cookers, rapid broilers, every part of the baking process (mixing, assembling, operating ovens, finishing), and any work in freezers or meat coolers are all banned.

Jobs That Are Off-Limits

Federal law bars anyone under 18 from a long list of hazardous occupations, and 14- and 15-year-olds are additionally shut out of most work in manufacturing, processing, mining, warehousing, construction, transportation, and communications.² The hazardous occupation list includes:⁷

Power-driven machinery such as forklifts, skid-steers, backhoes, scissor lifts, cranes, and boom trucks.
Meat processing equipment, including slicers, saws, choppers, and grinders, even in a deli or restaurant.
Woodworking and metalworking machines like chain saws, sanders, nailing machines, band saws, and metal-forming equipment.
Nearly all roofing work, including ground-level tasks and removal of old materials.
Most trenching and excavation, including any trench deeper than four feet.
Any job involving explosives or radioactive materials.
Mining of all kinds: underground, open-pit, quarries, and sand and gravel operations.
Wrecking, demolition, and ship-breaking.
Operating motor vehicles or working as a driver’s helper.

The only power-driven machines a 14- or 15-year-old can operate are standard office equipment like computers, copiers, and printers.¹

How Many Hours You Can Work

The FLSA caps both the number of hours and the time of day a 14- or 15-year-old can be on the clock, and the rules shift depending on whether school is in session:²

On a school day, including Fridays, no more than 3 hours.
In a school week, no more than 18 hours total.
On a non-school day, up to 8 hours.
In a non-school week, up to 40 hours.
During the school year, work only between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff extends to 9:00 p.m.

All work has to fall outside school hours. The weekly limits apply across every employer combined, so a teen can’t split time between two jobs to get around the cap. State law may set tighter numbers, which means these federal figures are ceilings, not targets.

Work Permits and Proof of Age

Many states require a work permit — sometimes called an employment certificate or age certificate — before a 14-year-old can start. The Department of Labor keeps a state-by-state table of which states require them and at what ages.⁸ Where a permit is required, it’s usually issued through the school district (often a guidance counselor or administrator), though some states run the process through the state labor department.

Federal regulations set a preference order for the documents used to prove age. A birth certificate or vital records statement comes first. If that isn’t available, a baptismal record, passport, immigration certificate of arrival, or a life insurance policy that has been in existence at least one year will do. A school record combined with a parent’s sworn statement and a physician’s age certification is a last resort.⁹ You have to try for the preferred option and show it wasn’t obtainable before an issuing officer accepts a lower-tier document.

What You’ll Get Paid

The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour applies to 14-year-olds the same way it applies to adult workers.¹⁰ A separate youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour is allowed for any employee under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job. Those are calendar days, not days actually worked, so the clock runs straight through weekends and days off from your hire date.¹¹ After 90 days, the regular federal minimum applies. Many states set their own minimums well above $7.25, and some don’t allow the youth subminimum at all.

In a tipped position, such as bussing tables, the employer can pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour and count tips toward the rest of the minimum wage. If tips plus the $2.13 don’t reach the full minimum wage, the employer has to make up the difference, and the employer has to explain this arrangement before applying the tip credit.¹² Many states either don’t allow a tip credit or set the tipped cash wage higher than $2.13.

Taxes on a Teen Paycheck

Earning a paycheck at 14 means dealing with taxes, even if a parent still claims you as a dependent. Your employer will hand you a W-4, and federal income tax will be withheld based on how you fill it out. For most teens working part-time, the amount withheld often exceeds what you actually owe, so filing a tax return is how you get that money back.

Whether you’re required to file depends on your earnings. For the 2025 tax year, a single dependent had to file if earned income exceeded $15,750.¹³ The 2026 threshold will likely be a bit higher because of inflation adjustments, though the IRS hadn’t published the final figure at the time of writing. Even if you’re below the threshold, filing is worthwhile whenever taxes were withheld, because that’s the only path to a refund.

Social Security and Medicare taxes (FICA) work differently. They’re withheld from nearly every paycheck no matter how little you earn, and filing doesn’t get them back. A narrow exception exists for students employed by the school where they’re enrolled, but it doesn’t cover the ordinary retail or food-service job.¹⁴

Informal Work the FLSA Doesn’t Cover

The federal child labor rules only kick in where there’s a formal employment relationship. Babysitting, mowing a neighbor’s lawn, shoveling driveways, and other casual work around private homes fall outside the FLSA entirely.¹ A 14-year-old can babysit on a school night, for example, without running into the federal 7 p.m. cutoff, because the FLSA doesn’t reach that arrangement.

Newspaper delivery to consumers is specifically exempt from the child labor provisions, and so is work as an actor or performer in movies, theater, radio, or television.¹⁵ State laws may still regulate these activities, but the federal hour and occupation limits above won’t be the obstacle.

If an Employer Breaks the Rules

Employers who violate federal child labor law face civil penalties per affected minor, with sharply higher amounts when a violation causes serious injury or death to a worker under 18, and repeated or willful violations can double those amounts.¹⁶ If you’re asked to work past legal hours, run banned equipment, or skip breaks your state requires, you or a parent can file a confidential complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243.¹⁷ Investigations often start with tips like these, and an employer can’t legally retaliate against you for reporting a violation.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #43: Child Labor Provisions of the FLSA for Nonagricultural Occupations
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
4
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Youth in Agriculture: Youth Rights and State/Child Laws
5
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.126 – Parental Exemption
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #58: Cooking and Baking under the Federal Child Labor Provisions
7
U.S. Department of Labor. What Jobs Are Off-Limits for Kids?
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Employment/Age Certificate
9
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
10
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #32: Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
12
eCFR. Subpart D – Tipped Employees
13
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information
14
Internal Revenue Service. Student Exception to FICA Tax
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
16
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 579 – Child Labor Violations, Civil Money Penalties
17
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint