How Many Hours Can You Work at 16? Federal and State Caps

Under federal law, there is no limit on how many hours you can work at 16, and no federal curfew either. Your state is almost certainly stricter, and when state and federal rules both apply, the employer has to follow whichever one protects the worker more. So the practical answer to how many hours a 16-year-old can work depends on your state, whether school is in session, and the kind of job.

What Federal Law Says at 16

The Fair Labor Standards Act treats 16 as the basic minimum age for employment. Workers who are 14 or 15 face tight federal caps on daily hours, weekly hours, and time of day. Every one of those federal limits drops away at 16. The Department of Labor’s own guidance states that the federal youth employment provisions “do not restrict the number of hours or times of day that workers 16 years of age and older may be employed.”¹

Read literally, that means a 16-year-old could work a 50-hour week with late-night shifts and not violate any federal hour rule. The FLSA says 16- and 17-year-olds “may be employed for unlimited hours in any occupation other than those declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor.”¹ The “unlimited” only holds for non-hazardous work. For jobs on the federal hazardous-occupations list, the answer isn’t unlimited hours; it’s zero.

State Hour Caps and Curfews Are Usually the Real Limit

Both federal and state laws apply to young workers, and when they cover the same issue, the employer must follow whichever standard offers greater protection.¹ Because the federal ceiling for 16-year-olds is effectively no ceiling, any state limit becomes the binding rule.

Weekly and Daily Hours

Many states cap how many hours a 16-year-old can work during weeks when school is in session. The caps vary widely. Some states go as low as 18 hours a school week. Others allow up to 40 hours or more, sometimes with a parental permission requirement. When school is out, ceilings typically move up to 40 or 48 hours.² Daily caps are common on top of the weekly limits: often three to four hours on a school day and eight to ten hours on a non-school day.

A handful of states have recently removed hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds entirely, treating them the same as adults for scheduling. If your state is one of them, the only federal guardrails left are the hazardous-occupation bans and overtime pay.

Night Curfews

Night-work rules are the other common state limit. On nights before a school day, many states prohibit 16-year-olds from working past 10:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. On weekends or during school vacations, curfews often extend to midnight or later.² Some states allow later hours with written parental permission or proof of satisfactory grades, but the documentation usually has to be on file with the employer before the shift, not after.

Meal and Rest Breaks

Federal law does not require employers to provide meal or rest breaks to workers of any age.³ Many states fill that gap for minors, commonly requiring a 30-minute meal break after five or six consecutive hours. Check your state labor department’s site for the specific rule.

How School Attendance Cuts Into the Schedule

Compulsory education is the biggest practical constraint on a 16-year-old’s availability. During the academic year, you have to be in school during instructional hours, and no employer can schedule you against that time without a specific legal exception. The school calendar also determines which weeks count as “school weeks” for the tighter state hour and curfew rules above.

Formal vocational programs are the main exception. Work-experience or school-to-career programs can allow work during the school day for academic credit, but they require a written agreement among the school, the employer, and the parent or guardian. Without that paperwork, work has to wait until the school day ends.

For homeschooled students, the definition of “school hours” gets more complicated. The general approach is to use the public-school-district calendar where the student lives to set the school year, breaks, and holidays. If you’re homeschooled, ask your state labor department which standard applies to you.

Overtime Pay After 40 Hours

Because federal law lets a 16-year-old work past 40 hours in a week, overtime pay matters. The FLSA requires time-and-a-half for every hour beyond 40 in a single workweek, and that applies to covered employees regardless of age.⁴ A workweek is a fixed, recurring block of 168 hours. Employers can’t average hours across two weeks to duck the overtime rule, and they can’t refuse it because the worker is a minor.

Some employers assume teens are exempt from overtime. They’re not, unless the position itself qualifies for one of the FLSA’s general exemptions (salaried executive, administrative, or professional), which virtually no 16-year-old holds. If your pay stub shows more than 40 hours at your regular rate with no bump, that’s a wage violation.

Jobs a 16-Year-Old Can’t Take at All

Hour limits are one story. Hazardous-occupation bans are another. The Department of Labor maintains 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders that prohibit 16- and 17-year-olds from certain work considered too dangerous.⁵ Several catch teens off guard because they show up in ordinary retail and restaurant jobs.

In restaurants and delis, 16- and 17-year-olds can’t operate power-driven meat-processing equipment: commercial slicers, saws, and choppers. The rule applies “wherever used (including restaurants and delicatessens)” and extends to slicing non-meat items like cheese and vegetables on the same machines. It also covers cleaning the equipment, including hand-washing disassembled parts. If a manager tells you to break down and wash the deli slicer at closing, that’s a violation. Power-driven bakery equipment (commercial dough mixers, rollers, dividers, cookie machines) is off-limits too, with a narrow exception for small countertop mixers and certain pizza-dough rollers.¹

In retail, power-driven balers and compactors, the machines used to crush cardboard in the back rooms of grocery stores and big-box retailers, are prohibited for 16- and 17-year-olds.⁶ It’s one of the most commonly violated rules, because the task feels mundane and supervisors often don’t know it’s restricted.

Driving is the other one that blindsides teens who see delivery-driver listings. Hazardous Occupations Order 2 prohibits any employee under 17 from driving a motor vehicle on public roads as part of the job, no matter that you hold a valid state driver’s license. The ban also covers riding along as an outside helper. At 17, work-related driving becomes possible under narrow conditions (daylight only, vehicles under 6,000 pounds, occasional and incidental to the job).⁷ At 16, none of those exceptions apply. Any driving for work is out.

The other hazardous orders cover explosives, coal and non-coal mining, logging and sawmill work, most power-driven woodworking and metal-forming machines, radioactive substances, power-driven hoisting equipment, brick and tile manufacturing, wrecking and demolition, roofing, and excavation.⁵ These are federal, so state permission doesn’t override them.

If the Schedule Breaks the Rules

Penalties for child-labor violations fall on the employer, not the minor. As of January 2025, the maximum civil penalty is $16,035 per employee for a single violation. If a violation causes the death or serious injury of a minor, the maximum climbs to $72,876, and it doubles to $145,752 for willful or repeated violations.⁸ A willful FLSA violation can also bring a criminal fine of up to $10,000, up to six months in prison, or both, with prison more likely after a second conviction.⁹

If your employer schedules you past state hour limits, keeps you past curfew, puts you on hazardous equipment, or asks you to drive for work, you can file a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or your state labor agency. Retaliation for reporting a violation is itself illegal under the FLSA.

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. Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Breaks and Meal Periods
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime Pay
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Hazardous Occupation – elaws – Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Frequently Asked Questions About Youth Employment (Non-Agricultural) – Section: What Are Hazardous Occupations Orders
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2 Youth Employment Provision and Driving Automobiles and Trucks Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties