Every spring somebody asks. A customer’s son, a neighbor’s daughter, your foreman’s nephew: a teenager who wants summer money and does not mind getting dirty. The question you are left with is whether a 15- or 16-year-old can legally work on your crew, and doing what.
Federal law answers it by age, and then by task. The task list matters more than most contractors expect, because the jobs the Department of Labor has declared too dangerous for anyone under 18 include a good share of ordinary trade work. This article is about teens who are not your own children; a parent’s own business has a separate exemption, covered in Hiring Your Kids in the Business.
The federal age lines
The Labor Department’s Fact Sheet #43 sets out the nonfarm minimums under the Fair Labor Standards Act:
Ages 14 and 15: off the job site
For 14- and 15-year-olds the rule runs backwards from what most people assume: a job that is not specifically permitted is prohibited (29 CFR 570.32). Construction, including demolition and repair, is on the prohibited list, except office or sales work done away from the actual construction site (570.33). The Labor Department’s notice to construction contractors says it directly: these minors may do office and sales work for construction employers, but they must not be employed on the construction site.
The same section bars them from other things a trade business does every day: all work that needs a ladder or scaffold; operating power-driven machinery, which the rule says includes lawn mowers, trimmers, weed-eaters and edgers; driving, or helping on a vehicle; loading and unloading goods from vehicles, other than their own light hand tools and personal gear; and maintenance or repair of the business’s machines and equipment.
What they may do includes office and clerical work, and clean-up work and maintenance of grounds that does not use power-driven mowers, cutters, trimmers or edgers (570.34). So a landscaping company can put a 15-year-old on a rake or pulling weeds by hand, but not behind a mower or a string trimmer.
Hours are capped too (570.35). Work must be outside school hours, and no more than:
| Ages 14 and 15 | School in session | School not in session |
|---|---|---|
| Hours a day | 3 (Fridays included) | 8 |
| Hours a week | 18 | 40 |
| Time of day | 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. | 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day |
Ages 16 and 17: any hours, but not the hazardous jobs
At 16 the hour limits end under federal law, and what is left is the list. The Secretary of Labor has issued 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders, and no one under 18 may work in them. These are the ones that touch the trades most:
Roofing, and anything on or about a roof (Order 16, 570.67)
This is the widest one. “On or about a roof” includes carpentry and metal work, repairs, painting and coating of existing roofs, gutter and downspout work, installing and servicing satellite dishes, and servicing heating and air conditioning equipment attached to roofs. “Roofing operations” also covers ground jobs: roofing laborer, roofing helper, materials handler and tending a tar heater. A 17-year-old carrying bundles to the ladder for a roofing crew is inside the rule, and so is one cleaning gutters from the roof.
Power saws, chippers and woodworking tools (Orders 14 and 5)
Order 14 (570.65): no operating or helping on circular saws, band saws or guillotine shears (unless the machine has full automatic feed and ejection), and none at all on chain saws, reciprocating saws, wood chippers or abrasive cutting discs. Setting up, adjusting, repairing, oiling or cleaning them is out as well. That one order takes the chain saw and the chipper away from a tree crew’s teen, the circular saw from a framing crew’s, and the reciprocating saw from a plumbing crew’s.
Order 5 (570.55) reaches further than its name suggests. It bars operating power-driven woodworking machines, which the rule defines as all fixed or portable machines or tools driven by power and used for cutting, shaping, forming, surfacing, nailing, stapling, wire stitching, fastening or otherwise assembling wood or lumber. On a deck or framing crew, that takes in the power nailer.
Driving (Order 2, 570.52)
Driving a motor vehicle on public roads, or riding outside the cab as a helper, is prohibited at 16 and 17, with one exception for 17-year-olds whose driving is only occasional and incidental. All of these must be true: the vehicle is no more than 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight and has seat belts, which the employer has told the driver and passengers to wear; daylight hours only; a valid license and no moving violations at hire; a state-approved driver education course; no towing, no route deliveries or route sales, no hauling goods or passengers for hire, no urgent, time-sensitive deliveries and no more than three passengers; no more than two delivery trips away from the primary place of work a day; within 30 miles; and no more than one-third of any workday or 20% of any workweek spent driving. Check your truck’s weight rating against the 6,000-pound line before you hand over the keys.
Hoisting, excavation and demolition
The roofing, saw, woodworking and excavation orders do not apply to registered apprentices or to student-learners in a school program, under the conditions in 570.50: the hazardous work must be incidental to training, intermittent, for short periods and under close supervision, with a written agreement for student-learners.
What a mistake costs
Under 29 CFR 579.1, a child labor violation carries a civil penalty of up to $16,035 for each employee who was the subject of the violation, and up to $72,876 for each violation that causes the death or serious injury of a worker under 18, which may be doubled when the violation is repeated or willful.
Your state’s rules come first when they are stricter
The Labor Department’s YouthRules! site states the order of things: where a state child labor law is more restrictive than the federal law, the state law applies. Fact Sheet #43 adds that federal law does not require work permits, though many states do. The department’s table of state practice, current as of January 1, 2024, shows how far apart states are:
States also set their own hour limits and job lists, so look up your state labor department’s minor-employment page before the first shift, not after the first inspection.
Before the first shift
A teen on a summer crew can learn the trade and earn real money. The rules just decide which part of the job is his until he turns 18.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.