Child Labor Laws in Restaurants: Age Restrictions, Hours, and Compliance

The restaurant industry is one of the largest employers of teenagers in the country. That’s a feature, not a bug — young workers bring energy, learn quickly, and fill entry-level roles that keep operations moving. But hiring minors comes with a dense layer of legal obligations that most operators underestimate until a Department of Labor investigator shows up.

This is not an area where good intentions provide cover. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, penalties for child labor violations can reach $16,035 per minor per violation. If a violation leads to serious injury or death, that number jumps to $72,876. These fines are per incident, not per audit finding — one scheduling mistake across multiple minors can produce a penalty bill that threatens the business.

Here is how the rules actually work.

The Federal Floor: FLSA Child Labor Provisions

The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes federal minimum standards for employing minors. States can impose stricter rules — and many do — but they cannot go below the federal floor. When federal and state rules differ, the more protective standard applies. Always.

The minimum age to work in a restaurant under the FLSA is 14. Anyone younger cannot legally be employed in a food service establishment. There are narrow exceptions for family businesses, but those exceptions require careful legal analysis and should not be assumed.

Ages 14 and 15: The Most Restricted Group

Workers in the 14–15 age bracket face the tightest restrictions. The DOL treats this group as needing significant protection from hours that interfere with school and from physical hazards in kitchen environments.

Hour limits during the school year:

• Maximum 3 hours on any school day
• Maximum 18 hours during a school week
• Work only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Hour limits during summer (June 1 through Labor Day):

• Maximum 8 hours per day
• Maximum 40 hours per week
• Work permitted until 9 p.m.

These are hard limits, not guidelines. A 15-year-old who works 4 hours on a Tuesday during the school year is a violation regardless of whether the teen wanted the extra hours or needed the money.

Task restrictions are equally important. Workers aged 14–15 cannot:

• Operate any power-driven equipment — this includes meat slicers, food choppers, grinders, and dough mixers
• Work in freezers or meat coolers
• Perform baking activities (including mixing ingredients to be baked)
• Load or unload goods from delivery vehicles
• Work on ladders or at heights

What they can do is still quite useful in a restaurant: take orders, serve food, bus tables, operate a dishwasher, clean kitchen equipment by hand, perform cashier duties, and stock shelves. Many front-of-house roles can be fully staffed with 14–15 year olds operating within these restrictions.

Ages 16 and 17: More Flexibility, Still Some Limits

Workers aged 16–17 operate under fewer federal restrictions. The FLSA imposes no federal limit on their hours or times of day. However, this does not mean they are equivalent to adult employees from a compliance standpoint.

First, the FLSA still prohibits 16–17 year olds from operating certain hazardous equipment and performing hazardous tasks. While the specific prohibited list is shorter than for 14–15 year olds, it still covers equipment and tasks that generate serious injury risk.

Second — and this is where operators get caught — many states impose their own hour and time-of-day restrictions for 16–17 year olds that go significantly beyond federal law. Some states cap weekday hours for 16–17 year olds during the school year. Others prohibit late-night work past 10 or 11 p.m., which directly conflicts with restaurant closing schedules. A manager who schedules a 17-year-old for a closing shift at midnight may be compliant with federal law and violating state law simultaneously.

State Law: Where Most Violations Actually Happen

The DOL’s enforcement data shows that many restaurant child labor violations involve state law rather than federal law. This matters because employers often default to checking federal requirements without investigating their state’s specific rules.

Common state additions include:

• Work permit or employment certificate requirements before a minor can start work. Some states require these permits to be obtained before the first shift; others allow retroactive filing but still require them.
• Stricter daily or weekly hour limits for 16–17 year olds during the school year.
• Earlier time-of-day cutoffs — some states require minors to stop working at 10 p.m. rather than the federal standard of 7 p.m. (or 9 p.m. in summer for 14–15 year olds).
• Mandatory break requirements specific to minor employees.
• Additional prohibited tasks beyond the federal list.

You need to know your state’s rules specifically. Contact your state labor department or consult with an employment attorney if you are uncertain.

Recordkeeping Requirements

The DOL requires employers to maintain records for minor employees that go beyond standard payroll records. You must be able to document:

• Each minor employee’s date of birth
• The hours worked each day and week
• The times shifts began and ended
• Any work permits or employment certificates, where required by state law

These records are examined during any DOL investigation. If you cannot produce documentation showing that a minor worked within permitted hours, the DOL will typically presume a violation occurred. The burden of proof is on the employer.

A practical solution: set up your scheduling software to flag scheduling attempts that would put minors outside their permitted hours. Most modern restaurant scheduling platforms support age-based restrictions if configured properly.

→ Read more: Restaurant Employment and Labor Law: What Every Operator Must Know

What the DOL Looks For During Investigations

According to the Department of Labor, child labor violations in restaurants are most commonly discovered during routine wage and hour investigations — not investigations specifically targeting child labor. A standard audit of a restaurant’s payroll practices can expose minor-related violations as a secondary finding.

The most common violation patterns the DOL finds in restaurants include:

Scheduling violations: Minors working past permitted hours, starting shifts too early, or exceeding weekly hour limits. This is usually caught by comparing time records against the employee’s age and the applicable restrictions.

Equipment violations: Minors operating prohibited equipment — most often meat slicers. Even occasional use, or use “supervised” by an adult, is a violation. The prohibition is categorical, not conditional.

Permit violations: Failing to obtain required state work permits before a minor starts work, or failing to maintain copies on file.

Recordkeeping failures: Incomplete or missing birth date documentation, or time records that do not capture start and end times.

Compliance in Practice

Managing child labor compliance operationally does not have to be complicated, but it does need to be systematized.

At hiring: Verify age before the first shift. Request a birth certificate, passport, or other acceptable age documentation. Record the date of birth in your employee file. Check whether your state requires a work permit and obtain it before the minor works their first shift.

At scheduling: Use your scheduling system’s age-restriction functionality. If your system lacks this, create a simple reference card for managers that shows the permitted hours for each age group, posted near the schedule. Never let individual managers schedule minors without checking the restrictions.

At training: Include child labor rules in your manager training. Every manager who creates schedules or assigns tasks needs to know what minors can and cannot do. A manager who unknowingly assigns a 15-year-old to operate the meat slicer is still creating a violation the restaurant will pay for.

Ongoing: Conduct a self-audit of your minor employees’ schedules at least quarterly. Pull time records and compare them against applicable restrictions. Identify and correct patterns before they become DOL findings.

The restaurant industry’s reliance on minor workers is not going away. The legal framework governing that employment is not going away either. Building compliance into your operational systems — rather than treating it as a once-a-year policy review exercise — is the only approach that reliably keeps a restaurant on the right side of the law.

→ Read more: Restaurant Workplace Safety: OSHA Compliance, Harassment Prevention, and Hazard Management

→ Read more: The Restaurant Hiring Process: A Step-by-Step Recruitment Guide That Actually Works