Most teens have no idea this exists. You get hired, you show up, you do what you’re told. But quietly in the background, federal law — specifically something called the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) — is setting hard limits on what your employer can ask of you based on your age.
Here’s how it breaks down.
If you’re 14 or 15, the rules are pretty strict. During the school year, you can only work a maximum of 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours total in a week. When school’s out — and we’re talking the whole calendar week, not just a day off — that bumps up to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week. You also can’t work in manufacturing jobs or anything considered hazardous.
If you’re 16 or 17, the hour limits go away. You can work as many hours as you want. But there’s still a list of jobs you’re not allowed to do — ones the Secretary of Labor has declared hazardous. Think certain heavy machinery, roofing, excavation work. That stuff is off the table until you’re 18.
Once you hit 18, federal law basically steps back. You can work any job, any hours, no restrictions.
The minimum age to hold a nonagricultural job at all? 14. So if someone’s trying to hire you before that birthday, something’s already wrong.
And the key word there is federal. These are the baseline rules that apply nationwide. Your state might have stricter laws on top of these — so it’s worth checking what your specific state requires too.
Now here’s the part nobody tells you: this isn’t just your problem to manage. Your employer is legally responsible for following these rules. If they schedule a 15-year-old for 25 hours during a school week, they can be fined. You’re not the one who gets in trouble for working too many hours — they are. You have actual protections here, whether you knew about them or not.
If you think your employer is violating these rules — scheduling you for too many hours during school weeks, putting you in a job you’re legally not supposed to be in — you can file a complaint directly through the Department of Labor. You don’t have to just go along with it.