December 21, 2018

If your business employs workers under age 18, you need to be aware of the special rules regarding workplace safety and maximum hours which apply to underage employees.

The U.S. Department of Labor publishes the federal teen worker employment rules.  California’s child labor rules generally incorporate the federal rules.  When state child labor laws conflict with federal provisions, an employer must comply with the higher standard.

Safety First
If your business employs minors to perform jobs that may be hazardous, you run the risk of violating child labor laws.  Depending on their age, minors are prohibited from working in certain hazardous industries and from performing potentially dangerous tasks.

Teens Under 18 Banned from Performing Particularly Hazardous Work
The Federal Labor Standards Act established an 18-year minimum age for non-agricultural work which the Secretary of Labor deems particularly hazardous for 16- and 17-year-olds, or detrimental to their health or well-being.  Examples of particularly hazardous work include:

• Manufacturing or storing explosives.
• Driving a motor vehicle or working as an outside helper on a motor vehicle, with certain exceptions.  [Exceptions are described below in “17-Year-Olds Driving on the Job.”]
• Coal mining.  Also banned are most jobs in metal mines, quarries, and aggregate mines, underground work in any mine, and work in or about open cut mines, open quarries, and sand and gravel operations.
• Forestry fire fighting, timber management, forestry services, logging, and sawmills.
• Operating a power-driven woodworking machine, such as a chain saw, nailing machine, or sander.
• Anything involving exposure to radioactive substances and ionizing radiation.
• Operating a power-driven hoisting apparatus such as a forklift, backhoe, cherry picker, or crane.  This does not apply to chair-lifts at ski resorts or electric/pneumatic lifts used to raise cars at garages and gas stations.
• Operating a power-driven metal-forming, punching, or shearing machine.
• Operating or cleaning a power-driven meat-processing machine such as a meat slicer.  Also banned are most jobs in slaughtering and meat-packing plants.
• Operating a power-driven bakery machine.  Certain lightweight, small, portable counter-top mixers and pizza dough rollers may be operated by 16- and 17-year-olds under certain conditions.
• Operating a baler, compactor, or power-driven paper-products machine.  Certain scrap-paper balers and paper box compactors may be loaded, but not operated or unloaded, by 16- and 17-year-olds under specific guidelines.
• Most manufacturing of brick, tile, and similar products.
• Operating, or helping to operate, a power-driven circular saw, band saw, guillotine shear, chain saw, reciprocating saw, wood chipper, or abrasive cutting disc.
• Most wrecking, demolition, and ship-breaking (demolishing ships for their parts).
• Most roofing work, either performed on the ground or on or around a roof.
• Most trench and excavation work, including any work in a trench more than four feet deep.

17-Year-Olds Driving on the Job
Minors under age 17 are generally barred from on-the-job driving of motor vehicles on public roads or highways.  Workers under age 17 are also barred from serving as outside helpers (riding on a vehicle outside the cab to help transport or deliver goods) on public roads or highways.

However, 17-year-old workers may drive on public roads as part of their employment if all of the following conditions are met:

• The teen has a valid state license for the type of driving involved and has no record of moving violations at the time of hire.
• Driving must be done during daylight hours, for no more than one-third of the workday, and for no more than 20 percent of the worker’s time in any workweek.
• The teen can drive a car or small truck of no more than 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.  Driving a bus, motorcycle, ATV, or golf cart is not allowed.
• The vehicle must have seatbelts for the driver and any passengers, and the employer must instruct the teen that the seatbelts must be used when driving.
• The teen successfully completed a state-approved driver education course.
• The driving is only occasional and incidental to the teen’s employment.
• The driving does not involve towing, route deliveries or sales, transportation for hire of property, goods, or passengers, urgent time-sensitive deliveries (so no delivery of pizza or other prepared food, no delivery under a deadline, and no passenger shuttling to or from scheduled transportation), more than two trips away from the primary place of employment in a single day to deliver goods or transport passengers (other than fellow employees), transporting more than three passengers, or driving beyond a 30-mile radius of the minor’s place of employment.

Teens Less Than 16 Years Old in the Food Industry
Federal regulations allow 14- and 15-year-olds to cook over electric or gas grills that do not have open flames, and to use deep fryers that automatically lower and raise the fryer baskets into and out of the hot oil or grease.  They may clean up equipment, oil or grease that is no hotter than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  They may not operate NIECO broilers, pressure cookers, ovens, or rotisseries.  Other cooking, and all baking, are prohibited for these employees.

Teens Under 14 Years Old
Minors under 14 years of age are generally not allowed to do non-agricultural work of any kind unless one of the youth’s parents is sole owner of the business.  Even then, the youth may not be employed in mining, manufacturing, or work declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor.

Restrictions on the Hours That Teenagers May Work
There are strict limitations on the hours minors may work during the school year and on school nights.  Failure to comply with these restrictions is one of the most common mistakes employers make.

Maximum Hours for 14- and 15-Year-Olds: During the school year, the maximum hours these minors may work is three hours per day on school days (any days they are required to attend school for 240 minutes or more), or eight hours per day on non-school days, with a total of up to 18 hours per week, and they can only work between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.  WEE (Work Experience Education) students may work during school hours and up to 23 hours per week.

During the summer (June 1 through Labor Day), the maximum hours they may work is eight hours per day, with a total of up to 40 hours per week, and they must work between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.

Fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds may not work overtime.

Maximum Hours for 16- and 17-Year-Olds: The maximum hours these minors may work is four hours per day on school days, or eight hours per day on non-school days, with a total of up to 48 hours per week.  On any day preceding a school day, they may only work between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.  On any day that does not precede a school day, they may only work between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. of the non-school day.  WEE (Work Experience Education) students may work more than four hours on a school day, but never more than eight hours a day.

Overtime must be paid according to the rules for adults.

Employers Must Complete Work Permit Applications
You, together with the teen’s parents, are responsible for completing a work permit application that the teen then submits to his or her school.  You will then receive a Permit to Employ Minors from the school district, and you must keep the permit on file.

Employee Rights of Minors Are the Same as for Adults
Minors are covered by the same wage and overtime requirements as adults, and have the same employee rights, such as rest periods, meal time, workers’ compensation coverage, and statements of paycheck deductions.  You must also maintain separate records for minors you hire.

Need more information?
ESKRIDGE LAW may be contacted by phone (310/303-3951), by fax (310/303-3952) or by email (geskridge@eskridgelaw.net).  Please visit our website at eskridge.hv-dev.com.

This article is based on the law as of the date posted at the top of the article.  This article does not constitute the provision of legal advice, and does not by itself create an attorney-client relationship with Eskridge Law.