Headset Your employer must keep you safe by:

  • Protecting you from unsafe jobs.
  • Identifying and correcting job hazards.
  • Training you about job hazards in a language that you can understand.
  • Complying with all youth employment and occupational safety and health laws.
  • Not punishing or retaliating against you for complaining about health and safety hazards.

Your employer must protect you from common job hazards that include:

  • Falls from working from heights.
  • Dangerous chemicals.
  • Lifting heavy objects.
  • Powered equipment or tools.
  • Wet, slippery or cluttered work areas.
  • Machinery, electrical equipment.
  • Loud noises.

What you can do:

  • Speak up; Ask questions; Ask for help.
  • Report unsafe conditions to your supervisor.
  • Talk to your teacher, parent, or a coworker about your job.
  • Know your workplace rights. Go to www.osha.gov/workers.html.
  • Follow the safety rules.
  • Use personal safety equipment provided.
  • Be alert to what is going on around you.
  • Never bypass the safety features of equipment or take shortcuts.

If you have questions, call OSHA.
We are here to help.
Call us.
It's confidential.

OSHA
Occupational Safety
and Health Administration
U.S. Department of Labor
www.osha.gov/teens

(800) 321-OSHA (TTY) 877-889-5627

OSHA 3330-04R-11p

What's the scoop on working before 18?

At 13 or younger, you can:

  • act or perform
  • babysit
  • deliver newspapers

When 14 or 15, you can work in a:

  • amusement park
  • office
  • gas station
  • restaurant
  • movie theatre
  • retail store

You can work up to:

  • 3 hours on a school day
  • 8 hours on a non-school day
  • 18 hours during a school week
  • 40 hours during a non-school week

You cannot work:

  • during school hours
  • before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m.
    (9 p.m. between June 1 through Labor Day)

When 16 or 17, you can:

  • work any hours
  • work in any job that is not hazardous

You cannot work in:

  • demolition
  • meatpacking
  • excavation
  • mining
  • logging
  • roofing

You cannot work with:

  • explosives
  • saws
  • radioactive materials
  • certain power-driven machines; or
  • operate or ride on a forklift

Most driving is prohibited.

At 18, these job restrictions no longer apply

Youth Rules!
U.S. Department of Labor
Wage and Hour Division
www.Youthrules.dol.gov
866-4US-Wage
(TTY) 877-889-5627

Different rules apply to farms, and State laws my be stricter.