Can You Work at 15 in Washington State? Hours, Pay, Permits

Yes, you can work at 15 in Washington state, as long as the job is on the state’s approved list, your hours stay within the legal caps, and your employer has the required paperwork on file before your first shift. The pay floor is 85% of the state minimum wage, which comes out to $14.56 per hour in 2026.¹² The Department of Labor and Industries enforces these rules, and they are stricter than what applies to adult workers.

Jobs You Can Take at 15

The permitted list for 14- and 15-year-olds centers on lighter-duty, customer-facing, and creative work. Retail is fair game. So are food-service tasks like washing dishes, busing tables, reheating prepared food, and running a register. Yard work and cleanup are allowed if you stay off power-driven equipment. Errands and deliveries work too, as long as you travel on foot, by bike, or on public transit.³

Intellectual and creative work is specifically permitted: tutoring, computer-based tasks, teaching, and acting all qualify. Vehicle-related tasks like pumping gas, adding oil, and car washing are approved. Grocery and produce work is fine when you’re stocking, labeling, or wrapping in areas separate from a freezer or meat cooler. One role opens up at 15 that was closed at 14: certified lifeguard at a pool or water park.³

Jobs You Can’t Take Until You’re Older

The prohibited list reaches further than most people expect. Construction, demolition, and roofing are completely off-limits no matter what you’d actually be doing on the site. All power-driven machinery is banned for workers under 16, which pulls in lawn mowers, food slicers, forklifts, and circular saws.⁴

In restaurants and grocery stores, you can’t operate powered meat slicers, grinders, food processors, or commercial bakery mixers. Spending time in freezers or meat coolers beyond a quick grab is also prohibited. Any work more than ten feet above the ground or floor is banned, which rules out ladders and scaffolding. Mining, radioactive materials, explosives, and industrial chemicals are all out.⁵

Federal rules close a few more doors. No one under 17 may drive on public roads for a job, and no one under 18 may ride outside a vehicle cab as a delivery helper. Door-to-door selling is federally prohibited for 14- and 15-year-olds, as is all baking and most cooking beyond reheating.⁶

Hours You Can Work During the School Year

When school is in session, Washington caps both your day and your week. On a school day that comes before another school day, your maximum is three hours. On a school day that doesn’t precede another school day, like a Friday with Saturday off, you can work up to eight. Weekly, you cannot exceed 16 hours or work more than six days.⁷

Shifts have to fall outside school hours. The earliest you can clock in is 7:00 a.m. On any night before a school day, you must be off by 7:00 p.m. A typical week might look like a few short after-school shifts plus a longer Saturday block. Washington’s 16-hour weekly cap is tighter than the federal 18-hour limit, so Washington’s rule controls.⁷

Hours During Summer and School Breaks

When school is out for summer, winter, or spring break, the limits ease up. You can work up to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, still with a six-day maximum. The 7:00 a.m. start stays the same, but the evening cutoff pushes back to 9:00 p.m. In food service, if you work past 8:00 p.m., a responsible adult employee must be on-site supervising you.⁷

One wrinkle during winter and spring break: the federal rule only extends the evening cutoff to 9:00 p.m. between June 1 and Labor Day. Outside that window, the federal cutoff is 7:00 p.m., and because the stricter rule governs when state and federal law disagree, the 9:00 p.m. end time really applies in full only during summer.⁸

Meal Periods and Rest Breaks

Break rules for 14- and 15-year-olds are more generous than what adult workers get. You get a paid 10-minute rest break for every two hours you work. On top of that, your employer must give you a 30-minute meal period before you reach four consecutive hours of work. The meal period is separate from your rest breaks and doesn’t replace them.⁹

Within any four-hour block, you can’t be made to work more than two hours straight without either a rest break or a meal period. Breaks also can’t all be bunched at the start of your shift. Skipping or shortening them is a violation your employer can be fined for.⁹

What You Get Paid

Washington lets employers pay workers under 16 at 85% of the standard state minimum wage.¹ With the 2026 state minimum at $17.13 per hour, that puts the floor for a 15-year-old at $14.56.² The rate applies whether you’re paid hourly, on commission, or by piecework.

Plenty of employers skip the separate pay rate and just pay the full minimum wage, so $14.56 is a floor, not a ceiling. Whatever you earn, your employer owes you regular pay stubs showing your hours and wages. Paying below the 85% rate is a wage violation like any other.

Paperwork Your Employer Needs Before Your First Shift

Three pieces of paperwork have to be in place before you can legally start. If any one is missing, the job can’t begin.

Minor Work Permit

Your employer handles the minor work permit, not you. It’s an endorsement on the business’s master license through the Department of Revenue, and every physical location that employs minors needs its own. The business renews it annually and must have an active workers’ compensation account.¹⁰¹¹

Parent and School Authorization

Before you start, your employer fills out a Parent/School Authorization form listing the business name, UBI number, work location, your specific duties, your hourly wage, and your anticipated schedule. Your parent or legal guardian signs. During the school year, a school representative also signs to confirm that the hours won’t interfere with attendance. A simpler parent-only version is used during summer.¹²

Your employer keeps the completed form at the work site and has to produce it if Labor and Industries inspects. The authorization has to be renewed by September 30 each year, or sooner if your schedule or duties change.¹²

Proof of Age

Your employer has to verify your age and keep a copy of one of the following on file: a birth certificate, a driver’s license, a baptismal record, or a notarized statement from a parent or legal guardian.³ This is separate from the federal Form I-9 every new hire fills out.

Taxes on Your Paycheck

Earning a paycheck at 15 still means dealing with taxes. Your employer withholds federal income tax unless you qualify for an exemption. If you had no federal income tax liability last year and don’t expect any this year, you can claim exempt on your W-4. Most teens working part-time during the school year will owe little or none, especially since the 2026 standard deduction for a single filer is $16,100. Earn below that and you likely won’t owe federal income tax.¹³

Social Security and Medicare (FICA) come out at the same rates as any adult: 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare. One narrow exception: if you work for a business that is your parent’s sole proprietorship, your wages are exempt from FICA until you turn 18.¹⁴ Washington has no state income tax, so that’s one less line on your pay stub.

If Your Employer Isn’t Following the Rules

Washington updated its child labor penalties effective July 2026, and the fines escalate with the seriousness of the violation. Missing paperwork and permits run $100 to $1,000 per violation. Scheduling you outside legal hours runs $150 to $1,000. Skipped or shortened breaks run $300 to $1,000. Assigning you a prohibited duty or underpaying you starts at $1,000 and climbs for repeat offenses. If a violation causes a serious injury, the penalty starts at $15,000, and if it causes death, at $71,000. Both of those can be doubled for willful or repeated violations, and ongoing serious violations can add up to $5,000 for each day they continue.¹⁵

Federal enforcement runs on a separate track. The U.S. Department of Labor can impose penalties up to $16,035 per child for a federal child labor violation, and up to $72,876 when a violation causes death or serious injury to a worker under 18. Federal investigators can arrive unannounced.¹⁶ If you think your employer is breaking the rules, you can file a complaint with either Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries or the federal Wage and Hour Division. Both keep complaints confidential.

1
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-125-043 Minimum Wages – Minors
2
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Minimum Wage
3
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. How to Hire Minors
4
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Prohibited Duties
5
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-125-030 Prohibited and Hazardous Employment – All Minors
6
eCFR. Part 570 Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
7
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-125-027 Hours of Work for Minors
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 Child Labor Provisions of the FLSA for Nonagricultural Occupations
9
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-125-0285 Meal and Rest Breaks for Fourteen and Fifteen-Year-Old Minors
10
Washington Department of Revenue. Minor Work Permit
11
Governor’s Office for Regulatory Innovation and Assistance. Minor Work Permit
12
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Parent/School Authorization Form F700-002-000
13
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
14
Internal Revenue Service. Family Employees
15
Washington State Legislature. RCW 49.12.390 Child Labor Laws – Violations – Civil Penalties
16
eCFR. Part 579 Child Labor Violations – Civil Money Penalties