Child Labor Laws in Idaho: Hours, Restrictions, and Penalties

Child labor laws in Idaho come from two places at once: a short state statute in Idaho Code Chapter 44-13 and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. When the two overlap, the stricter rule controls.¹ Idaho’s own chapter sets age floors, a basic hour window, and recordkeeping duties. The FLSA fills in the detailed scheduling caps for younger teens, the list of banned hazardous jobs, and the civil penalties that give the whole system its teeth.

How Old a Minor Must Be To Work

Idaho Code § 44-1301 prohibits children under 14 from working in mines, factories, stores, restaurants, hotels, laundries, and most other commercial settings. The same statute bars anyone under 14 from working during school hours, before 6:00 a.m., or after 9:00 p.m.² For most non-farm work in Idaho, 14 is the starting line.

There are two openings for younger teens. Children 12 and older may take those otherwise-restricted jobs during regular school vacations that last two weeks or more. And students may work up to 10 hours per week for a public school district if a parent or guardian consents.²

Federal law adds a parent-owned business exemption: a child of any age may work for a business owned entirely by their parents, except that no one under 16 may work in mining or manufacturing even when the parents own the company.¹ Idaho’s statute has no equivalent carve-out, so this only helps businesses that are already FLSA-covered.

Hours Minors Can Work

14- and 15-Year-Olds

Federal scheduling limits do the heavy lifting for this age group. During a school week, a 14- or 15-year-old may work up to 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours for the week. When school is out, the caps rise to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week.³

Shifts have to fall between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. for most of the year. From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff extends to 9:00 p.m.³ Idaho’s own broader 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. window applies only to children under 14; the FLSA rules are stricter for 14- and 15-year-olds, so those are the ones an employer has to follow.

16- and 17-Year-Olds

Federal law places no cap on how many hours a 16- or 17-year-old may work and no restriction on time of day.¹ Idaho’s hour restrictions in Chapter 13 target children under 16, so older teens can be scheduled like adults. The one thing that doesn’t loosen is the hazardous-work ban.

Jobs Minors Cannot Do

The U.S. Department of Labor enforces 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders that keep workers under 18 out of the most dangerous jobs, and these apply across Idaho regardless of business size.⁴ The common ones for teenage workers include:

Workers aged 14 and 15 face a longer list still. They are barred from virtually all manufacturing and mining work on top of everything the Hazardous Occupations Orders cover.⁴

Restaurant and Retail Equipment

The equipment rules trip up ordinary restaurants and grocery stores. No one under 18 may operate, clean, or hand-wash the disassembled parts of power-driven meat slicers, meat grinders, or commercial mixers. A 16- or 17-year-old can use a small countertop mixer comparable to a home model and can operate certain pizza-dough rollers that meet specific guard requirements, but the exception stops there. Workers aged 14 and 15 are locked out of all power-driven food slicers, grinders, choppers, mixers, and cutters with no exceptions.⁵

Power-driven scrap paper balers and trash compactors are off-limits to everyone under 18 as a general rule. A narrow exception lets 16- and 17-year-olds load (not operate or unload) certain balers and compactors, but only when the machine has a key-lock or numeric keypad switch controlled by an adult, stays off when not in use, is not running while being loaded, meets the relevant ANSI safety standard, and carries a posted notice explaining the age limits.⁶ Miss any single condition and the employer is in the same position as any other hazardous-work violator. This is one of the most commonly cited violations nationwide.

Driving and Delivery

Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2 bans anyone under 18 from driving a motor vehicle on public roads for work, and from riding outside the cab as a helper.⁷ A 17-year-old may drive on the job only if all of the following are true: daylight hours only, vehicle no heavier than 6,000 pounds GVW, valid license with a state-approved driver education course and a clean driving record, driving is only incidental (no more than one-third of the workday and 20 percent of the week), and the vehicle has seat belts the employer instructs the teen to use.

Even with all that in place, some driving stays banned for 17-year-olds: route deliveries and route sales, pizza and prepared-food delivery, transporting passengers for hire, driving more than a 30-mile radius from the workplace, and towing.⁷ Pizza delivery is called out by name as a prohibited “time-sensitive delivery.”

Farm Work Follows Different Rules

Agriculture runs on a separate federal track. Under the FLSA, children as young as 12 may work on any farm with written parental consent outside school hours, and children under 12 may work on farms that are exempt from federal minimum wage requirements (generally smaller operations) with parental consent.⁸ Idaho’s § 44-1301 lines up with this by letting children 12 and older work during school vacations of two weeks or longer, which covers Idaho’s peak harvest season. A separate federal list of agricultural hazardous orders still keeps minors away from heavy equipment, pesticide handling, and similar high-risk tasks.⁹

Pay Rules for Young Workers

Idaho’s minimum wage matches the federal $7.25 an hour, and there is no state-level youth subminimum. The FLSA does allow any employer to pay a youth minimum wage of $4.25 an hour to workers under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment.¹⁰ The clock runs on calendar days, not days worked, so it burns out quickly for a teen who only works weekends. After those 90 days, or when the worker turns 20, the standard $7.25 rate applies. Employers cannot displace adult workers to hire teens at the lower rate, and overtime at time-and-a-half kicks in after 40 hours in a week.⁹

Employer Recordkeeping

Idaho does not issue work permits or employment certificates for minors.¹¹ Instead, Idaho Code § 44-1303 requires every employer who hires a 14- or 15-year-old to keep a record of the minor’s name, age, and place of residence.¹² Failing to produce that record on demand from a truant officer, probation officer, or school authority is treated as evidence that the employer is illegally employing an underage worker.¹³

The statute does not spell out what documents count as proof of age. In practice, most employers keep a copy of a birth certificate, driver’s license, or state-issued ID to satisfy both the state recordkeeping rule and any DOL investigator who asks. Idaho Code § 44-1302 adds one more condition: a child under 16 cannot work during school hours unless the child can read and write simple English sentences and has basic competence in spelling, grammar, geography, and arithmetic through fractions.¹⁴

What Employers Face for Violations

Idaho’s own penalties are small. An employer who hires a child under 16 in violation of §§ 44-1301 or 44-1302 faces a fine of up to $50 for a first offense, rising to $5 to $20 per day if the employer keeps the child on after being notified by a truant officer, probation officer, or school authority.¹³ Enforcement of Chapter 13 does not run through a state labor agency; it falls to local school boards and probation officers.⁹

The federal side is where the real financial exposure sits. For 2026, the FLSA civil money penalty for a child labor violation is $16,035 per employee affected.¹⁵ When a violation causes the death or serious injury of a minor, the penalty rises to $72,876 per violation, and it can double to $145,752 if the violation is willful or repeated.¹⁶ A single Wage and Hour Division investigation can turn up multiple violations across several minor employees, and the numbers compound quickly.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
2
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 44-1301 – Restrictions on Employment of Children Under Fourteen
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment
4
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Cooking and Baking under the Federal Child Labor Provisions of Fair Labor Standards Act
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 57 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 12 Rules for Employing Youth and the Loading, Operating, and Unloading of Power-Driven Scrap Paper Balers and Paper Box Compactors
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2 – Youth Employment Provision and Driving Automobiles and Trucks
8
U.S. Department of Labor. State Child Labor Laws Applicable to Agricultural Employment
9
Idaho Department of Labor. Frequently Asked Questions on Labor Laws
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Employment/Age Certificate
12
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 44-1303 – Employers to Procure and Keep Age Records
13
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 44-1305 – Penalty for Violations of Chapter
14
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 44-1302 – Children Under Sixteen – Educational Requirements
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
16
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 579 – Child Labor Violations – Civil Money Penalties