Child Labor Laws in Virginia: Ages, Hours, and Prohibited Jobs

Child labor laws in Virginia set a floor age of 14 for most jobs, cap daily and weekly hours for workers under 16, require an employment certificate and parental permission before a 14- or 15-year-old starts work, and keep hazardous-occupation and driving restrictions in place until 18. At 16, most hour limits fall away, but the list of forbidden jobs does not. Employers who miss a detail face civil penalties, and the rules often overlap with federal child labor provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, with the stricter of the two controlling.

Minimum Ages for Work

No child under 14 may work in a gainful occupation in Virginia. Narrow exceptions exist for acting, newspaper delivery, and farm work on a family operation.¹

At 14, a minor can take a non-hazardous job, but only outside school hours and within strict time limits. A child under 16 cannot work during school hours at all unless enrolled in an approved school work-training program with a special work-training certificate.¹

At 16, Virginia’s hour restrictions largely disappear and the range of permitted jobs widens. Hazardous-occupation bans still apply until 18, however, and school schedules still matter because Virginia requires attendance through age 18.²

Hours and Required Breaks

Virginia has formally adopted the federal FLSA hour standards for workers under 16.³ A 14- or 15-year-old in a non-agricultural job may not work:

During school hours (unless in an approved work-training program)
More than 3 hours on a school day
More than 8 hours on a non-school day
More than 18 hours in a school week
More than 40 hours in a non-school week
Before 7:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m., except between June 1 and Labor Day, when the evening cutoff moves to 9:00 p.m.

⁴⁵

“School hours” and “school in session” follow the schedule of the public school district where the minor lives, not where the employer is located. Summer school does not count as school being in session.⁴

Workers aged 16 and 17 have no Virginia-specific cap on daily or weekly hours, though their schedules still cannot conflict with compulsory school attendance.

The 30-Minute Meal Break

Every minor in Virginia, regardless of age, must receive a meal break of at least 30 minutes after five continuous hours of work. A shorter break does not reset the five-hour clock.³ The requirement covers both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs and applies to 16- and 17-year-olds, which is where Virginia goes further than federal law.⁵

Employment Certificates for 14- and 15-Year-Olds

Every 14- or 15-year-old must have an employment certificate on file before the first shift. The certificate is tied to a specific employer, so changing jobs means getting a new one. Parental permission is required by statute, and the application cannot even be submitted without an actual job offer because employer-specific details are part of the form.⁶⁷

Applications run through the Virginia Electronic Employment Certificate System. The minor, the employer, and the parent or guardian each create an account and complete their piece; a Department of Labor and Industry compliance officer typically reviews the application within 24 hours. If approved, the employer downloads the certificate and the minor signs it before the first day of work. A paper option uses a Permission to Employ form and an Employer Intent to Employ form submitted together.⁶

During any inspection, the employer must be able to produce signed certificates, time records, and proof-of-age documents for every minor on the payroll.⁶

Jobs Minors Cannot Do

Virginia keeps its own list of prohibited occupations for minors, separate from and often overlapping with the federal hazardous occupation orders. Where both sets of rules reach the same job, the stricter rule controls.⁸

Barred for Anyone Under 18

No one under 18 may work in Virginia in:

Mines, quarries, tunnels, or underground scaffolding
Manufacturing or storage of explosives, or any job involving radioactive substances or ionizing radiation (including X-ray equipment)
Operating or helping to operate grinders, metal-forming machines, bakery machines, paper-products machines, circular or band saws, or woodworking machines
Preparing mixtures that involve dangerous or poisonous chemicals
Excavation, demolition, roofing, wrecking, or ship-breaking
Logging, sawmilling, or slaughtering and meat processing
Driving or riding as a helper on a motor vehicle, except for the narrow 17-year-old exception described below
Workplaces where alcohol is manufactured, bottled, or sold for on-premises consumption, unless the establishment holds a mixed-beverage restaurant license and the minor does not serve or dispense alcohol, or unless alcohol sales are merely incidental to the primary business

⁹

Additional Bars for Workers Under 16

Children under 16 also cannot work in manufacturing or mechanical establishments, commercial canneries, warehouses, hospitals or nursing homes as lab helpers, orderlies, or nurse’s aides, dance studios, funeral homes, laundry or dry-cleaning processing, curb-service restaurants, hotel or motel room service, or brick, coal, or lumber yards.⁹

What a 14- or 15-year-old can do tends to cluster in retail, office work, low-risk food service, and similar roles. Federal rules list permitted jobs in detail, including cashiering, stocking shelves, bagging groceries, limited cooking, dishwashing, and errand or delivery work on foot or by bicycle.¹⁰

Driving on the Job at 17

Virginia bars anyone under 18 from driving as part of a job, with a narrow exception for 17-year-olds who meet every one of these conditions:

The vehicle weighs no more than 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight and has seat belts the employer requires the minor to use
Driving happens only in daylight
The minor holds a valid Virginia license for the type of driving involved and had no moving violations at the time of hire
The minor has completed a state-approved driver education course
Driving is occasional and incidental to the job, not the primary duty

⁹

Even when all those conditions are met, the 17-year-old still cannot tow vehicles, make route deliveries or route sales, transport passengers for hire, make urgent or time-sensitive deliveries (pizza runs and bank-deposit drops both count), carry more than three passengers, or drive beyond 30 miles from the workplace. No more than two delivery trips away from the primary workplace are allowed per day.⁹ Federal rules separately prohibit anyone under 18 from riding on the outside of a motor vehicle as a delivery helper.¹¹

This is one of the areas employers most often get wrong. A restaurant that asks a 17-year-old to run deliveries might feel harmless, but if those runs happen after dark or carry time-sensitive orders, the arrangement violates the law.

Pay and the Youth Minimum Wage

Virginia’s minimum wage is $12.77 per hour as of January 1, 2026, and minors are entitled to it on the same terms as adults.¹² One exception comes from federal law: any employer may pay a worker under 20 just $4.25 per hour during the first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment.¹³

The 90-day clock starts on the first day of work and runs on calendar days, not days actually worked. Once the 90 days expire or the worker turns 20, whichever comes first, the full minimum wage kicks in. A minor who takes a second job starts a fresh 90-day clock with that new employer. The $4.25 figure is fixed by statute and does not rise with the federal or state minimum wage.

Enforcement and Penalties

The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry administers the state’s child labor laws through its Child Labor Unit, which handles both certificate issuance and compliance inspections.¹⁴ Civil penalties are set under Virginia Code § 40.1-113, and an employer who receives a penalty notice has 21 days to request an informal conference with the Commissioner.¹⁵

The heaviest penalties go to employers who put minors in prohibited hazardous jobs or let workers under 16 blow past the hour caps. Willful or repeated violations can escalate beyond fines. Federal enforcement runs in parallel: the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigates child labor complaints independently and imposes its own penalties, especially when a workplace injury is involved.⁸ Keeping signed certificates, time records, and proof-of-age documents on file for every minor is the simplest way to come through an inspection clean.⁶

1
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-78 – Employment of Children Under Fourteen and Sixteen
2
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 22.1-254 – Compulsory Attendance
3
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-80.1 – Employment of Children
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.35 – Hours of Work
5
Virginia Code Commission. 16 VAC 15-40 – Virginia Hours of Work for Minors
6
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. Youth Employment
7
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-92 – Issuance of Certificates
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
9
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-100 – Certain Employment Prohibited or Limited
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2 – Driving Automobiles and Trucks
12
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. 2026 Virginia Minimum Wage Poster
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 206 – Minimum Wage
14
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. Labor Law
15
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-113 – Child Labor Offenses, Civil Penalties