Hawaii Child Labor Laws: Age, Hours, and Hazardous Jobs

Hawaii child labor laws prohibit employing anyone under 14 in most jobs, require a Certificate of Employment for 14- and 15-year-olds, cap the hours younger teens can work, and ban all minors under 18 from hazardous occupations. The rules live in Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 390 and are enforced by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR). Federal Fair Labor Standards Act rules apply on top of state law, and whichever standard is stricter controls.¹

Minimum Age to Work in Hawaii

Hawaii generally bars minors under 14 from any gainful occupation. Two narrow exceptions in the statute let children under 14 work in theatrical productions and in coffee harvesting, both only under conditions set by the DLIR director.² Separately, five categories of work sit fully outside Chapter 390, covered below.

At 14, a minor can be hired for most non-hazardous jobs, but the paperwork must be in place before the first shift.

Work Permits: Certificates of Employment and Age

Before a 14- or 15-year-old starts work, the employer must obtain a Certificate of Employment from the DLIR. The employer and a parent or legal guardian both sign the application, which requires acceptable proof of the minor’s age.³ The DLIR reviews the proposed hours and duties. If the job is neither hazardous nor prohibited, a temporary authorization slip is issued and the Certificate of Employment is mailed to the employer.⁴

The person designated to issue certificates can refuse one if they believe the work would harm the minor’s health, safety, or well-being. When employment ends, the employer returns the certificate to the department with the termination date noted.⁵

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds do not need a Certificate of Employment. Their employer must instead record and keep on file the number of a valid certificate of age issued by the DLIR.² Skipping this lighter requirement still exposes the employer to penalties.

How Many Hours Can Minors Work

Ages 14 and 15

The tightest hour rules apply to 14- and 15-year-olds:²

Work only between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. During an authorized school break, the window expands to 6:00 a.m. through 9:00 p.m.
No more than 3 hours on any day the minor is required to attend school.
No more than 18 hours in any calendar week that includes required school attendance.
Up to 8 hours per day when school is not in session.
Up to 40 hours per week when school is not in session.
No more than 6 consecutive days of work.
After 5 continuous hours of work, at least 30 consecutive minutes for rest or a meal.

The extended evening hours apply during any authorized school break, not just summer. Winter and spring breaks count as long as the school has excused attendance. During the regular school term, the workday cannot start before 7:00 a.m.

Ages 16 and 17

Hawaii law allows 16- and 17-year-olds to work during periods when they are not legally required to attend school or when excused by school authorities.² The statute does not impose specific daily or weekly hour caps for this age group. Additional limits may exist in DLIR administrative rules, so employers should confirm current requirements with the department before scheduling.

Federal law lets 16- and 17-year-olds work unlimited hours in non-hazardous jobs.¹ The practical constraint is school attendance: if the minor is supposed to be in class, they cannot be on the clock.

Prohibited Hazardous Jobs Under 18

No minor under 18 in Hawaii can work in any occupation the DLIR director declares hazardous or that the law prohibits, and no minor of any age can work in adult entertainment.² Federal law adds 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders that ban workers under 18 from specific dangerous tasks nationwide.¹

Some federal prohibitions catch employers off guard because they cover equipment common in ordinary workplaces:⁶

Meat slicers and food processing machines are banned wherever they are used, including restaurant delis. The prohibition covers slicing cheese or vegetables on the same equipment, and cleaning or hand-washing disassembled parts.
Forklifts, backhoes, scissor lifts, boom trucks, and cranes cannot be operated, ridden on, or assisted with.
Balers and compactors, including the trash compactors found in retail stockrooms, are off-limits.
Commercial dough mixers, dough rollers, dividers, and sheeters are prohibited; some lightweight countertop mixers are permitted for 16- and 17-year-olds under certain conditions.
Circular saws, band saws, chain saws, wood chippers, and sanders are prohibited.
Punching, shearing, and metal-forming machines used in fabrication shops are prohibited.

The full federal list also covers coal mining, radioactive materials, explosives manufacturing, roofing, excavation, and logging.⁷ The assumption that 16- and 17-year-olds can do anything not obviously dangerous is wrong. The deli slicer rule alone trips up businesses constantly.

Exceptions to Hawaii’s Child Labor Law

Five categories of employment are fully exempt from Chapter 390. A minor working in an exempt role is not subject to the certificate requirements or the hour restrictions, but the work still must fall outside required school hours, must not be hazardous, and must not involve adult entertainment:⁸

Work for the minor’s own parent or legal guardian.
Selling or delivering newspapers.
Domestic service in or around the private home of the employer.
Caddying at a golf course.
Employment with religious, charitable, or nonprofit organizations in roles the DLIR director prescribes.

The parent-or-guardian exception is the broadest, but if the director has declared the work hazardous, a parent still cannot put their child in that role.

Coffee Harvesting

Hawaii allows minors as young as 10 to work in coffee harvesting under direct supervision of their own parent or legal guardian.⁹ Before under-14 coffee harvesting is approved, the DLIR director must hold a public hearing and determine that adult labor is not sufficiently available, and the employer must hold a valid certificate of employment.²

Child Performers

Children under 14 can work in theatrical productions under conditions the director prescribes.² Administrative rules cap daily hours and set curfews that vary by age: children under 6 cannot work past 7:00 p.m. or more than 2 hours per day, and older bands step up from there, with combined school and work hours never exceeding 10 in a day and no more than 4 performance nights per calendar week.¹⁰ At the federal level, child actors and performers are exempt from FLSA child labor provisions entirely, though that exemption does not cover stand-ins, writers, unseen directors, or technical crew.¹¹

Wages for Young Workers

Hawaii’s minimum wage rises to $16.00 per hour on January 1, 2026, and the state has no separate lower rate for minors.¹² A 15-year-old hired for retail work is owed the same hourly rate as any adult employee.

Federal law allows a youth subminimum wage of $4.25 per hour for employees under 20 during their first 90 calendar days.¹³ Because Hawaii’s state minimum is higher, the state rate controls. No employer in Hawaii can legally pay $4.25 per hour to a teen.

Penalties for Violations

Any person other than the minor who knowingly violates Chapter 390 is guilty of a misdemeanor.¹⁴ Under Hawaii’s general misdemeanor framework, a conviction can carry up to one year in jail, a fine, or both. The DLIR can also suspend, revoke, or invalidate a certificate of employment or age if the director finds the minor is illegally employed or that conditions are injurious to the minor’s health, safety, or well-being.¹⁵ Losing the certificate immediately halts the minor’s ability to work for that employer.

Federal penalties stack on top. As of 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor can assess civil penalties of up to $16,035 per child labor violation, rising to $72,876 when a violation causes serious injury or death, and up to $145,752 for willful or repeated violations causing serious injury or death.¹⁶ A willful federal criminal violation carries a fine of up to $10,000, and a second conviction can result in up to six months of imprisonment.¹⁷ Federal and state sanctions are not mutually exclusive. An employer who puts a 15-year-old behind a meat slicer could face both a Hawaii misdemeanor charge and a five-figure federal civil penalty from the same incident.

Recordkeeping Requirements

Employers of 14- and 15-year-olds must keep the Certificate of Employment on file and return it to the DLIR when employment ends, noting the termination date.⁵ For 16- and 17-year-olds, employers must record and keep the certificate of age number on file.²

Federal rules add more. For any employee under 19, the employer must keep the birth date on file with standard payroll records: daily hours, total weekly hours, and wages paid. Payroll records must be preserved for at least three years; time cards and work schedules for at least two.¹⁸ Records are the first thing an inspector asks for during a complaint investigation, and incomplete files make compliance nearly impossible to prove.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #43: Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Nonagricultural Occupations
2
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 Code 390-2 – Employment of Minors Under Eighteen Years of Age
3
State of Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Child Labor
4
Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Procedures for Obtaining a Child Labor Certificate
5
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 Code 390-3 – Certificates of Employment and Age
6
U.S. Department of Labor. What Jobs Are Off-Limits for Kids?
7
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
8
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 Code 390-5 – Exceptions
9
Legal Information Institute. Hawaii Code R. 12-25-32 – Coffee Harvesting Employment Permitted
10
Legal Information Institute. Hawaii Code R. 12-25-23 – Hours and Conditions of Employment
11
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.125 – Actors and Performers
12
State of Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Hawaiʻi’s Minimum Wage Increases To $16.00 On January 1
13
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #32: Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
14
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 Code 390-7 – Child Labor Crime
15
Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes Title 21 Code 390-4 – Suspension, Revocation, Invalidation of Certificate
16
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
17
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules
18
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #21: Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)