Minnesota does not limit how many hours a 16-year-old can work in a day or a week. State law drops the 8-hour-day and 40-hour-week caps once a worker turns 16, so the real constraints on a 16-year-old’s schedule are school-night start and stop times, required breaks during a shift, and a list of jobs the state won’t let anyone under 18 do.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181A.04 – Minimum Age and Maximum Hours In theory, a 16-year-old could work 50 hours in a summer week without breaking Minnesota law. During the school year, the curfew does most of the limiting on its own.
School-Night Start and Stop Times
The one hard scheduling rule for a 16-year-old high school student is the school-night curfew. You can’t work past 11:00 p.m. on an evening before a school day, and you can’t start before 5:00 a.m. on a school day.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181A.04 – Minimum Age and Maximum Hours On Friday nights, weekends, holidays, and summer vacation, neither limit applies. A 16-year-old working a Saturday overnight shift at a warehouse faces no state time-of-day restriction, as long as Sunday isn’t a school day.
A parent or guardian can stretch the window a little with a signed note kept on file at the workplace. With that written permission, the student can stay until 11:30 p.m. before a school day and clock in as early as 4:30 a.m. on a school morning.2Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Age, Hours Restrictions Verbal permission does not count, and the note has to be available for a state inspector to see.
Students enrolled in an alternative education program approved by the Minnesota Commissioner of Education, or in an area learning center, are excluded from the school-night curfew entirely.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181A.04 – Minimum Age and Maximum Hours
Why There’s No Weekly Hour Cap
The 40-hour weekly cap and 8-hour daily cap that many families associate with teen jobs apply only to workers under 16.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181A.04 – Minimum Age and Maximum Hours At 16, those ceilings go away under state law. Nothing in Chapter 181A says a 16-year-old can only work a certain number of hours per week or per shift.
That doesn’t mean a schedule is unlimited in practice. During the school year, the 11:00 p.m. curfew effectively caps how much of a weekday evening you can work, and school itself eats most of the daytime hours. The result is that most 16-year-olds in retail or food service bump up against the curfew long before they’d bump up against any theoretical hour total.
Breaks During a Shift
Starting January 1, 2026, Minnesota requires employers to give every employee, including minors, a rest break of at least 15 minutes within every four consecutive hours of work, plus a meal break of at least 30 minutes when the employee works six or more consecutive hours.3Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Work Breaks, Rest Periods
For a 16-year-old scheduled for an 8-hour shift, that works out to at least one 30-minute meal break and two 15-minute rest breaks. An employer who runs a minor through a long shift without those breaks is violating state law even if the hours and curfew look fine on paper.
Jobs a 16-Year-Old Can’t Do
Minnesota bars anyone under 18 from a long list of occupations considered too dangerous for minors. The list is broader than most people expect, and it limits where those extra hours can be worked. Prohibited work for anyone under 18 includes:
- All building and construction projects, regardless of size.
- Operating or assisting with forklifts, meat saws and grinders, milling machines, punch presses, shears, and woodworking equipment.
- Working where chemicals are present in toxic, explosive, or flammable quantities, or where explosives and fireworks are manufactured, stored, or handled.
- Logging operations, sawmills, lathe mills, and shingle mills.
- Mines, quarries, and sand or gravel pits.
- Building maintenance, window washing, painting, or repair more than 12 feet above ground using ladders or scaffolding.
- Oxy-acetylene or oxy-hydrogen welding.
- Serving, dispensing, or handling liquor consumed on the premises.
- Driving buses, cabs, or other passenger vehicles; working on commercial boats (except as a guide); and certain railway jobs.
The alcohol rule has a narrow carve-out worth knowing. A 16-year-old can bus tables, wash dishes, or host in a restaurant where alcohol service is incidental to food service. A bar that happens to serve food doesn’t qualify. Federal hazardous occupation orders add further restrictions, including a ban on driving motor vehicles and operating power-driven bakery machines, and where the two sets of rules overlap, the stricter one applies.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor – Hazardous Occupations
What Those Hours Pay
As of January 1, 2026, Minnesota’s minimum wage is $11.41 per hour for all employers, regardless of business size. Workers under 20 can be paid a training wage of $9.31 per hour for their first 90 consecutive days with an employer.6Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Minimum Wage in Minnesota After day 90, the full rate kicks in. The 90-day window resets with each new employer, so changing jobs doesn’t extend it.
Teen paychecks are subject to the same federal income tax withholding as any other wages. Many 16-year-olds qualify to claim exempt status on Form W-4 if they had no federal tax liability last year and expect none this year.7Internal Revenue Service. Employee’s Withholding Certificate Social Security and Medicare taxes still come out of each check either way.
Proof of Age the Employer Needs
Minnesota doesn’t require a work permit for 16-year-olds. Employment certificates are only required for workers under 16 who want to work during school hours.8Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181A.05 – Employment Certificates At 16, the employer just needs proof of age on file.
Four documents satisfy that requirement: an age certificate, a copy of the birth record, a copy of a driver’s license, or a federal I-9 employment eligibility verification form.9Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181A.06 – Age Certificates An age certificate is issued by the school superintendent in the district where the minor lives, or by the principal of a private or parochial school for a student there, and getting one requires showing a birth record. Age certificates aren’t mandatory, but they’re useful for a teen who doesn’t yet have a driver’s license. The employer has to keep whichever document you provide for the entire time you work there, available for a state inspector.
If an Employer Breaks These Rules
Minnesota fines employers per employee, per violation. A single scheduling mistake involving three minors counts as three separate fines. Working a high school student under 18 past the school-night curfew carries a $1,000 fine, as does putting a minor under 18 into a prohibited hazardous occupation. The fine rises to $5,000 when a minor is injured in prohibited hazardous work. Failing to keep proof of age on file is a $250 fine.10Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181A.12 – Penalties Most child labor violations are misdemeanors; repeat violations or any violation causing substantial bodily harm or death become gross misdemeanors.
If an employer is scheduling you past 11:00 p.m. on a school night, skipping breaks on a long shift, or assigning you to work the state has placed off-limits, you can file a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry’s Division of Labor Standards.