Illinois Minor Labor Laws: Permits, Hours, and Penalties

Illinois child labor laws changed substantially on January 1, 2025, when the Child Labor Law of 2024 (820 ILCS 206/) replaced the older statute.¹ Under the new statute, a “minor” is anyone under 16, and that age line does most of the work: it decides who needs a permit, whose hours are capped, and which jobs are off-limits. Teenagers who are 16 or 17 fall outside the state’s tightest rules but still can’t take jobs the federal government has declared hazardous. Employers who break the rules now face civil penalties reaching $60,000 per violation.

Who the Law Covers

The statute draws a hard line at age 16. Workers under 16 are “minors” for purposes of the Child Labor Law and get the full set of protections: a required work permit, hour caps, time-of-day limits, meal breaks, and an expanded list of prohibited occupations. Workers who are 16 or 17 aren’t classified as minors under the 2024 law, so the state-law hour restrictions and permit requirement don’t apply to them.¹

Work Permits for Workers Under 16

Every worker under 16 must have an employment certificate — the “work permit” — on file with the employer before starting. The certificate is issued by a school issuing officer, usually through the minor’s school district or Regional Office of Education.²

To get one, the minor typically submits:

Proof of age, such as a birth certificate or passport.
A notice of intention to employ from the prospective employer, describing the job and expected hours.
A physical fitness statement from a healthcare professional, or, at the school issuing officer’s discretion, the most recent school physical on file.³
During the school year, a principal’s statement on school letterhead verifying good academic standing. This is waived during summer months.²

Workers who are 16 or 17 don’t need a permit, but they can request a certificate of age from a school issuing officer if they want documentation that heads off questions from employers or inspectors.¹

Hour Limits for Workers Under 16

During weeks when school is in session, a 14- or 15-year-old cannot work:

More than 3 hours on a school day, or more than 8 hours of combined work and school time.
More than 18 hours across the week.
More than 8 hours in a single day.

When school is not in session, the weekly cap rises to 40 hours, keeping the 8-hour daily limit.¹

Time-of-day rules apply too. From Labor Day through May 31, workers under 16 can only work between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff extends to 9 p.m.³

Meal Breaks

A worker under 16 must get a meal break of at least 30 minutes no later than the fifth consecutive hour of work. A break shorter than 30 minutes doesn’t count as an interruption of the work period, so a couple of short pauses won’t reset the clock.¹ Letting a 15-year-old work five hours straight without a break is a violation on its own, even if every other rule is followed.

Rules for 16- and 17-Year-Olds

Illinois doesn’t cap the daily or weekly hours of workers who are 16 or 17, and they don’t need a work permit.¹ They are still barred, however, from jobs the U.S. Secretary of Labor has declared hazardous. Federal Hazardous Orders keep them out of work involving explosives, power-driven woodworking machines, radioactive substances, roofing, excavation, and several other categories.⁴ When state and federal rules overlap, employers must follow the stricter standard.³

Prohibited Occupations for Workers Under 16

Section 40 of the 2024 statute expanded the list of jobs closed to workers under 16 to more than 30 categories. Among them:

Manufacturing and industrial work in factories, mills, canneries, workshops, foundries, smelters, and ore reduction facilities.
Mining and quarrying.
Construction, demolition, and repair work.
Operating power-driven woodworking machines, metal-stamping or bending machines, laundry or dry-cleaning equipment, freight elevators, or cranes.
Jobs involving explosives, radioactive materials, lead, acids, chemical fumes, or human blood and body fluids.
Power generation, oil refineries, gasoline blending, and pumping stations.
Any work on ladders, scaffolding, or similar elevated surfaces.
Any position requiring a firearm or other weapon.
Any establishment covered by the Live Adult Entertainment Facility Surcharge Act.
Mechanic garages, including pit work, car repair, and garage lifting racks.
Slaughtering and meat processing.
Service stations, though attached convenience stores and food-service counters within gas stations are exempt from this ban.

The statute also covers spray painting, stone cutting, and logging, among other categories.¹

Pay for Young Workers

Illinois’s general minimum wage is $15.00 per hour as of 2026.⁵ Workers under 18 who log fewer than 650 hours with an employer in a calendar year may be paid a youth rate of $13.00 per hour. Once a worker under 18 crosses 650 hours with that employer, the full $15.00 rate applies for every hour afterward.

Federal law allows a training wage of $4.25 per hour for any worker under 20 during the first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment, and an employer can’t displace existing workers to take advantage of it.⁶ Illinois’s $13.00 youth rate is higher, so the state rate is what controls in practice.

Child Performers

Anyone under 16 hired to provide artistic or creative services in television, film, theater, or similar productions is a “child performer” with a separate set of rules. The employer must obtain an employment certificate before the child works, and a trust account must be set up in the child’s name.

At least 15% of the child performer’s gross earnings must be deposited into that trust account, which is held at a bank or corporate fiduciary in compliance with the Illinois Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. The money belongs to the child alone and becomes available when they turn 18 or are legally emancipated.¹ Work-time limits for on-set time step up with age, from 20 minutes for infants aged 15 days to 6 months, up to 5 hours on school days and 7 on non-school days for 9- to 15-year-olds. No child performer may work and attend makeup school sessions for more than six days in a single week.⁷

Where the Law Doesn’t Apply

Several situations sit outside the standard rules:

Agriculture is generally outside the Child Labor Law of 2024. Children under 12 can’t do paid farm work unless they’re members of the farmer’s own family living on the farm. Children 10 and older may do paid agricultural work during school vacations or outside school hours. Federal law lets children of any age work on a farm their parent owns or operates.¹⁸
14- and 15-year-olds participating in school-directed work-based learning programs under the School Code are exempt from the general restrictions.¹
Children as young as 12 and 13 can work as referees or assistant instructors for not-for-profit youth clubs, park districts, or municipal recreation programs, if the employer obtains proper certification.¹
Federal law exempts children working for a business entirely owned by their parents, except in mining, manufacturing, or hazardous jobs.⁴

Penalties for Employers

The 2024 law replaced an old fine ceiling of $100 per offense with civil penalties that scale with what went wrong:

Up to $60,000 for the death of a minor.
Up to $30,000 for an injury or illness requiring a report to the Department.
Up to $15,000 for employing a minor in a prohibited occupation.
Up to $500 for failing to post required workplace notices.
Up to $10,000 for any other violation.

Each minor employed in violation counts as a separate offense, and each day the violation continues counts separately on top of that. Two 14-year-olds working an illegal late shift for a week can generate 14 distinct violations. Courts can also impose an additional civil penalty equal to the Department’s assessment, paid directly to the affected minor. The Department weighs both the size of the employer’s business and the seriousness of the violation when setting an amount.⁹

Reporting a Violation

The Illinois Department of Labor investigates child labor violations and conducts workplace inspections. A minor, a parent, a coworker, or anyone else can file a report:¹⁰

Child Labor Hotline (toll-free): (800) 645-5784
Information line: (312) 793-5570
Online complaint form or downloadable form on IDOL’s website

1
Illinois General Assembly. 820 ILCS 206 – Child Labor Law of 2024
2
Illinois State Board of Education. Work Permits
3
Illinois Department of Labor. Child Labor Law Compliance
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the FLSA for Nonagricultural Occupations
5
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act
7
Legal Information Institute. Illinois Admin Code Title 56, Section 250.302 – Child Performers in Entertainment Productions
8
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor – Exemptions from Child Labor Rules in Agriculture
9
Illinois General Assembly. 820 ILCS 206/75 – Civil Penalties
10
Illinois Department of Labor. Child Labor Law