Iowa Child Labor Laws: Age Limits, Hours, and Penalties

Iowa child labor laws set 14 as the minimum working age, cap hours and evening work for 14- and 15-year-olds, let 16- and 17-year-olds work the same hours as adults, bar anyone under 18 from a long list of hazardous jobs, and back the rules with civil fines up to $10,000 per violation plus misdemeanor charges. One wrinkle trips up most employers: federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act applies alongside Iowa Code Chapter 92, and when the two conflict, the stricter rule wins. That gap matters most for 14- and 15-year-olds, where federal limits are tighter than Iowa’s.

The Minimum Age to Work

No one under 14 may be employed in Iowa, paid or unpaid. Two exceptions exist. A child of any age may work in a business operated by their own parents, including foster parents, and minors of any age may perform in theatrical, musical, or motion-picture productions with written parental permission.¹

Hours for 14- and 15-Year-Olds

Iowa Code Section 92.7 sets the state limits, but read the federal section below before you build a schedule. For most employers the federal numbers are what actually control.

Iowa’s Clock-Hour Limits

During the school year (the day after Labor Day through May 31), a 14- or 15-year-old cannot start before 7:00 a.m. or work past 9:00 p.m. From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff moves to 11:00 p.m.²

Daily and Weekly Caps

No worker under 16 may exceed 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. In weeks when school is in session, the caps drop to 6 hours per day and 28 hours per week, counting hours worked outside school hours.²

Mandatory Break

Any shift of five hours or more triggers a 30-minute break. The employer chooses whether to pay for it.²

Why Federal Rules Usually Govern Instead

The FLSA covers nearly every business with at least $500,000 in annual sales or any business engaged in interstate commerce. Those employers must follow whichever standard protects the minor more, and for 14- and 15-year-olds federal law is tighter on almost every measure:

School-day limit: 3 hours federal versus 6 hours Iowa
School-week limit: 18 hours federal versus 28 hours Iowa
Evening cutoff during the school year: 7:00 p.m. federal versus 9:00 p.m. Iowa
Summer evening cutoff: 9:00 p.m. federal versus 11:00 p.m. Iowa
Non-school day: 8 hours either way
Non-school week: 40 hours either way

The federal numbers come from 29 C.F.R. § 570.35, enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.³ A 15-year-old working at a chain restaurant during the school year cannot work past 7:00 p.m. or log more than 18 hours that week, even though Iowa’s own statute would permit more. Iowa’s limits control on their own only for the small number of employers not covered by the FLSA.⁴

Hours for 16- and 17-Year-Olds

Iowa Code Section 92.7A runs one sentence: a 16- or 17-year-old may work the same hours as an 18-year-old.⁵ No cap on daily hours, no cap on weekly hours, no restricted start times. The one carve-out that still applies to this age group: no one under 18 may deliver or transmit goods or messages between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.¹

Jobs Minors Cannot Do

Iowa Code Section 92.8 lists 21 categories of hazardous work closed to anyone under 18. The ones employers encounter most often:

Mining, logging, sawmills, and cooperage mills
Slaughtering, meatpacking, and rendering plants
Any work involving radioactive substances or ionizing radiation
Power-driven woodworking, metal-forming, bakery, and paper-products machines
Circular saws, band saws, guillotine shears, and similar cutting equipment
Roofing, demolition, and excavation
Explosives manufacturing, with narrow exceptions added in 2023 for light assembly away from machines and for selling consumer fireworks
Night delivery or transmission of goods or messages between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.
Any establishment where nude or topless dancing is performed

The full list also reaches brick and tile manufacturing, foundry work, dry cleaning machinery, and jobs involving dangerous dyes or poisonous chemicals.¹

For 14- and 15-year-olds, the picture is tighter still. Federal law bars this age group from nearly all manufacturing and processing work, and Iowa’s permitted-occupation lists in Sections 92.5 and 92.6A hold young teens to retail, food service, office work, and a few other low-risk categories.³

What 14- and 15-Year-Olds Can Do After the 2023 Overhaul

Senate File 542 widened the jobs available to young teens. Under the updated Sections 92.5 and 92.6A, 14- and 15-year-olds may handle light grocery tasks (cleaning, wrapping, sealing, labeling, weighing, pricing, and stocking) in areas physically separate from meat-preparation zones, with brief trips into freezers or meat coolers allowed, and they may load and unload light, non-power-driven hand tools and personal protective equipment into vehicles for a job site.

Fifteen-year-olds get a second tier under Section 92.6A: loading and unloading non-power-driven equipment up to 30 pounds, loading and unloading groceries and retail items up to 30 pounds, stocking shelves with items up to 30 pounds, and working as a licensed lifeguard or swim instructor at a traditional pool or amusement park.

These expansions sit inside Iowa’s statute. Federal FLSA restrictions on 14- and 15-year-old occupations still apply to covered employers, so a task Iowa permits is not automatically legal for an FLSA-covered business.⁶

The Hazardous-Work Waiver for 16- and 17-Year-Olds

Iowa offers a path for 16- and 17-year-olds to train in otherwise prohibited hazardous activities through approved work-based learning. Two routes exist.

School Partnership

When an employer works with an approved high school work-based learning program, employer and school jointly complete a career and technical education student-learner agreement and permission form, signed by the school, a parent or guardian, the instructor, and the employer. The form goes to Iowa Workforce Development, which confirms approval in coordination with the Iowa Department of Education.⁷

Employer-Led Waiver

Employers without a school partner apply directly for the Youth Employment Waiver through Iowa Workforce Development. The process involves IWD, the Iowa Department of Education, and the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing. Applying does not guarantee approval, and individual hazardous activities can be approved or denied one by one. Parental permission forms must be on file with the state before the minor starts any hazardous training, no matter which route the employer uses.⁷

Parental and Agricultural Exemptions

A child of any age may work in a business operated by their parents, and Iowa extends this to foster children working for licensed foster parents. The state exemption covers all occupations; there is no hazardous-work carve-out for parent-operated businesses.¹

Federal law has a parallel exemption for agriculture: minors of any age may work on a farm owned or operated by their parents, at any time and in any farm occupation.⁸ For agricultural work on someone else’s farm, Iowa lets 14- and 15-year-olds do part-time agricultural work at half the normal maximum hours, and allows minors 14 and older to detassel corn from June through August.

Penalties for Violations

Iowa pursues child labor violations on two tracks.

Civil Fines

The state can impose up to $10,000 per violation, following a graduated schedule. A first hours violation might draw $100, with repeat violations stepping up through $250, $500, $1,000, and higher, all the way to $10,000 for each additional instance. If a child is killed while working in violation of the law, the penalty jumps straight to $10,000 per instance regardless of history.⁹

Criminal Charges

Any Chapter 92 violation without its own specific penalty is a serious misdemeanor. Each day a violation continues is a separate offense, and employing each individual minor in violation is a separate offense. Charges and fines stack quickly across multiple workers or multiple weeks.¹⁰

Employer Records After the Permit Repeal

Before July 2023, Iowa required a work permit for every minor employee. SF 542 eliminated that requirement. No state-issued work permit is needed now to hire a 14- to 17-year-old in Iowa.⁶

Documentation still matters. Standard payroll records (hours, wages, deductions) must be kept for at least three years. Employers should also keep a reliable record of each minor employee’s date of birth, because showing you verified the worker’s age is the most direct defense if a scheduling or occupation violation is alleged. A copy of a birth certificate, driver’s license, or passport at hire works for that purpose, even though no statute now dictates the format.

Employers using the youth employment waiver carry one extra documentation duty: parental permission forms must sit on file with Iowa Workforce Development before any hazardous training begins.⁷

1
Iowa Legislature. Iowa Code Chapter 92 – Child Labor
2
Iowa Legislature. Iowa Code 92.7 – Under Sixteen Hours Permitted
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43: Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Nonagricultural Occupations
4
Department of Inspections, Appeals, & Licensing. Child Labor
5
Justia. Iowa Code Section 92.7A – Sixteen and Seventeen Hours Permitted
6
LegiScan. Bill Text: IA SF542 2023-2024 90th General Assembly Enrolled
7
Iowa Workforce Development. Youth Employment Waiver
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Agricultural Employment
9
Iowa Legislature. IAC Rule 875-32.11(92) Civil Penalty Calculation
10
Iowa Legislature. Iowa Code 92.20 – Penalty