Louisiana Child Labor Laws: Minimum Age, Hours, and Permits

Louisiana child labor laws generally prohibit employing anyone under 14, require an employment certificate before a minor starts any job, and set age-based limits on hours, night work, and job types through age 17. The rules come from two overlapping sources: Louisiana’s own statutes in Title 23 and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which covers most employers in the state. When both apply, the stricter rule controls.

Minimum Age To Work

No child under 14 may hold a job in Louisiana except in a narrow family-business situation. A child as young as 12 can work if a parent or legal guardian owns or is a partner in the business, the child works only under that parent’s direct supervision, and the child holds an employment certificate. Every protection that applies to 14- and 15-year-olds still applies to these younger workers, including hour limits and prohibited occupations.¹

One boundary to know up front: Louisiana’s child labor chapter does not apply to minors working in agriculture or in domestic service in a private home.² Federal rules can still reach farm work when the operation meets FLSA thresholds, and federal law lists certain farm tasks as hazardous for minors under 16.

Employment Certificates

Every minor needs an employment certificate before starting work. The certificate exists so a school official can verify age, confirm parental consent, and check that the job itself is legal for the minor’s age group.

What You Gather

The employer provides a signed statement describing the specific job duties, the number of hours per day and per week the minor will work, and the wages offered. The parent or legal guardian provides written permission. The minor supplies proof of age: a birth certificate or short-form birth certification card, a baptismal certificate showing date and place of birth, or a school record or school ID showing the minor’s age.³ The Louisiana Workforce Commission publishes the employer statement form on its website, and local school board offices keep copies.

Where To File

The minor must apply in person. Applications go to the parish or city public school superintendent or a designated representative, or to the principal of the minor’s public or private school or that principal’s designee. The issuing officer reviews the paperwork, confirms the job is legal for the minor’s age, and grants or denies the certificate. If granted, both the minor and the officer sign it, and the minor delivers it to the employer, who keeps it on file at the workplace.⁴

Work Hours and Night Curfews

The hour rules change with each age, and federal FLSA caps sit on top of state limits for 14- and 15-year-olds.

Ages 14 and 15

Under Louisiana law, minors under 16 cannot work between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. during the school year. From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening cutoff moves to 9:00 p.m. The state caps the workweek at 40 hours.⁵

Federal rules pull the ceiling lower for most Louisiana employers. The FLSA limits 14- and 15-year-olds to 3 hours on a school day, 8 hours on a non-school day, and 18 hours total in a school week.⁶ Combined, the practical school-week ceiling is 3 hours per day, 18 hours total, ending by 7:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. in summer).

Age 16

Louisiana sets no daily or weekly hour caps for 16-year-olds, but they cannot work between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. before a school day. The curfew applies only to minors who have not graduated from high school.⁵

Age 17

Seventeen-year-olds get a later curfew: no work between midnight and 5:00 a.m. before a school day, again assuming they haven’t graduated.⁵ Minors working in the dairy industry are exempt from the curfew restrictions entirely.

Meal Breaks

Any minor under 16 who works a five-hour stretch is entitled to a 30-minute unpaid meal break. The break must be duty-free and documented through the employer’s normal timekeeping. If the minor misses the punch, the employer creates a time edit signed by both the minor and a manager.⁷

The statute allows a small margin: if the work period before the break runs over five hours by 10 minutes or less, or if the break is at least 20 minutes rather than the full 30, neither counts as a violation.⁷ Louisiana does not require meal breaks for 16- and 17-year-olds, though employers may set their own policies.

Prohibited and Hazardous Jobs

Louisiana bans all minors under 18 from a specific list of dangerous work:

Oiling, cleaning, or wiping machinery or shafting; operating power-driven woodworking machines; operating hoisting machines, passenger elevators, or freight elevators
Mines, quarries, stone-cutting plants, foundries, forging shops, hot rolling mills, smelters, and any facility involving heat treatment of metals
Manufacturing, using, or transporting explosives
Spray painting or work involving exposure to lead, poisonous dyes, or dangerous chemicals
Logging operations, sawmills, and cooperage stock mills
Cold rolling heavy metals or operating power-driven punching, shearing, stamping, or bending machines
Driving a motor vehicle on a public road for work if 16 or under; 17-year-olds may drive for work but only up to one-third of daily work time and 20 percent of weekly work time

The secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission can add occupations to the hazardous list after a public hearing.⁸

Alcohol Establishments

Minors cannot work at any establishment where selling alcoholic beverages is the main business, such as a bar or lounge. The one exception covers a minor musician performing under a written contract with the permit holder while under direct parental supervision.⁸

At restaurants and other businesses where alcohol is not the main revenue source, minors under 18 can work, but they cannot sell, mix, dispense, or serve alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption.⁸ A 16-year-old can bus tables at a restaurant that serves beer; the same worker cannot pour it.

Federal Hazardous Occupations Orders

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders that bar minors under 18 from additional categories including roofing, excavation, operating power-driven meat-processing or bakery machines, working with radioactive substances, and operating balers or compactors.⁶ Any employer covered by the FLSA has to comply with both the state and federal lists.

A limited exception applies to 16- and 17-year-olds enrolled in a cooperative vocational training program recognized by a state or local educational authority. Under a written school-employer agreement, these student-learners can perform certain otherwise-prohibited tasks if the work is incidental to training, intermittent and brief, done under close supervision of a qualified person, and paired with school-provided safety instruction.⁹

Entertainment Industry Work

Louisiana’s film and television industry has its own track. Employers must obtain a Theatrical Blanket Permit from the Louisiana Workforce Commission for all minors under 18 at least five days before the start date. The application requires a workers’ compensation certificate, a signed parent or guardian consent form, and proof of age such as a birth certificate, passport, or valid Louisiana driver’s license or state-issued ID.

If a minor will miss two or more school days within a 30-day period, the production must hire a certified teacher starting on the second day of absence, providing at least three hours of instruction daily using lesson plans from the minor’s school, at a teacher-to-student ratio of no more than 1 to 10. Waivers from standard work rules require a separate request at least 48 hours in advance, and only productions already holding a valid Theatrical Blanket Permit can request one.

Minimum Wage for Minor Workers

Louisiana has no state minimum wage, so the federal $7.25 per hour applies to covered employers.¹⁰ Federal law permits a youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour for workers under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment. After 90 days or when the worker turns 20, whichever comes first, the standard $7.25 rate applies. Employers cannot displace an existing employee to hire a youth worker at the lower rate.

Penalties

Louisiana imposes both criminal and civil penalties for unlawful employment of a minor. Most violations carry a fine of $100 to $500, imprisonment of 30 days to six months, or both, plus a separate civil penalty of up to $500 per violation.¹¹

Violations involving the exploitation or exhibition of minors in theatrical performances carry heavier consequences: fines up to $1,000, imprisonment up to two years, or both, plus a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation.¹² Liability reaches employers, parents, guardians, and talent agents who allow or facilitate the unlawful employment.

1
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:162 – Minors Under Fourteen; General Prohibition Against Employment
2
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:151 – Application of Provisions
3
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:184 – Requirements for Issuance
4
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:183 – Persons Authorized to Issue
5
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:215 – Minors; Minors Under Sixteen; Prohibited Hours; Maximum Work Week
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #43: Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Nonagricultural Occupations
7
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:213 – Minors Under Sixteen; Recreation or Meal Period
8
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:161 – Minors; Prohibited Employments
9
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
10
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
11
Louisiana Workforce Commission. Louisiana Minor Labor Law
12
Justia. Louisiana Code 23:251 – Minors Under Sixteen; Theatrical Performances