Minimum Working Age in PA: Permits, Hours, and Prohibited Jobs

The minimum working age in Pennsylvania is 14 for most jobs, and a handful of narrow exceptions let younger children work in specific settings like newspaper delivery, caddying, entertainment, family farms, and babysitting. Every worker under 18 needs a state-issued work permit before starting, and Pennsylvania limits how many hours minors can work, when they can work, and what jobs they can hold until they turn 18.¹

Jobs Children Under 14 Can Do

A few categories of work are open to children younger than 14, each with its own conditions:

Newspaper delivery, starting at age 11.
Caddying, starting at age 12, with no more than one bag carried at a time and no more than 18 holes in a day.
Performing in the entertainment industry at any age, including infants, with a special performance permit issued by the Department of Labor & Industry (this is separate from the standard work permit).
Work on a farm owned by the child’s parent or legal guardian, at any age.
Babysitting and minor chores in private homes.

The newspaper and caddie rules come directly from the Child Labor Act; the farm and domestic-service exceptions reflect the statute’s general exemption for children under 14 in those settings.¹ Outside these categories, employment before age 14 is not permitted.

The Work Permit Every Minor Needs

Once a teen is old enough to work, the next step is an Employment Certificate, commonly called a work permit. Any worker under 18 needs one before their first day, whether they attend public school, private school, cyber charter, or homeschool. Applications go through the minor’s local school district.¹

The applicant brings proof of age (a birth certificate or passport), and a parent or legal guardian signs the application. For a minor under 16, the parent or guardian also signs a separate form acknowledging the job’s duties and hours and giving permission to work.¹

The permit is a wallet-sized card that stays valid until the minor’s 18th birthday. It’s transferable between jobs, so a teen who switches employers doesn’t need a new card. The minor keeps the original and gives the employer a copy; the employer keeps that copy on file along with the parental permission statement. School districts don’t charge a fee.¹

Hour Limits for 14 and 15-Year-Olds

The tightest schedule rules apply to the youngest legal workers. When school is in session, a 14 or 15-year-old can work no more than three hours on a school day and no more than 18 hours total in a school week. On days school isn’t in session, the daily cap is eight hours.¹

During the school year, these minors can’t work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m.²

Summer vacation, defined as June through Labor Day, loosens the rules: up to eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, with the evening curfew extended to 9 p.m.¹

Hour Limits for 16 and 17-Year-Olds

Older teens get considerably more room. During a regular school week (Monday through Friday when school is in session), a 16 or 17-year-old can work up to eight hours a day and 28 hours across those five days, plus another eight hours on Saturday and eight on Sunday.³

During school vacations, the caps rise to 10 hours a day and 48 hours a week. Any hours beyond 44 in a week must be voluntary, and the minor can refuse without retaliation.⁴

Curfews depend on whether the next day is a school day. During the school year, work can run until midnight on nights before a school day and until 1 a.m. on nights before a non-school day (typically Fridays and Saturdays). In summer, the curfew is 1 a.m. every night. In every case, the earliest start time is 6 a.m.³ Minors who have graduated from high school or formally withdrawn from school to work full-time are exempt from the hour-of-day restrictions.¹

Rules That Apply to Every Minor

Two rules cut across every age group. No minor may work more than six consecutive days, with newspaper delivery as the only exception. And every minor must get at least a 30-minute rest break before completing five consecutive hours of work.¹

Jobs No Minor Can Hold

Pennsylvania bars every worker under 18 from occupations the state considers hazardous. The Department of Labor & Industry maintains the full list, drawn from the state Child Labor Act, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and additional department regulations.⁵ A work permit and parental consent do not override these bans.

Prohibited work includes:

Power-driven machinery such as woodworking and metalworking equipment, circular saws, and paper balers or compactors.
Construction-related work including wrecking, demolition, roofing, and excavation in trenches deeper than four feet.
Installing or removing electrical wiring, handling explosives, and any work involving radioactive substances or ionizing radiation.
All occupations in mining operations.

A narrow exception lets 16 and 17-year-olds place material on a moving chain or hopper for automatic feeding of woodworking machines, but they still can’t operate, set up, or repair those machines.⁵

Pay for Teen Workers

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, matching the federal floor, and minors are entitled to the same rate as adults. Where state and federal minimums both apply, the worker gets the higher of the two, though the two currently match.⁶

Federal law does allow a lower “youth minimum wage” of $4.25 an hour for any employee under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job. The clock starts on the first day of work and counts every calendar day, not just days worked. After 90 days, the standard minimum wage applies. Employers don’t need to run any special training program to use the youth rate.⁷

Reporting a Violation

Anyone who believes an employer is breaking Pennsylvania’s child labor rules can file a complaint with the Department of Labor & Industry’s Bureau of Labor Law Compliance. The bureau accepts complaints online, by email at RA-LI-SLMR-LLC@pa.gov, by fax at 717-787-0517, by mail, or by phone at 1-800-932-0665.⁸

1
Department of Education. Pennsylvania Child Labor Law
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment
3
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Child Labor Act
4
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR & INDUSTRY. Abstract of the Child Labor Act Hours Provisions
5
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY. Prohibited Occupations Under the Child Labor Act
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #32 – Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
8
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. File a Child Labor Complaint