Ohio Minor Labor Laws: Age, Hours, Permits, and Penalties

Ohio’s minor labor laws set 14 as the general minimum working age, cap hours and evening work for younger teens, bar all workers under 18 from a federal list of hazardous jobs, and require most 14- through 17-year-olds to hand their employer an age and schooling certificate before their first shift. Both Ohio’s chapter on employment of minors and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act apply to every employer who hires a teen, and when the two rules differ, the stricter one controls.

Minimum Age and What Each Age Group Can Do

Children under 14 cannot hold a job in Ohio. The narrow exceptions are acting in theatrical or media productions, delivering newspapers, working on a family farm, and working in a parent-owned business in non-hazardous roles.¹ Federal law sets the same 14 floor for non-agricultural work.²

At 14 and 15, teens can work in retail, food service, and office settings. They are barred from manufacturing, mining, and construction, and their schedules are tightly limited so work cannot cut into school.

At 16, the field opens up. Federal law lets 16- and 17-year-olds work unlimited hours in any job not on the hazardous-occupation list.³ Ohio layers on nighttime limits during the school year.

Hours and Time-of-Day Limits

Ages 14 and 15

Ohio matches the federal FLSA hour caps for the youngest workers:

No more than 3 hours on a school day.
No more than 18 hours in a school week.
Up to 8 hours on a non-school day.
Up to 40 hours in a non-school week.
No work before 7 a.m. at any time of year.
No work after 7 p.m. during the school year, or after 9 p.m. from June 1 through September 1 and during school holidays of five or more school days.

Work during school hours is off-limits unless the job is part of a vocational, work-study, or similar program that meets standards set by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.⁴

Ages 16 and 17

Ohio does not cap weekly hours for 16- and 17-year-olds. There is no 30-hour school-year ceiling and no combined school-and-work limit in the Ohio Revised Code. The only restrictions target nighttime work during the school year:

No work past 11 p.m. on a night before a school day.
No work before 7 a.m. on a school day, with one wrinkle: a 6 a.m. start is allowed if the minor did not work past 8 p.m. the night before.

Outside the school year, the state imposes no hour or time-of-day limits on this age group.⁴

Required Break

Every minor, regardless of age, gets a 30-minute rest period after five consecutive hours of work. The break is unpaid, so the employer does not have to count it toward compensable hours.⁴ Ohio does not require shorter breaks for shifts under five hours.

Jobs Minors Cannot Do

Ohio’s director of commerce sets the state prohibited-occupation list after consulting the director of health, and must consider the federal hazardous-occupation orders when doing so.⁵ In practice, the federal list drives most of the rules.

Off-Limits to Everyone Under 18

Federal hazardous-occupation orders bar all minors under 18 from work involving:

Manufacturing or storing explosives.
Any roofing work, including ground-level tear-off.
Logging, sawmilling, forestry services, and firefighting.
Power-driven equipment such as forklifts, woodworking and metal-forming machines, circular and band saws, meat slicers, and bakery mixers.
Underground mines, open-cut mines, quarries, and sand and gravel operations.
Demolition and wrecking.
Trenching more than four feet deep.

There are 17 hazardous-occupation orders in total.⁶

Extra Limits for Ages 14 and 15

Beyond the hazardous list, 14- and 15-year-olds cannot work in manufacturing, mining, construction, or most jobs involving power-driven machinery. In food service, they cannot operate commercial slicers, grinders, or mixers. Deep fryers are allowed only if the fryer has an automatic basket-lowering mechanism that keeps the worker’s hands away from hot oil.³

Alcohol

The minimum age to sell beer, wine, or spirits in Ohio is 18.⁷ Minors 18 and older can handle sealed containers for stocking or bagging and empty open containers for bussing. Serving alcohol in open containers at a restaurant, hotel, or club requires the worker to be at least 19. No minor may serve drinks across a bar.

Driving on the Job

Federal law generally prohibits anyone under 18 from driving on public roads as part of a job. A narrow exception exists for 17-year-olds, but every condition must be met:

Driving is limited to daylight hours.
The teen holds a valid driver’s license, has completed a state-approved driver education course, and has no moving violations on record.
The vehicle weighs no more than 6,000 pounds and has seat belts the employer has instructed the teen to use.
Driving is occasional and incidental: no more than one-third of the workday or 20 percent of weekly work time.

Even with those conditions met, 17-year-old drivers cannot make route deliveries, transport passengers for hire, make urgent time-sensitive deliveries like pizza runs, drive more than 30 miles from the workplace, or tow another vehicle.⁸

The Work Permit (Age and Schooling Certificate)

Every minor aged 14 through 17 must give their employer a valid age and schooling certificate before starting work, and the employer must keep it on file.⁹ The certificate is issued through the minor’s school district. The issuing officer verifies age and reviews school attendance before granting it, and poor attendance or grades can be grounds for denial or later revocation.

When the Certificate Is Not Required

Ohio exempts 16- and 17-year-olds from the certificate if the job runs between the last day of the spring school term and the first day of the fall term, provided the work is non-hazardous. These teens still have to give the employer proof of age and a signed parental consent statement.⁹

Ohio’s minor labor chapter also does not apply at all to several categories:

Minors working for a parent in non-hazardous work, or on a farm run by a parent, grandparent, or guardian.
Newspaper delivery direct to consumers.
Lawn and yard work like mowing and snow shoveling.
Performers in theatrical productions, concerts, or motion pictures, and unpaid church or school performances with parental consent.
Anyone who has earned a high school diploma, certificate of attendance, or GED.
Students in approved career-technical, STEM, or College Credit Plus programs that include a pre-apprenticeship component.
Minors who are parents themselves or heads of household.

16- and 17-year-olds working at seasonal amusement or recreational establishments are also exempt from the certificate requirement and certain other provisions.¹

Wages, Training Wage, and Overtime

Ohio’s 2026 general minimum wage is $11.00 per hour. Workers under 16 are paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour instead.¹⁰ That $3.75 gap matters for 14- and 15-year-olds picking up part-time hours.

A separate federal rule lets employers pay workers under 20 a training wage of $4.25 per hour during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment. The clock runs from the hire date on the calendar, not from days actually worked, so the window closes fast whether the teen is scheduled or not.¹¹ Many Ohio employers do not use this provision, but it is legal.

When a minor works more than 40 hours in a workweek, standard overtime applies: one and a half times the regular rate for each hour over 40.¹²

Employer Records and Postings

For each minor on staff, the employer has to keep written records showing the minor’s name, address, occupation, daily start and stop times, meal period times, hours worked each day of the week, and wages paid each pay period. Records must be kept at least two years and produced on request to the director of commerce or an authorized representative.¹

Two items must be posted where minor employees can see them: a list of all minors currently employed at that location, and an abstract of Ohio’s minor labor law chapter furnished by the director of commerce. The employer may instead make the abstract available online in a way accessible to employees.¹³ If an enforcement official suspects an employee is under 18 and no certificate is on file, the employer can be required to produce satisfactory proof the worker is actually 18 or older.

Penalties for Violations

Ohio’s penalties are tiered by the type of violation:

Record-keeping, posting, and break violations are minor misdemeanors.
Work-hour violations are minor misdemeanors on a first offense and third-degree misdemeanors on each subsequent offense.
Employing a minor in a prohibited hazardous occupation is a third-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to 60 days in jail and up to a $500 fine.
Door-to-door sales violations start at a fourth-degree misdemeanor and rise to a first-degree misdemeanor on repeat offenses. With aggravating circumstances such as threats, endangerment, or reckless driving, even a first offense is a first-degree misdemeanor; a repeat offense with aggravating circumstances is a fourth-degree felony.
Certain violations carry a civil penalty of up to $1,730 per violation.

Enforcement runs through the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Industrial Compliance, Wage and Hour section.¹⁴ The U.S. Department of Labor may also enforce federal FLSA provisions, especially on hazardous-occupation violations.¹⁵ School issuing officers can also revoke a minor’s age and schooling certificate when work is interfering with attendance or academics.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4109 – Employment of Minors
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the FLSA for Nonagricultural Occupations
3
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4109.07 – Restrictions on Hours of Employment
5
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4109.05 – Rules Prohibiting Employment in Hazardous Occupations
6
U.S. Department of Labor. What Jobs Are Off-Limits for Kids
7
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Minimum Ages for Off-Premises Sellers
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2, Driving Automobiles and Trucks Under the FLSA
9
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4109.02 – Age and Schooling Certificate Required
10
Ohio.gov. 2026 Minimum Wage Poster
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
12
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.03 – Overtime
13
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4109.08 – Enforcing Age and Schooling Certificate Requirements
14
Ohio Department of Commerce. Wage and Hour
15
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4109.99 – Penalties