Texas Child Labor Law: Age Limits, Hours, and Penalties

Texas child labor laws set 14 as the general minimum working age, cap how many hours 14- and 15-year-olds can work, restrict late-night shifts on school nights, and bar anyone under 18 from jobs classified as hazardous. The Texas Workforce Commission enforces these rules under Labor Code Chapter 51, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act covers most of the same employers. When state and federal rules both apply, the stricter one controls.¹

Minimum Working Age in Texas

Chapter 51 defines a “child” as anyone under 18 and makes it an offense to employ a child younger than 14 in most jobs.² Three narrow exceptions let a younger child work:

A child of any age may work in a nonhazardous job under the direct supervision of a parent or legal custodian, in a business that parent owns or operates.²
Children under 14 may work on farms during periods when they are not legally required to attend school.²
The TWC may authorize children under 14 to work in film, television, radio, or theatrical productions.²

Employers misread the parent-owned-business exception the most. All three conditions have to be true at once: the work is nonhazardous, the parent directly supervises the child, and the parent owns or operates the business. A child helping out at a friend’s parent’s shop doesn’t qualify.

Hour Limits for 14- and 15-Year-Olds

Both federal and state rules restrict when and how long this age group can work, and most Texas employers have to follow both.

Federal Daily and Weekly Caps

The Fair Labor Standards Act bars 14- and 15-year-olds from working during school hours entirely. When school is in session, they cannot work more than three hours on a school day or 18 hours in a school week. When school is out, the caps rise to eight hours per day and 40 hours per week.³

Texas Nighttime Restrictions

State law adds its own clock boundaries. A 14- or 15-year-old enrolled in school cannot start work before 5 a.m. and cannot work past 10 p.m. on any night before a school day, including summer-school sessions. On nights not followed by a school day, the cutoff extends to midnight.³ Combined with the federal daily cap, most school-year shifts for this age group run between the end of the school day and 10 p.m., lasting no more than three hours.

Hours for 16- and 17-Year-Olds

Texas imposes no state-level limits on the number of hours or times of day a 16- or 17-year-old may work.³ That surprises many parents. A 16-year-old can legally work an overnight shift on a school night under Texas law alone. Federal rules do not add general hour restrictions for this age group either, though the FLSA’s hazardous-occupation ban still applies to everyone under 18.

The practical check on excessive hours for this age group is usually compulsory-attendance law. If a teenager’s grades or attendance slip because of work, school-related consequences typically hit before any labor violation does.

Hazardous Jobs Banned for Workers Under 18

No one under 18 may work in a job the TWC has declared hazardous. Under Section 51.014, the TWC designates an occupation as hazardous when a federal agency has classified it that way and the commission agrees the work is particularly dangerous for young workers.² In practice the list tracks the federal Hazardous Occupation Orders in 29 CFR Part 570, Subpart E, which prohibit minors between 16 and 18 from work involving:⁴

Manufacturing or storing explosives
Coal mining or other mining operations
Logging, sawmill work, and forest firefighting
Roofing and any work on or about a roof
Wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking
Excavation work
Operating power-driven woodworking, metalworking, or meat-processing machines
Operating bakery machines, paper balers, or compactors
Driving a motor vehicle as part of the job, with narrow exceptions
Work involving radioactive materials or ionizing radiation
Manufacturing brick or tile
Operating circular saws, band saws, chain saws, or guillotine shears

The paper baler rule catches employers off guard more often than most. A 17-year-old stock clerk at a grocery store cannot use the cardboard baler in the back room, even though the rest of the job is perfectly legal.

Door-to-Door Sales by Children Under 14

Texas adds a hazardous-occupation classification of its own that does not come from the federal list. Under Section 51.014(d), it is a hazardous occupation for a child under 14 to sell items, solicit services, or collect donations for anyone other than an exempt organization or a parent-owned business, unless the child is accompanied by a parent or legal custodian. Exempt organizations include charities, groups regulated under the Texas Election Code, and school-sponsored fundraisers.² A child under 14 selling items as a genuinely self-employed person with parental consent falls outside this rule.

Pay Rules for Minors

A minor in a covered job earns at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which is also the Texas minimum wage. Federal law lets employers pay a “youth minimum wage” of $4.25 per hour to workers under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job.⁵ That 90-day clock runs on calendar days, not days actually worked, so it expires faster than many employers realize. Once the worker turns 20, the full minimum wage applies immediately regardless of where the 90-day period stands.

Employers cannot fire or cut hours for existing employees to make room for youth-minimum-wage hires. That kind of displacement is explicitly prohibited under the FLSA.⁵

Some employers try to label a minor’s work as an unpaid “internship” to avoid paying altogether. Courts use a seven-factor “primary beneficiary test” to decide whether someone is truly an intern or an employee entitled to wages. The factors look at whether the work provides genuine educational benefit, ties to a formal academic program, and complements rather than replaces the work of paid employees.⁶ If the employer is the primary beneficiary, the intern is legally an employee and must be paid.

Certificate of Age

Texas does not require a general work permit, but a Certificate of Age confirms the minor’s date of birth so an employer can demonstrate compliance during an inspection. To apply, submit a completed application form, a recent original photograph of the child (approximately 1½ by 1½ inches, color or black and white), and one of the following as proof of age:⁷

Birth certificate
Baptismal certificate showing the date of birth
Life insurance policy insuring the child and reflecting the date of birth
Passport or certificate of arrival issued within the prior year
School record or school census record of age, combined with a sworn parental statement and a physician’s certificate of age

Send legible copies rather than originals when possible. The completed packet goes to the TWC Wage and Hour Department, 101 E. 15th Street, Room 514, Austin, TX 78778-0001. No certificate is issued until the application, photograph, and proof of age are all received.⁷ Questions can be directed to 800-832-9243.

Holding a valid Certificate of Age also protects the employer. If the TWC later alleges a child did not meet the minimum age for a particular job, the employer can raise a good-faith reliance defense by showing that an apparently valid certificate indicated the child was old enough.²

Children under 14 working in film, television, radio, or theater need a separate document. A parent or legal custodian submits the Application for Child Actor/Performer Authorization to the TWC, available on the TWC’s child labor law page, at any Workforce Solutions office, or by calling 800-832-9243.³

Penalties for Violations

Texas hits child labor violators from two directions. The TWC can impose an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 per violation, with the amount depending on seriousness, the employer’s history, corrective efforts, and the amount needed to deter future violations.² Each violation is assessed separately, so an employer who puts three minors in prohibited jobs could face up to $30,000 in administrative fines alone.

Most child labor offenses under Chapter 51 are also Class B misdemeanors, carrying up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. Employing children in prohibited door-to-door solicitation under Section 51.014(d), or violating the sexually oriented business provisions of Section 51.016, is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000.²

How To Report a Violation

Complaints can go to either the state or federal level. The TWC Wage and Hour Department handles state-level inquiries at 800-832-9243 or child.labor@twc.texas.gov.³

For businesses covered by the FLSA, you can also file with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243. Federal complaints are confidential; the agency will not disclose the complainant’s name, the nature of the complaint, or even whether a complaint exists. Employers are prohibited from retaliating against anyone who files a complaint or cooperates with an investigation.⁸ Before calling, gather the employer’s name and address, the minor’s age, the hours worked, and the type of work being performed.

When Federal and State Rules Overlap

Most Texas employers are covered by both state and federal child labor law at the same time. When the two conflict, the rule that gives the minor more protection wins.¹ The FLSA’s daily and weekly hour caps govern how long 14- and 15-year-olds work; Texas’s nighttime curfew rules add a timing restriction the federal rules do not impose. For hazardous occupations, the two systems largely mirror each other because Texas bases its designations on federal classifications. The safest approach is to follow whichever rule is more restrictive on each specific point rather than trying to figure out which system “applies.”

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
2
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Labor Code Chapter 51 – Employment of Children
3
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Child Labor Law
4
Legal Information Institute. 29 CFR Part 570 Subpart E – Occupations Particularly Hazardous for the Employment of Minors Between 16 and 18 Years of Age
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 71 – Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act
7
Texas Workforce Commission. Certificate of Age
8
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint