Texas Work Permit for Minors: Hours, Wages, and Penalties

Texas does not require a work permit for minors to take a standard job. What governs teen employment in Texas is a combination of Texas Labor Code Chapter 51 and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and whenever the two overlap, the rule that protects the child more strictly is the one employers have to follow.¹ The Texas Workforce Commission issues only two documents related to child employment: an optional Certificate of Age, and a mandatory Child Actor/Performer Certificate for children under 14 working in entertainment.

The Two Documents Texas Does Issue

Since there is no general work permit, the Certificate of Age is the closest equivalent. It is voluntary. An employer can ask a minor between 14 and 17 to obtain one, and the certificate protects the business by verifying the worker’s age on the record. Applying means sending the TWC Wage and Hour Department a completed form, proof of age (typically a birth certificate, but a baptismal certificate, life insurance policy showing date of birth, recent passport, or a school record backed by a sworn parental statement and physician’s certificate all work), and a recent full-face photograph.²

The Child Actor/Performer Certificate is different. It is required, not optional. Any child under 14 who will act or perform in a film, television, radio, or theatrical production must have TWC authorization before starting work.³ Children hired as extras are generally exempt.⁴ The application requires the same core materials as the Certificate of Age plus a parent or legal guardian’s signature.

Minimum Age to Work

Fourteen is the general minimum age for non-agricultural work in Texas. Employing a child under 14 is a criminal offense unless one of the specific exemptions applies.⁵ The exemptions worth knowing:

A parent or legal custodian who owns a business can employ their own child at any age, for any hours, provided the work is non-hazardous and the parent directly supervises.⁶
Children 11 and older may deliver newspapers to consumers.⁵
A TWC-approved, school-administered work-study program has no age floor.
Farm and ranch work is allowed during periods when the child is not required to attend school.
Casual, non-hazardous odd jobs are allowed with parental consent.
Actors and performers under 14 may work with a Child Actor/Performer Certificate.

Federal law recognizes a similar parent-owned-business exemption, but it still bars children from manufacturing, mining, and any federally designated hazardous job even when the parents own the operation.⁷

How Many Hours a Minor Can Work

Hour limits depend on age, and for 14- and 15-year-olds the state and federal caps look very different. Because the stricter rule always wins, what employers actually follow is a hybrid.

14 and 15 Year Olds

Texas caps work at eight hours per day and 48 hours per week for this age group.⁸ State nighttime rules bar work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. on nights before a school day, and between midnight and 5 a.m. otherwise or during summer break for a child not enrolled in summer school. A child who can demonstrate financial hardship can have these state hour limits waived by the TWC.

The FLSA is considerably tighter. For 14- and 15-year-olds, federal law allows:¹

No more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week
No more than 8 hours on a non-school day and 40 hours in a non-school week
Work only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., extended to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day

In practice, the federal limits win almost every time. During the school year, a 14-year-old in Texas can work only 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours across the school week, even though Texas alone would allow much more. Over the summer, both laws allow 8 hours a day, but the federal 40-hour weekly cap overrides the 48-hour Texas cap. And the federal 7 p.m. curfew (9 p.m. in summer) is stricter than Texas nighttime rules year-round.

16 and 17 Year Olds

Neither Texas nor federal law caps the daily or weekly hours of 16- and 17-year-olds.⁶ They still have to meet compulsory school attendance requirements, and they still cannot work in a federally designated hazardous occupation until 18.

Jobs Minors Are Not Allowed to Do

The federal government maintains 17 Hazardous Occupations Orders that keep everyone under 18 out of the most dangerous work.⁹ These include mining, manufacturing or storing explosives, operating power-driven woodworking, metalworking, or bakery machines, roofing, wrecking and demolition, excavation, logging and sawmill work, and slaughtering and meatpacking. Texas Labor Code Section 51.014 folds these federal designations into state law.⁵ All minors 14 through 17 are also barred from any work involving radioactive substances or ionizing radiation.¹⁰

Workers who are 14 or 15 face additional restrictions on top of the hazardous-occupation list, including any task performed on ladders or scaffolds, outside window washing, most manufacturing and processing, and freezer or meat-cooler work.¹⁰

Driving on the Job

Federal law bars anyone under 18 from driving a motor vehicle on public roads as part of their job.⁹ A narrow exception lets 17-year-olds drive, but every one of these conditions has to be met:¹¹

Daylight hours only
Valid state license for the vehicle type
Completed a state-approved driver education course, with no moving violations at time of hire
Vehicle weighs no more than 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight
Seat belts available and the employer has instructed the teen to use them
Driving is only occasional and incidental — no more than one-third of the workday or 20 percent of the workweek

Which is why a 16-year-old with a Texas license still cannot legally drive as part of a delivery or courier job, and a 17-year-old who fails any one condition on this list cannot either.

Door-to-Door Sales

Texas classifies solicitation by children as hazardous and adds its own rules under Section 51.0145.⁵ Before sending a child out to solicit, an employer must obtain signed parental consent on a TWC-approved form at least seven days ahead, give the parent a map of the route and each supervisor’s name, provide at least one adult supervisor for every three children at every location, and end solicitation by 7 p.m. on school days (10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on other days).

Minimum Wage for Minors

Texas follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and minors are entitled to it the same as adults. Employers can pay a reduced youth rate of $4.25 per hour to workers under 20, but only during the first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment.¹² Those are calendar days from the first day of work, not days actually worked. Once 90 days pass or the worker turns 20 — whichever comes first — the full $7.25 rate applies.

An employer cannot fire, cut hours, or reduce benefits for an existing worker to make room for a youth-rate hire. If the Department of Labor finds that happened, the employer faces penalties.¹²

Penalties for Violating the Rules

Texas and federal authorities both enforce child labor law, and an employer can face penalties under both systems at once for the same conduct.

Under Texas law, most Chapter 51 violations are a Class B misdemeanor. Employing a child to sell or solicit in violation of the law is bumped up to a Class A misdemeanor. On top of criminal charges, the TWC can impose civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.¹³

Federal civil penalties are adjusted annually for inflation. As of January 2025:¹⁴

Standard violation: up to $16,035 per violation
Violation causing serious injury or death: up to $72,876 per violation
Willful or repeated violation causing serious injury or death: up to $145,752 per violation

An employer who puts a 15-year-old on a roofing crew, for example, can be looking at a Texas criminal charge, a TWC civil fine, and a separate federal penalty from the Wage and Hour Division. The enforcement overlap is deliberate, and an investigation by one agency often triggers action by the other.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the FLSA for Nonagricultural Occupations
2
Texas Workforce Commission. Certificate of Age Application (Form WHCL-72)
3
Texas Workforce Commission. Application for Child Actor/Performer Authorization (Form LLCL-73)
4
Texas Film Commission. Child Labor Laws in Texas
5
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Labor Code Chapter 51 – Employment of Children
6
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Child Labor Law
7
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor
8
State of Texas. Texas Code Labor Code 51.013 – Hours of Employment; Hardship Exemption
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor – Prohibited Occupations for Non-Agricultural Employees
10
Texas Workforce Commission. Child Labor Laws Poster
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No 2, Youth Driving
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
13
Texas Workforce Commission. Child Labor
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments