To hire someone under 18 in Washington, you complete the Parent/School Authorization form (F700-002-000) before the minor works a single hour. The employer fills in the business, worksite, job-duty, and schedule sections first; the minor fills in their personal and school information; then a parent or legal guardian signs, and during the school year a school official signs as well. The completed form stays at the worksite rather than being mailed anywhere. You can download the current form at lni.wa.gov/forms-publications/F700-002-000.pdf.
Get the Minor Work Permit Endorsement First
The authorization form is not itself a permit, and it says so in bold at the top. Before you can legally employ a minor, your Washington business license needs a Minor Work Permit endorsement for each physical location where minors will work, plus an Industrial Insurance endorsement. The Minor Work Permit endorsement is free and is handled through the Department of Revenue.1Washington Department of Revenue. Minor Work Permit Once that endorsement is active, you can start on the authorization form itself.
School Year vs. Summer: Pick the Right Form
Washington uses two forms. During the school year, use the Parent/School Authorization (F700-002-000), which needs a school official’s signature. During summer break, use the shorter Parent Authorization for Summer Work (F700-168-000), which needs only the parent or guardian’s signature because school is not in session. A new summer form is required every year.2Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. How to Hire Minors
What to Have in Front of You
Gather these before you open the PDF:
- Your nine-digit Unified Business Identifier (UBI) number.3Washington Department of Revenue. Business Licensing and Renewals FAQs
- The expiration date of your Minor Work Permit, listed on your business license.
- The minor’s date of birth, with a birth certificate or similar proof of age. The form does not ask for a Social Security number.
- A specific list of the tasks the minor will perform. “General help” is not enough; each task has to be checkable against the age-based prohibited-duties rules.4Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. F700-002-000 Parent/School Authorization
- The proposed work schedule: days of the week, hours per day, hours per week, and exact start and quit times.
- The hourly wage.
Filling Out the Employer Section
Enter your business name, phone number, UBI number, and the expiration date of your Minor Work Permit. For the worksite address, use the physical location where the minor will actually report, not a corporate headquarters or mailing address. Add a contact name, the hourly wage, and every specific task the minor will perform. The duty list carries real weight because inspectors compare it to the prohibited-duties rules for the minor’s age group.
Filling Out the Work Schedule
The schedule portion separates school-week hours (Monday through Thursday and Friday through Sunday) from non-school-week hours. For each period, enter the days the minor will work, hours per day, total hours per week, and exact start and quit times. Circle a.m. or p.m. for each time.
There is a column where the parent or school official can approve fewer hours than you requested. Both have the authority to cut the schedule back if they think the workload would hurt the student’s academics.4Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. F700-002-000 Parent/School Authorization What you write has to fit inside Washington’s legal maximums (see below).
The Employee Section
The minor enters their name, date of birth, home address, phone number, and school information. If they already hold another job, they must disclose it and list the weekly hours there. Combined hours across every employer still cannot exceed the legal maximums, which is why the question is on the form. The minor signs and dates it.
Collecting the Parent and School Signatures
After your sections are complete, give the form to the minor to take home. The parent or legal guardian reviews the duties and the schedule, then signs the parental authorization. During the school year, the minor then takes the form to school, where a school representative reviews the schedule against attendance regulations and signs the school authorization section.4Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. F700-002-000 Parent/School Authorization
For a homeschooled student, the form instructs the minor to write “home schooled” in the school name field. The form does not clearly explain who signs the school authorization section in that case, and the special variance for extended school-week hours does not apply to homeschooled students. If you are hiring a homeschooled minor, contact L&I through lni.wa.gov/TeenWorkers for current guidance before relying on the form alone.
The minor must return the fully signed form to you before working any hours. The form’s own language is “before allowing a minor to begin work.”
The Optional Special Variance
At the bottom of the form, a separate special variance section lets 16- and 17-year-old students work up to 6 hours on school days and 28 hours during a school week, instead of the standard 4 and 20. The variance requires its own parental signature and its own school signature in that section. School officials can refuse it if the student’s academic progress suggests the extra hours would be harmful. The variance does not apply to 14- and 15-year-olds or to homeschooled students.5Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Hours of Work
Hour Limits the Schedule Has to Respect
For 14- and 15-year-olds, school weeks are capped at 3 hours per school day (8 hours on Saturday and Sunday) and 16 hours total. During non-school weeks, the cap is 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.
For 16- and 17-year-olds, school weeks are capped at 4 hours per school day (8 hours Friday through Sunday) and 20 hours total, with work permitted between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., extended to midnight on Friday and Saturday. During non-school weeks, the cap is 8 hours per day, 48 hours per week, 6 days per week, with work between 5 a.m. and midnight.5Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Hours of Work
Homeschooled minors follow the same restrictions as students attending the local neighborhood school and cannot work during the hours that school is in session there without an L&I variance.4Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. F700-002-000 Parent/School Authorization
Duty Restrictions the Duty List Has to Respect
Every task you write into the duties field must be legal for the minor’s age. No worker under 18 may perform slaughtering or meat processing, operate power-driven woodworking or metal-forming machines, handle explosives, do roofing or demolition, or work where a labor dispute is active. Non-agricultural jobs add further bans: no working above 10 feet off the ground, no forklifts or heavy equipment, no loading or unloading balers or compactors, and no working alone past 8 p.m. without an adult on the premises in retail or restaurant settings.6Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Prohibited Duties
Workers under 16 have a longer list of prohibited tasks. They cannot drive, cook or bake, operate meat slicers or food processors, do construction work, load or unload trucks, or perform house-to-house sales. If you are hiring a 14- or 15-year-old, read the full prohibited-duties page on L&I’s site before writing the duty list, because an unlawful duty makes the authorization invalid for that task.6Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Prohibited Duties
Wage Entered on the Form
Washington does not have a general subminimum wage for minors. Employers may pay 14- and 15-year-olds no less than 85 percent of the state minimum wage; 16- and 17-year-olds get the full state minimum wage.7Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Minimum Wage The hourly wage you enter on the form should reflect those floors.
After Signing: Where the Form Lives
Do not mail the completed form anywhere. L&I does not collect or store these records centrally. The signed authorization stays on file at the physical worksite where the minor actually works, and must be available for immediate inspection if an L&I investigator shows up.8Washington State Legislature. Washington Administrative Code 296-125-030 – Employer Recordkeeping Requirements Keep a copy of the minor’s birth certificate (or equivalent proof of age) and records of actual hours worked alongside the form.
If you run multiple locations, the form has to be at the specific worksite listed on it. A copy in a central office does not satisfy the requirement.
The September 30 Renewal
Every Parent/School Authorization expires on September 30, regardless of when the minor was hired. You complete a new form each autumn to keep employing minors during the school year.9Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Start of School Means Limits on Work Hours for Teens; Employers Must Get Permission From Parents, Schools A new form is also required any time the schedule changes significantly (for example, shifting from weekends-only to after-school hours), when job duties change, or when the minor changes schools.4Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. F700-002-000 Parent/School Authorization Start the renewal early in September; waiting until the last week risks not getting the school signature back before the minor is barred from working.
What a Missing or Expired Form Costs
Washington businesses that violate minor work restrictions face fines and civil penalties.2Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. How to Hire Minors Federal child labor civil penalties under the Fair Labor Standards Act reach up to $15,138 per employee per violation, rising to $68,801 when a minor is seriously injured or killed, and doubling to $137,602 for willful or repeated violations.10U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor – Civil Money Penalties State and federal enforcement can overlap on the same violation.
The most common finding is not dramatic. It is an expired form, a form that was never completed, or a schedule change that was never documented. Treat the September 30 deadline the way you would treat a tax date: once it passes without a current form on file, the minor cannot legally work until you have one.