In Michigan, you can start working at age 14 for most jobs, with a few narrow exceptions that let children work earlier: golf caddying, youth-sports officiating, and certain farm tasks open up at 11 or 13, family businesses and household chores have no minimum age, and performing arts work is allowed from as young as 15 days old with a special authorization.1Michigan Legislature. Youth Employment Standards Act These rules come from the Youth Employment Standards Act (YESA), which governs everyone under 18 in the state.
The General Minimum Is 14
If you’re 14 or older, you can take most standard jobs a teenager would look for: fast food, retail, grocery stores, movie theaters, ice cream shops, and similar work. Before your first day, you need a work permit, and you need a new one every time you switch employers.2Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Work Permit Information There is no summer-job or part-time exception to the permit rule.
The permit is a single form with three sections. You and a parent fill out the first part with your school and personal information. Your prospective employer completes the second part, listing the job title, duties, wage, equipment you’ll use, and your schedule. You then bring the form and proof of age (a birth certificate, driver’s license, or school record works) to an authorized issuing officer at your school district, intermediate school district, public school academy, or nonpublic school. The officer checks that everything complies with the law and signs off, and your employer keeps the signed permit on file at your work location.3State of Michigan. Combined Offer of Employment and Work Permit CA-6
Jobs You Can Do Before Age 14
YESA carves out several situations where kids under 14 can work legally. The list is short and specific.
Age 11 and Up
Eleven- and twelve-year-olds can work as golf caddies. They can also serve as referees or umpires for a youth athletic program, provided they’re officiating an age bracket younger than their own and an adult from the program is on-site during games.1Michigan Legislature. Youth Employment Standards Act
Age 13 and Up
Thirteen-year-olds can work in specific agricultural jobs tied to seed production, including detasseling, roguing, and hoeing. These jobs don’t require a work permit as long as the conditions meet Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) standards.1Michigan Legislature. Youth Employment Standards Act
Any Age
Two categories fall outside YESA entirely. Domestic chores performed in a private home are not regulated, and neither is work in a business owned and operated by your parent or guardian. Both exceptions assume the work isn’t hazardous.1Michigan Legislature. Youth Employment Standards Act So a 10-year-old can help at the register in the family shop or babysit siblings without any of the permit rules kicking in.
Performing Arts Have No Minimum Age
Modeling, film, stage, and dance work runs on a different track. Children as young as 15 days old can appear in these productions, but the production company (not the child or family) has to obtain a Performing Arts Authorization from LEO at least 10 days before any rehearsal or performance.4Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Performing Arts Authorization Information The authorization requires proof of workers’ compensation insurance for each minor involved. This replaces the standard work permit for this kind of work.
Emancipated Minors
If you’ve been legally emancipated, YESA doesn’t apply to you at all. You’re treated the same as an adult for employment purposes. Your employer will still want to keep proof of your emancipated status on file before you start.1Michigan Legislature. Youth Employment Standards Act
How Hours and Pay Change With Age
Reaching the minimum age is only part of the picture. Once you can work, how much you can work and how late you can stay depend on how old you are.
Ages 14 and 15
You can only work outside public school hours. During school weeks, that means a maximum of 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours for the week. On non-school days you can work up to 8 hours, and during non-school weeks the cap rises to 40 hours. During the school year your hours have to fall between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.; from June 1 through Labor Day the evening cutoff moves to 9:00 p.m.5State of Michigan. Employing Minors in Michigan
Ages 16 and 17
Older teens get more room. You can’t work more than 10 hours in a day, more than an average of 8 hours a day across the week, or more than 6 days in any week. Weekly totals cap at 24 hours during school weeks and 48 hours during breaks. The nighttime cutoff is 10:30 p.m. most nights with a 6:00 a.m. start, extending to 11:30 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and during school vacations.6Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 409.111
Break Rule for Every Age
After 5 consecutive hours of work, any minor must get an uninterrupted 30-minute meal and rest break. Anything shorter doesn’t count, and the law treats the shift as continuous work.7Michigan Legislature. MCL Section 409.112
What You’ll Get Paid
Michigan lets employers pay 16- and 17-year-olds 85% of the standard minimum wage. As of January 1, 2026, that comes to $11.67 per hour, against the full rate of $13.73. A separate federal training wage of $4.25 per hour can apply to any newly hired employee under 20 for their first 90 calendar days on the job.8Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Michigan’s Minimum Wage Set to Increase on Jan. 1, 2026
Jobs Still Closed to You Under 18
Even at 16 or 17, several categories of work are off the table because the state (and often federal law) classifies them as hazardous. Construction, demolition, roofing, excavation, and highway work are prohibited. So is any job in a plant that manufactures or stores explosives, or work involving radioactive or toxic substances. Operating or cleaning power-driven equipment like food slicers, grinders, woodworking machines, metal-forming machines, forklifts, and cranes is barred. Logging and sawmill work are treated as hazardous under both state and federal rules.9Cornell Law Institute. Michigan Admin Code R 408.6208
Driving for work catches a lot of teens by surprise. Federal law generally bans anyone under 18 from driving a motor vehicle for the job or riding as an outside helper on a delivery vehicle. Seventeen-year-olds get a narrow exception only if every one of these conditions holds: driving happens in daylight, the vehicle weighs 6,000 pounds or less, the teen has a valid license with no moving violations, the driving is occasional and takes up no more than a third of the workday, and the route stays within a 30-mile radius of the workplace. Route deliveries, pizza delivery, time-sensitive runs, and carrying more than three passengers are all off-limits even within that exception.10U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Driving Automobiles and Trucks Under the FLSA
Alcohol work has its own age rules. Nobody under 17 can sell, serve, or supply alcoholic beverages. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds can’t work in any area of a business where alcohol is consumed at all. Minors from 14 through 17 can work at a place that sells alcohol only if food or other non-alcohol goods make up at least 50% of gross receipts, which is why a family restaurant qualifies but a bar with a small food menu generally doesn’t.5State of Michigan. Employing Minors in Michigan