What Age Can You Work in Idaho? Child Labor and Farm Rules

In Idaho, you can start working at 14 for most jobs, with a narrow state-law exception that lets 12- and 13-year-olds take jobs during school breaks of two weeks or longer.¹ What kinds of work you can do and how many hours you can put in change again at 16, and most remaining restrictions fall away at 18. Federal law sits on top of Idaho law, and when the two disagree, the stricter rule wins.²

The Idaho Minimum Working Age

Idaho Code 44-1301 prohibits anyone under 14 from working in or in connection with a mine, factory, store, restaurant, hotel, laundry, workshop, or in delivering merchandise or messages.¹ That list covers essentially every ordinary job a young teen might look for, so 14 is the practical floor. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets the same age for non-agricultural work.³

Working at 12 or 13 During School Vacations

Idaho does allow one carve-out. A child at least 12 years old may work in the occupations listed above during regular school vacations of two weeks or more.¹ In real terms, that means summer break and winter break. When school is back in session, the under-14 rule returns.

The catch is that this is a state exception only. For any employer covered by the FLSA, federal rules still bar non-agricultural work by anyone under 14, and there is no matching federal school-vacation carve-out.³ Most businesses with any meaningful revenue are FLSA-covered, so this exception really only opens a door at very small local operations that fall outside federal coverage.

What 14- and 15-Year-Olds Can Do

Even once you hit 14, the law is picky about the work. Federal regulations list the occupations that are allowed, and anything not on the list is not.⁴ Permitted work includes:

Retail and office tasks like cashiering, stocking shelves, price-tagging, filing, and running standard office equipment
Food service work: taking orders, washing dishes, cleaning equipment, and limited cooking on electric or gas grills (no open flames, no deep fryers without auto-lift baskets)
Tutoring, computer programming, and performing music
Errands and light delivery on foot, by bicycle, or on public transit
Cleanup and yard work that does not involve power-driven mowers, trimmers, or edgers
Dispensing gas and hand-washing cars at service stations

Off limits: manufacturing, mining, construction, and operating power-driven machinery beyond typical office or kitchen equipment.⁵ Warehouses, loading docks with heavy equipment, and active construction sites are also out.

Hour Limits for Workers Under 16

Idaho’s own hour cap under Idaho Code 44-1304 is 9 hours a day and 54 hours a week, with no work between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.² Federal limits are tighter, so for most employers they are what actually applies:³

School weeks: no more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours total for the week
Non-school weeks: up to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week
Time of day: work only between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day, when the evening cutoff moves to 9:00 p.m.

What Changes at 16

At 16, most job-type restrictions lift. A 16- or 17-year-old can work in manufacturing and construction, and federal law imposes no hour restrictions on non-hazardous work at this age. Idaho’s state-level hour cap applies to workers under 16, so 16- and 17-year-olds face no statutory limit on daily or weekly hours.⁶

What stays off limits is a federal list of 17 hazardous occupations that remain barred until 18.⁷ The categories most likely to matter in Idaho:

Operating power-driven woodworking machines, metalworking machines, or bakery equipment
Working with explosives or in storage areas for them
Logging, timber-tract work, and sawmill operations
Excavation and trenching
Roofing and demolition
Jobs with exposure to radioactive substances
Operating most power-driven hoisting equipment, including forklifts

These prohibitions come from the Secretary of Labor and are codified in 29 CFR Part 570, Subpart E.⁸ Narrow apprenticeship and student-learner exemptions exist for some of them, but they require enrollment in a qualifying program and direct supervision.

Driving for Work at 17

Driving on the job is generally a hazardous occupation, but a 17-year-old may drive a car or small truck on public roads for work if every one of these conditions is met:⁹

Daylight hours only
Valid state license for the vehicle type
Completed state-approved driver education, with no moving violations on record
Vehicle weighs no more than 6,000 pounds and has seat belts
Driving is occasional and incidental: no more than one-third of any workday and no more than 20 percent of any workweek

Even then, route deliveries, transporting passengers for hire, towing, time-sensitive deliveries such as pizza runs, carrying more than three passengers, and any trip more than 30 miles from the workplace are all still prohibited.⁹

Farm Work Follows Different Age Rules

Agricultural work is treated separately under federal law, and the age rules are much more permissive:¹⁰

Age 16 and up: any farm job, any hours
Ages 14 and 15: non-hazardous farm work outside school hours
Ages 12 and 13: non-hazardous farm work outside school hours, on a farm that also employs a parent or with written parental consent
Under 12: with parental consent, only on small farms exempt from federal minimum wage requirements

A child of any age may work on a farm owned or operated by their parents.¹¹ The one limit is that no one under 16 may perform work the Secretary of Labor has declared hazardous in agriculture unless the farm is parent-owned. Those hazardous tasks include operating large tractors, handling certain harvesting equipment, working with pesticides labeled danger or poison, and entering grain storage structures.¹⁰

Work Permits and Employer Records

Idaho does not require a work permit or employment certificate for a minor to start a job.² There is no school-issued form and no fee.

Employers still have record-keeping duties. Idaho Code 44-1303 requires any employer of a minor between 14 and 16 in the covered workplaces to keep a record of each minor’s name, age, and place of residence.¹² An employer can ask for proof of age, such as a birth certificate or state ID, to confirm eligibility.

Jobs That Fall Outside the Rules Entirely

Some categories of work are exempt from the FLSA child labor provisions regardless of age:³

Working for a business owned entirely by your parents, except in mining, manufacturing, or hazardous occupations
Delivering newspapers directly to consumers¹¹
Acting and performing
Casual work at a private home such as babysitting or yard work

A 10-year-old babysitting for a neighbor, a 13-year-old on a paper route, or a 12-year-old helping at a parent’s shop are all outside the reach of the FLSA, so long as the work at the parent-owned business is not on the hazardous list.

1
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 44-1301 – Restrictions on Employment of Children Under Fourteen
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor – Prohibited Occupations for Non-Agricultural Employees
6
Justia. Idaho Code Title 44 – Child Labor Law
7
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules
8
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
9
U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division. Teen Driving on the Job
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 40 – Overview of Youth Employment (Child Labor) Provisions for Agricultural Occupations
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
12
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 44-1303 – Employers to Keep Record of Minor Employees