What Is the Legal Age to Work in South Carolina?

The legal age to work in South Carolina is 14 for most non-agricultural jobs, with narrow exceptions that allow younger children to work in family businesses, deliver newspapers, perform in entertainment, or do limited farm work. South Carolina mirrors the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, so what a young worker can do depends heavily on their age bracket: tight limits at 14 and 15, far fewer at 16 and 17, and a hazardous-occupations ban that holds until 18.¹

When Children Under 14 Can Work

Below 14, the default answer is no. A few situations are carved out of the rules:

Children of any age can work in a business entirely owned by their parents. Under 16 they still cannot work in mining or manufacturing, and no one under 18 can work in a hazardous occupation, even for a parent.²
Delivering newspapers to consumers is exempt from child labor rules at any age.³
Minors of any age can work as actors or performers in motion pictures, theater, radio, and television.³
Children 12 and 13 can work on farms outside school hours in non-hazardous jobs with written parental consent or on a farm where a parent also works. Under 12, farm work is limited to farms owned or operated by the child’s parents.⁴

South Carolina does not require a state-issued work permit for minors. The federal FLSA lets employers request an age certificate to verify a young worker’s age, and some do, but there is no state paperwork a teen must file before starting.

Rules for 14- and 15-Year-Olds

This is the most tightly regulated bracket. South Carolina Regulation 71-3106 adopts the federal hour limits in 29 CFR 570.35, and the rules change depending on whether school is in session.⁵⁶

Hours When School Is in Session

No work during school hours.
No more than 3 hours on a school day.
No more than 18 hours in a school week.
Work must take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Hours When School Is Not in Session

Up to 8 hours a day.
Up to 40 hours a week.
Between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. during the summer break of the school district where the minor lives.

What Jobs Are Allowed

Hours are only half the picture. Federal law restricts 14- and 15-year-olds to a specific list of approved jobs set out in 29 CFR 570.34. If a job is not on that list, this age group cannot do it.⁷ Permitted work includes:

Retail tasks like cashiering, price marking, stocking shelves, and bagging groceries.
Office and clerical work, including filing, data entry, and operating office machines.
Food service tasks such as dishwashing, busing tables, limited cooking on electric or gas grills (not open flames), and operating simple equipment like toasters and microwaves.
Tutoring, computer programming, and performing music.
Yard and cleanup work by hand. No power-driven mowers, trimmers, or edgers.
Errands and delivery on foot, by bicycle, or by public transportation.

Prohibited for this age group: construction, transportation, warehousing, manufacturing, and processing operations. They cannot operate any power-driven machinery other than office machines, work in freezers or meat coolers, perform baking operations, or do door-to-door sales.⁸

Rules for 16- and 17-Year-Olds

At 16, the hour restrictions disappear. There is no daily cap, no weekly cap, and no curfew under either South Carolina or federal law. A 16- or 17-year-old can legally work the same schedule as an adult.² The hazardous-occupations ban still applies until 18.

Driving for Work at 17

Driving on public roads as part of a job is treated as hazardous for minors, but 17-year-olds get a narrow exception. All of the following must be true:

Driving is limited to daylight hours.
The teen holds a valid license for the vehicle type.
The teen completed a state-approved driver education course and had no moving violations at the time of hire.
The vehicle weighs no more than 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.
The vehicle has seat belts and the employer requires their use.
Driving is occasional and incidental: no more than one-third of the workday or 20 percent of weekly work hours.

Even when every condition is met, the driving cannot involve route deliveries, time-sensitive deliveries like pizza runs, towing, transporting more than three passengers, or traveling beyond 30 miles from the workplace.⁹ Pizza delivery jobs do not qualify, because they involve urgent, time-sensitive deliveries.

Hazardous Jobs Banned Until 18

No one under 18 can work in an occupation the Secretary of Labor has declared hazardous, regardless of parental consent. The federal Hazardous Occupation Orders cover work including:

Manufacturing or storing explosives.
Coal and other mining.
Logging, sawmill, and forestry operations.
Operating power-driven woodworking machines, hoisting equipment, metal-forming or metal-cutting machines, and bakery equipment.
Roofing and any work on or about a roof.
Excavation.
Wrecking and demolition.
Slaughtering, meat packing, and power-driven meat processing.
Driving a motor vehicle on public roads, except under the 17-year-old carve-out above.
Operating power-driven paper products machines, balers, and compactors.

These prohibitions come from 29 CFR Part 570, Subpart E, and apply in South Carolina because state rules cannot be more or less restrictive than federal law.¹⁰¹

What Teen Workers Must Be Paid

South Carolina has no state minimum wage, so the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour applies to covered workers, including teenagers.¹¹ Employers may pay workers under 20 a youth subminimum wage of $4.25 per hour during the first 90 calendar days of employment. After those 90 days, or once the worker turns 20, the full $7.25 rate applies. Employers cannot displace existing workers to hire someone at the lower youth rate.¹²

Penalties for Breaking the Rules

South Carolina and federal penalties can stack. An employer who violates the rules may face both.

Under South Carolina Code Section 41-13-25, a first offense draws a written warning or a fine of up to $1,000. A second or subsequent offense carries a fine of up to $5,000 per violation. Fine amounts turn on the size of the business, the seriousness of the violation, the employer’s good faith, and prior history. Employers have 30 days after notice to request a review.¹

Parents and guardians have their own exposure. Under Section 41-13-30, a parent who permits a child to work in violation of the regulations, or who misrepresents the child’s age to get them hired, commits a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $10 to $50 or up to 30 days in jail.¹

Federal civil penalties are steeper. As of 2025, the Department of Labor can assess up to $16,035 per child labor violation. When a violation causes serious injury or death, the penalty rises to $72,876, or $145,752 if the violation was willful or repeated. These amounts adjust annually for inflation.¹³

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 41 Chapter 13 – Child Labor
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
3
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor – Complete Child Labor Exemptions
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
5
Legal Information Institute. South Carolina Code of Regulations 71-3106 – Employment of Minors Between 14 and 16 Years of Age
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.35 – Hours Limitations
7
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.34 – Occupations That May Be Performed by Minors 14 and 15 Years of Age
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2
10
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
11
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Subminimum Wage
13
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments