What Is the Legal Age to Work in Texas: Rules for Ages 14 to 18

The legal age to work in Texas is 14 for most jobs, though a handful of exceptions let younger children deliver newspapers, work in a parent’s business, or perform as child actors. Once a teen turns 16, Texas and federal hour limits fall away, but certain hazardous jobs remain off-limits until age 18. Texas Labor Code Chapter 51 and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act both apply, and when they differ, employers have to follow whichever rule is stricter.¹

The General Minimum Age Is 14

Under Texas Labor Code Section 51.011, employing a child under 14 is an offense unless a specific exemption applies.² That matches the federal floor for non-agricultural work. For a teenager hoping to pick up a shift at a grocery store, a restaurant, a movie theater, or any typical first job, 14 is the starting line.

Jobs Children Under 14 Can Do

Texas Labor Code Section 51.003 lists the situations where a child younger than 14 can legally work:³

A child of any age can work in a business owned or operated by a parent or legal custodian, as long as the work is nonhazardous and done under direct supervision. Federal law allows the same for non-agricultural work, but still bars minors under 18 from hazardous occupations even when a parent owns the business.⁴
Children aged 11 and older can deliver newspapers to consumers.
Children can work in agriculture during periods when they are not legally required to attend school. Texas defines agriculture broadly to include crop cultivation, dairying, and raising livestock or poultry.
Children under 14 can work as performers, but only after the employer obtains a child actor authorization from the Texas Workforce Commission. The application has to be signed by a parent or guardian.⁵
Children in school-supervised, school-administered work-study programs approved by the Texas Workforce Commission are exempt.
Casual nonhazardous work with parental consent, such as occasional yard work, is also allowed.

What 14- and 15-Year-Olds Can Work

Teens in this age group face the tightest schedule limits. Federal rules cap their hours at three per day on school days and 18 per week during school weeks, with all work falling outside school hours. When school is out, the caps rise to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.⁶

Time of day matters too. Federal law allows work only between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. most of the year, with the evening cutoff extending to 9:00 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day.⁶

Texas adds its own limits under Section 51.013. State law prohibits 14- and 15-year-olds from working between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. on nights before a school day, and between midnight and 5:00 a.m. on other nights. During the summer, the midnight-to-5:00 a.m. restriction applies unless the teen is enrolled in summer school. Texas also caps the week at 48 hours and the day at eight.² The federal limits are stricter in most situations, so those are what employers typically follow.

Jobs 14- and 15-Year-Olds Cannot Do

Beyond hours, federal law keeps this age group out of manufacturing, mining, construction, warehousing, and any job covered by the hazardous occupations orders. They cannot operate power-driven machinery (ordinary office equipment aside), and they cannot work from ladders or scaffolds.¹

Two restrictions trip up common teen workplaces. In food service, 14- and 15-year-olds can use grills without open flames and deep fryers with automatic basket lowering, but they cannot cook over open flames, use rapid broilers or pressure cookers, do any baking (including microwave baking), or operate power-driven slicers, grinders, or mixers. Cleaning kitchen surfaces is allowed only when temperatures stay at or below 100°F.⁷

The minimum age for door-to-door and street sales is 16. That covers selling at homes, on street corners, or at transit stations, and also sign-waving or placard-holding to attract customers unless the teen is standing directly in front of the employer’s own establishment. School fundraisers and Girl Scout cookie sales are not covered.⁸

What Changes at Age 16

Turning 16 removes all federal and Texas hour and time-of-day restrictions. A 16- or 17-year-old can work unlimited hours on any schedule, including overnight.⁶ That’s a real change, but it isn’t a green light for every job. The hazardous occupation bans stay in place until 18.

Jobs Banned Until Age 18

The U.S. Department of Labor keeps a list of 17 hazardous occupations orders that no worker under 18 can perform, regardless of parental consent or employer size.⁹ The categories most likely to come up in ordinary workplaces include:

Driving a motor vehicle on public roads as a primary job duty, or riding outside a vehicle cab as a helper. A limited exception lets 17-year-olds drive during daylight hours when driving is incidental to the job and takes up no more than one-third of the workday.¹⁰
Operating forklifts, cranes, and other power-driven hoisting equipment.
Operating power-driven meat slicers, bakery machines, woodworking machines, or metal-forming and shearing machines.¹¹
Working with balers, compactors, and paper-products machines. A narrow exception lets 16- and 17-year-olds load (but not operate or unload) certain scrap paper balers and compactors that meet specific safety standards and have a key-locked on-off switch controlled by an adult.¹²
Roofing and all work on or about a roof.¹³
Wrecking, demolition, shipbreaking, and excavation (including trenching and tunnels).
Logging and sawmill work, mining, and manufacturing or storing explosives.
Operating circular saws, band saws, chain saws, and abrasive cutting discs.
Working with radioactive substances or in brick and tile manufacturing.

These restrictions catch employers more often than you’d expect. A restaurant handing a 17-year-old the keys to a delivery car, a retail store asking a teen to run a trash compactor, or a construction company putting a minor on a roof for “light cleanup” is violating federal law regardless of the teen’s experience or willingness.

Texas Does Not Require a Work Permit

Some states make minors get a work permit or employment certificate before starting a job. Texas does not. Neither state law nor the Texas Workforce Commission requires a permit, and there’s no state-issued document a teen needs to carry.¹⁴ Employers are still responsible for verifying age and making sure the job complies with the rules above.

When the Rules Are Broken

The Texas Workforce Commission can impose an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 per violation under Labor Code Section 51.033, with the amount tied to the seriousness of the violation, the employer’s history, and any corrective action.¹⁵ Federal civil penalties run higher, reaching into the tens of thousands per affected employee and climbing further when a violation causes death or serious injury to a worker under 18.¹⁶ Willful violations can also carry criminal fines and, on a second conviction, imprisonment.¹⁷

If a minor is being asked to work hours or perform tasks that break these rules, complaints can go to the Texas Workforce Commission for state-law violations or to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division for federal ones. Neither agency requires the complainant to be the minor. A parent, teacher, or coworker can report the concern.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
2
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Code Chapter 51 – Employment of Children
3
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Section 51.003 – General Exemptions
4
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor – Complete Child Labor Exemptions
5
Legal Information Institute. 40 Texas Admin Code 817.31 – Child Actor Authorization
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor – Hours
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 58 – Cooking and Baking under the Federal Child Labor Provisions of Fair Labor Standards Act
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Youth Peddling under the Federal Child Labor Provisions of Fair Labor Standards Act
9
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules – Hazardous Occupations
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2
11
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.55 – Occupations Involved in the Operation of Power-Driven Woodworking Machines
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 57 – Rules for Employing Youth and Power-Driven Scrap Paper Balers and Paper Box Compactors
13
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.67 – Occupations in Roofing Operations
14
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Child Labor Law
15
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Section 51.033 – Administrative Penalty
16
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 579 – Child Labor Violations Civil Money Penalties
17
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor – Enforcement