The minimum age to work in Colorado is 14 for most paid jobs, with a few narrow exceptions that let younger children work as performers, newspaper carriers, or in supervised school activities.1Justia. Colorado Code 8-12-105 – Minimum Age Requirements – Maximum Hours of Work Once a teen reaches 14, state and federal rules together control how many hours they can work, what time of day they can work, and which jobs are off-limits until 16 or 18.
Who Can Work Before Age 14
Colorado law carves out a short list of jobs open to children under 14. A child of any age may work as an actor, performer, or model, deliver newspapers, participate in supervised school-related activities, or do home chores for a parent who is not being paid for the work.2Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO #22 Employment of Minors in Colorado Outside those categories, no one younger than 14 can be employed in Colorado.
What Changes at 14, 16, and 18
At 14, teens can take non-hazardous jobs: cashiering, stocking shelves, office or clerical work, and similar roles. Hours are tightly limited, especially during the school year.
At 16, the range of allowed work widens. Food service, some machinery operation, and other industries open up, as long as the job isn’t on Colorado’s hazardous-occupation list. State hour caps still apply, but the stricter federal school-year hour limits drop away.
At 18, the youth employment rules no longer apply. An 18-year-old can take any job an adult can take, including the hazardous occupations closed to minors.
How Many Hours a Minor Can Work
Colorado caps every worker under 18 at eight hours per day and 40 hours per week.1Justia. Colorado Code 8-12-105 – Minimum Age Requirements – Maximum Hours of Work For 16- and 17-year-olds, those are the operative limits year-round. There is no state seasonal exception that allows older teens to work longer weeks.
For 14- and 15-year-olds, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act is stricter and controls in practice:3U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
- Up to 3 hours on a school day
- Up to 18 hours in a school week
- Up to 8 hours on a non-school day
- Up to 40 hours in a non-school week
Colorado’s statute by itself allows minors under 16 to work up to six hours after school when the following day isn’t a school day. For any employer covered by the FLSA, which is nearly all of them, the federal three-hour school-day cap wins.
Night Work
Colorado bars minors under 16 from working between 9:30 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. when the next day is a school day. On nights before non-school days, that curfew doesn’t apply. Federal law is tighter for 14- and 15-year-olds: no work before 7:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m. during the school year, with the evening cutoff extending to 9:00 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day.3U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15 Colorado does not impose a nighttime curfew on 16- and 17-year-olds.
Jobs Minors Can’t Do
Even once a teen is old enough to work, Colorado’s hazardous-occupation list keeps certain jobs closed to anyone under 18:4Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act, C.R.S. 8-12-101, et seq. (2025)
- Power-driven woodworking, metal-forming and shearing, bakery, paper products, and automatic pin-setting machines
- Mining, logging, oil drilling, and quarrying
- Manufacturing, transporting, or storing explosives
- Slaughter of livestock and rendering or packaging of meat
- Any job with a primary fall risk of 10 feet or more
- Work involving radioactive substances or ionizing radiation
- Demolition and wrecking, excluding manual auto wrecking
- Roofing
- Excavation
- Manufacturing brick, clay construction products, or silica refractory products
- Operation of high-pressure steam or high-temperature water boilers
Federal hazardous-occupation orders add driving motor vehicles to this list for anyone under 18, so Colorado employers can’t assign driving duties to a minor even though it isn’t in the state statute.5eCFR. Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
Some of these prohibitions have narrow exceptions for minors 14 and older who have completed a registered apprenticeship, a student-learner program through a public school or community college, or a comparable training program.4Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act, C.R.S. 8-12-101, et seq. (2025)
Pay
Colorado’s 2026 minimum wage is $15.16 per hour, and there’s no lower training or youth wage under state law.6Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Labor Standards and Statistics Federal law lets employers pay workers under 20 as little as $4.25 per hour for their first 90 calendar days,7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #32 – Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act but the higher state rate controls. Every non-exempt minor working in Colorado is entitled to $15.16 from the first shift, regardless of age or how recently they were hired.
Paperwork Before the First Shift
Age Certificates
Colorado employers must obtain an age certificate for every minor they hire. The certificate is issued after the minor presents a birth certificate, a photocopy, or acceptable alternative proof of age to the issuing officer, and it records the minor’s name, address, physical description, date of birth, and the evidence used.8Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes 8-12-111 – Age Certificates Colorado’s age certificates are recognized as valid under federal law.5eCFR. Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
School Release Permits
A minor who needs to work during school hours needs a school release permit. Permits last no longer than 30 days and are canceled when the job ends. Three conditions must be met: the job isn’t a prohibited occupation, the parent or guardian consents, and the issuing officer believes the work serves the minor’s best interests.9Justia. Colorado Revised Statutes 8-12-113 – School Release Permits Even with a permit, the minor must attend at least three class hours each regular school day, with a narrow extreme-hardship exception.
Exemption Requests
Employers, minors, parents, school officials, or youth employment specialists can request an exemption from the standard age, hour, or duty restrictions. The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics processes these requests, typically within 14 days.10Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Youth Exemption Request Form (October 2025) An exemption can allow longer hours or duties that normally require a higher age, but it cannot waive school release permit rules or override federal law.2Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO #22 Employment of Minors in Colorado A state exemption letting a 15-year-old work extra hours still can’t push past the FLSA’s three-hour school-day cap.
Penalties for Violations
Colorado’s penalty structure for youth employment violations is steep, and the statute distinguishes between hazardous-occupation violations and everything else:11Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act, C.R.S. 8-12-101, et seq. (2025) – Section 8-12-116
- Hazardous-occupation violations: $2,000 to $4,000 per violation
- Hour, age, or documentation violations: $250 to $1,000 per violation
- Willful or repeat hazardous-occupation violations within five years of a prior violation: $5,000 to $10,000
- Willful or repeat other violations within five years: $500 to $4,000
Starting January 1, 2026, the Division adjusts these amounts annually for inflation using the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Consumer Price Index, so published figures each year may run slightly above the statutory base. The statute also allows damages payable to the affected minor, on top of fines against the employer.