What Jobs Can You Get at 14 in Georgia: Permits, Hours, and Pay

At 14, you can legally work in Georgia, and the jobs open to you are the low-risk, non-industrial kind: retail, food service, office and clerical work, tutoring, creative and computer work, and foot or bicycle delivery. Before your first shift you need a Georgia work permit, and your employer has to keep your hours inside limits that get tighter during the school year. Georgia’s child labor statutes set some of the rules, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets others; when they differ, the stricter rule wins.¹

Jobs Open to a 14-Year-Old

Federal regulations list the occupations 14- and 15-year-olds are allowed to perform. The categories give you a reasonable range of options:²

Retail and grocery work, including cashiering, bagging, stocking shelves, price tagging, and carrying out customer orders.
Food service tasks like kitchen prep, dishwashing, and serving. You can run basic equipment such as toasters, blenders, and coffee machines, cook on electric or gas grills that don’t involve an open flame, and use deep fryers equipped with automatic basket-lowering devices.
Office and clerical work, including filing, data entry, and standard office machines.
Creative and intellectual work: computer programming, software writing, tutoring, performing music, and artistic work.
Errands and delivery on foot, by bicycle, or by public transportation.
Cleanup and grounds work, including vacuuming and floor waxing. Power-driven mowers and trimmers are not allowed.

Some common teen jobs sit outside the standard permit system entirely. Agricultural work is excluded from Georgia’s child labor chapter, so seasonal farm and nursery jobs follow different rules.³ Newspaper delivery is a traditional option that operates largely outside the permit requirement. Minors working in acting or performing fall under a separate set of Georgia entertainment-industry rules.

Work That’s Off-Limits

The Commissioner of Labor can declare any occupation dangerous to the life, health, or safety of minors under 16.⁴ Federal law adds 17 Hazardous Occupation Orders covering everyone under 18, plus extra prohibited tasks specific to 14- and 15-year-olds.⁵ As a 14-year-old in Georgia you cannot take work in:

Manufacturing, mining, or processing operations.
Any job using power-driven machinery beyond basic office equipment, vacuum cleaners, and floor waxers.
Roofing, demolition, or excavation.
Work with explosives, radioactive materials, or hazardous chemicals.
Operating or helping on motor vehicles.
Loading or unloading goods from trucks, railroad cars, or conveyors.
Outside window washing from sills, or any work on ladders or scaffolding.
Public messenger service.
Meat processing, slaughtering, or working in freezers and meat coolers, aside from briefly grabbing items for food prep.

The Kitchen Rules That Trip People Up

Food service is one of the most common first jobs, and the cooking limits are specific enough that managers sometimes get them wrong. At 14 you can work a grill and use an automatic-basket deep fryer, but you cannot operate any oven, including toaster ovens and microwaves that heat above 140°F. Removing items from ovens and placing them on cooling trays is also prohibited. Rotisseries, pressure cookers, high-speed broilers, and power-driven slicers or grinders are off-limits entirely.⁶ If a manager tells you to pull pizzas from the oven, that’s a violation on the employer, not on you.

Getting Your Work Permit

Every minor under 16 in Georgia needs a Georgia Employment Certificate, usually called a work permit, before starting a job.⁷ The permit involves three people: you, your prospective employer, and an issuing officer tied to your school.

You start by applying through the Georgia Department of Labor’s youth work permit portal, entering your Social Security number (or a parent’s alien certification number) and date of birth. A parent or guardian provides consent in the same step.⁸ Your employer then logs into the portal and enters a description of the job and a confirmation that they’re ready to hire you once the certificate issues.⁷

You’ll also need to submit a certified copy of your birth certificate or birth registration card as proof of age. The final certificate is issued by an authorized school official: a public school superintendent or authorized staff member, a private school principal or authorized staff member, or, for a homeschooled minor, the parent or guardian running the home study program. That official also provides a letter confirming you’re enrolled full-time with a good attendance record for the current year.⁷ Most employers won’t let you clock in for training until the paperwork is complete, so pulling your birth certificate and talking to your issuing officer in advance saves weeks.

Hours and Curfews

Georgia and federal law both set hour and curfew limits for 14-year-olds, and the stricter of the two controls.¹ Georgia itself allows up to four hours on a school day,⁹ but federal law caps school-day work at three hours and school-week work at 18 hours, and limits the workday to between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM during the school year.¹⁰ Those tighter federal numbers are the ones that apply.

During the school year, a 14-year-old in Georgia can work:

No more than 3 hours on a school day.
No more than 18 hours in a school week.
Only between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM.
Not during school hours, unless you’ve completed high school or have a board of education exemption.

When school is out, both Georgia and federal law allow up to 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.⁹ From June 1 through Labor Day, the federal evening cutoff extends to 9:00 PM. The morning start stays at 7:00 AM.¹⁰

Neither Georgia nor federal law requires meal or rest breaks for minors in standard non-entertainment jobs. Many employers offer them anyway as policy, but they aren’t legally required.

What You’ll Be Paid

Georgia’s state minimum wage is $5.15 per hour, but that figure doesn’t apply to most teen jobs. Any employer covered by the FLSA, which includes businesses with at least $500,000 in annual revenue along with hospitals, schools, and government agencies, has to pay the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.¹¹

There’s one exception. Federal law lets employers pay a youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour to any worker under 20 during their first 90 calendar days on the job.¹² It’s 90 calendar days, not 90 shifts. After that, the employer must pay at least $7.25. In practice most retailers and restaurants pay $7.25 or more from day one because $4.25 doesn’t attract applicants, but check your offer in writing.

Taxes and I-9 Paperwork

Your employer will withhold federal income tax from each check based on the W-4 you fill out when hired. Whether you actually owe anything depends on how much you earn for the year. For tax year 2026 the standard deduction for a single filer is $16,100, so if your total earnings stay below that, you probably won’t owe federal income tax and can file a return to get your withholding back.¹³

Social Security and Medicare taxes work differently. These come out of every paycheck at a combined 7.65%, no matter how little you earn, and filing a return doesn’t bring them back. The one narrow exception is students employed by the school, college, or university where they’re actively enrolled; that work is exempt from FICA.¹⁴ A campus job at your own school qualifies. A summer job at a grocery store does not.

Your employer will also need you to complete federal Form I-9 to verify identity and work authorization. If you don’t have a driver’s license or state ID, minors under 18 can use a school record, report card, or clinic record as the identity document.¹⁵

If an Employer Breaks the Rules

Georgia treats any violation of its child labor chapter as a misdemeanor.¹⁶ An employer who fails to keep proper employment certificate documentation on file faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to 12 months in jail, or both, for each violation.⁷ Federal penalties run separately, and the U.S. Department of Labor can assess civil money penalties for FLSA child labor violations, with higher amounts when the violation causes a minor’s injury or death.

If your employer schedules you past curfew, assigns you prohibited equipment, or works you more hours than allowed, you or your parent can file a complaint with the Georgia Department of Labor or the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. The violation sits with the employer. You won’t face penalties for working hours your boss shouldn’t have scheduled.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment
2
eCFR. 29 CFR 570.34 – Occupations That May Be Performed by Minors 14 and 15 Years of Age
3
U.S. Department of Labor. State Child Labor Laws Applicable to Agricultural Employment
4
Justia. Georgia Code 39-2-2 – Employment of Minors Under 16 Years of Age Generally; Hazardous Occupations
5
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #58: Cooking and Baking Under the Federal Child Labor Provisions of the FLSA
7
Justia. Georgia Code 39-2-11 – Employment Certificates; Required; Requirements for Issuance
8
Georgia Department of Labor. Get a Youth Work Permit Online
9
Justia. Georgia Code 39-2-7 – Employment of Minors Under 16 Years of Age Generally; Maximum Hours of Employment
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #43: Child Labor Provisions of the FLSA for Nonagricultural Occupations
11
Georgia Department of Labor. Minimum Wage
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #32: Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
13
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
14
Internal Revenue Service. Student Exception to FICA Tax
15
USCIS. 13.2 List B Documents That Establish Identity
16
Justia. Georgia Code 39-2-20 – Penalty for Violations of Chapter