HR Management & Compliance

Summer Jobs for Kids—Many Restrictions on Duties and Hours

In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered permitted work for youths under 16. Today, prohibited work, and some great news—your job descriptions are updated and ready to go.

Minors Aged 14 and 15: Prohibited Work

Minors 14 and 15 years old may not work in the following occupations. Again, this is not an exhaustive list.

  • Most jobs in manufacturing, mining, or processing occupations.
  • Work deemed hazardous for the employment of minors between the ages of 16 and 18 or detrimental to their health or well-being.
  • Occupations that involve operating, tending, setting up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling, or repairing any power-driven machinery including, but not limited to, lawn mowers, golf carts, all-terrain vehicles, trimmers, cutters, weed-eaters, edgers, food slicers, food grinders, food choppers, food processors, food cutters, and food mixers. Youth 14 and 15 years of age may operate certain office equipment, vacuum cleaners, and floor waxers.
  • The operation of motor vehicles.
  • Outside window washing that involves working from window sills, and all work requiring the use of ladders, scaffolds, or their substitutes.
  • Most baking and cooking activities.
  • Work in freezers and meat coolers and work in the preparation of meats for sale. Minors may enter freezers only momentarily to retrieve items.
  • Youth peddling, which entails the selling of goods or services to customers at locations other than the youth employer’s establishment, such as the customers’ residences or places of business, or public places such as street corners and public transportation stations. (Minors may sell goods or services as volunteers and without compensation on behalf of certain organizations, such as the Girl Scouts.)

Your job descriptions are already written and keyed onto CD format. Thousands of HR managers have depended on the print version of this product—now they’re flocking to get SmartJobs on CD! Try it at no cost or risk. Go here for info.


Minors of 17 Years of Age May Drive

Under certain conditions, workers 17 years of age and older may drive during daylight hours in a vehicle of 6,000 pounds or less.

Minors Under the Age of 18

Children under the age of 18 may not do particularly hazardous jobs or jobs that are detrimental to their health or well-being. The list of hazardous occupations may be found here.

18 and Older—No More Restrictions

Once employees turn 18, they may work in any job for any number of hours. The child labor rules no longer apply.

Where’s the first stop in dealing with youth employment? That’s simple—the job description. Do the duties match the age restrictions type of work? Are the hours of work within the guidelines?

It’s all there in the job description … if all your job descriptions are well-written, attorney-checked, and up-to-date. … Actually, with BLR’s new program, they already are.

BLR has now released its collection of 500 job descriptions, formerly only available in the classic, but shelf-filling, Job Descriptions Encyclopedia, in a program called SmartJobs on CD. That’s cause for celebration—your job descriptions are a click away from being done.

And we’re talking about virtually all of them, covering every common position in any organization, from receptionist right up to president. They are all there in BLR’s SmartJobs.


Throw your keyboard away—More than 500 prewritten, legally reviewed job descriptions ready at the click of your mouse. Use as is—or easily modify, save, and print. Pay grades are already attached. Try BLR’s remarkable SmartJobs program at no cost. Click here to learn more.


These are descriptions you can depend on. Our collection has been constantly refined and updated over time, with descriptions revised or added each time the law, technology, or the way business is done changes. 

Revised for the ADA, Pay Grades Added

BLR editors have taken apart every one of the 500 descriptions and reassembled them to be ADA-compliant. And now they’ve added pay grades for each job, based on BLR’s annual surveys of exempt and nonexempt compensation, as well as other data.

According to our customers, this is an enormous timesaver, enabling them to make compensation decisions even as they define the position.

SmartJobs also includes an extensive tutorial on setting up a complete job descriptions program, as well as how to encourage participation from all parts of the organization. That includes top management, employees, and any union or other collective-bargaining entity.

Twice-Yearly Updates, No Additional Cost

Very important these days are the updates included in the program as a standard feature—essential at a time of constantly changing laws and yes, emerging technologies. And the cost of the program is extremely reasonable, averaging less than 66 cents per job description … already written, legally reviewed, and ready to adapt or use as-is.

You can evaluate BLR’s SmartJobs at no cost in your office for up to 30 days. Just click here and we’ll be delighted to send it to you.

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1 thought on “Summer Jobs for Kids—Many Restrictions on Duties and Hours”

  1. Don’t forget to train your managers on the jobs/hours restrictions for minors–HR may be in the loop on what the rules are, but it’s the front-lines folks who need to be the enforcers.

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