Last updated: June 2026
Between April and July, the youth labor force grows by close to two million workers. For Georgia retailers, restaurants, and seasonal businesses, that surge often arrives at the same time as the peak revenue stretch. Cutting corners on hiring paperwork during that window is where the compliance trouble usually starts.
Who Counts as a Minor Worker
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 14 is the minimum age for most non-agricultural employment. The DOL Wage and Hour Division breaks the federal rules into three tiers. Workers under 14 are barred from most jobs covered by the FLSA. Workers ages 14 and 15 can take a limited set of non-hazardous jobs, outside of school hours, with caps on weekly hours. Workers ages 16 and 17 can hold any non-hazardous job for unlimited hours.
The BLS reported a youth unemployment rate of 10.8 percent in July 2025, a full point above July 2024. Even with a softer hiring market, 21.1 million 16- to 24-year-olds were employed at that point. That is a meaningful pool of summer applicants, and a meaningful pool of compliance risk if intake paperwork falls behind.
Hours and Hazardous-Job Restrictions
The DOL fact sheet on non-agricultural child labor is the document every hiring manager should keep on hand. For 14- and 15-year-olds, federal law caps hours at 3 per school day, 8 per non-school day, 18 in a school week, and 40 in a non-school week. Work cannot start before 7 a.m. or run past 7 p.m. during the school year, with the evening cap extending to 9 p.m. from June through Labor Day.
Hazardous occupations rules also matter. The Secretary of Labor has identified 17 occupations that are off-limits to anyone under 18, including roofing, most power-driven machinery, motor vehicle driving as a primary duty, and meat-processing equipment. A 17-year-old can run a cash register at a restaurant, but cannot operate the meat slicer. Those distinctions show up in violation reports every year.
State Rules That Override Federal
Federal rules set a floor. State law often sets a higher one, and the DOL state child labor table tracks where each state differs. Georgia, for example, requires a youth employment certificate for workers under 16, and the certificate has to be on file with the employer before the first day of work. Florida and North Carolina have their own permit and certificate requirements. Where state law is stricter than federal, the state law wins.
Hour caps also vary state by state. Some Southeast states permit 16- and 17-year-olds to work past 10 p.m. on school nights, others do not. Some require meal breaks for minors that adult workers are not entitled to. Treating “16 and 17 can work unlimited hours” as the universal rule is a quick path to a violation letter from the state Department of Labor.
Do Not Forget the I-9
Every new hire, regardless of age, needs a completed Form I-9 within three business days of their start date. The USCIS Form I-9 portal covers acceptable documents and current version requirements. Employers using an electronic I-9 system have until July 31, 2026, to load the version with the 05/31/2027 expiration date. Older versions remain valid until their own expiration dates, but using an out-of-date form is its own violation.
For a 16-year-old applicant, expect a state ID or learner permit paired with a Social Security card or birth certificate. The minor signs Section 1 themselves, with a parent or guardian as preparer or translator if needed. Employers participating in E-Verify still complete the I-9 first, then run the E-Verify case once Section 2 is done. The E-Verify program does not replace the I-9.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
Federal child labor penalties can reach $15,629 per minor employed in violation, with higher amounts for violations causing serious injury or death. State penalties stack on top of federal. I-9 fines start at $288 per form and climb past $2,800 for substantive violations. Stretched across a dozen seasonal hires, a single bad summer can produce more in penalties than the seasonal payroll itself.
Compliance during the busiest hiring weeks of the year is hard for small employers without dedicated HR staff. OneSource PEO clients in Georgia and across the Southeast use a single onboarding workflow that pulls work permits, completes I-9 documentation, runs E-Verify, and tracks minor-hour rules inside the same system. That way the store manager hiring three high schoolers on a Saturday morning gets the same compliance backbone a large employer would have, without slowing the start date.
onesourcepeo.com | service@onesourcepeo.com | (678) 990-8630