Hiring minors at a restaurant in Illinois (2026)

Illinois rewrote its child labor law for 2025. The Child Labor Law of 2024 covers workers under 16, and it adds two rules a restaurant feels right away: a teen's school day and work day together can't pass 8 hours, and an adult aged 21 or older has to be on site whenever a minor works.

This page is about hiring teenagers in Illinois: the youngest age you can hire, how long and how late 14- to 17-year-olds may work, work permits, breaks, the kitchen jobs they can't do, posters, two example weeks checked against every limit, and what Mays checks for you. Wages, tips and overtime are on Illinois restaurant pay rules (2026); they apply to teenagers too, and this page adds only what is different for them.

Checked October 5, 2026: every figure on this page was read on its official source; the Sources list at the end gives the date of each check.

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

Federal and Illinois law: follow the stricter one

Two sets of child labor rules can apply to a restaurant in Illinois: the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Illinois's own law. Where the state law is less strict, the federal law applies, and where the state law is stricter, the state law applies (US DOL, state child labor). The FLSA covers a business with at least two employees and annual sales of at least $500,000 (DOL Fact Sheet #14), and it can cover workers at a smaller one individually, when their work regularly involves trade between states.

Illinois at a glance

How young can you hire?

Under federal law, 14 is the youngest age for restaurant work (29 CFR 570.2).

Illinois lets 14- and 15-year-olds work outside school hours once they have an employment certificate, and no one younger may work in a job the Act doesn't explicitly allow (Child Labor Law of 2024).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

Illinois is stricter than federal law on the school day: school and work together can't pass 8 hours, so after a seven-hour school day a 15-year-old can work only one hour. Its weekend option allows up to 24 hours in a school week, but a restaurant the FLSA covers still stops at the federal 18.

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

Illinois's child labor law covers only workers under 16 (Child Labor Law of 2024), and the Department of Labor sends questions about 16- and 17-year-olds to the US Department of Labor (IDOL, child labor FAQ). With no federal hours limits either, only the jobs list below limits them.

Work permits and age certificates

Every worker under 16 needs an employment certificate (a work permit) before they start. You give the teen a notice of intention to employ, they take it to their school's issuing officer with their application, and the school issues the certificate and sends you a copy (Child Labor Law of 2024). The Illinois Department of Labor doesn't issue work permits (IDOL, child labor FAQ); if the school can't, the State Board of Education can (ISBE, work permits).

A certificate is good for 1 year and only for the employer it names. Keep a copy at the workplace while the teen works for you and for 3 years after (Child Labor Law of 2024), along with each minor's name, date of birth and address (Child Labor Law of 2024).

Federal law itself doesn't require work permits (DOL Fact Sheet #43). An age certificate on file protects you from unknowingly hiring someone too young, and the federal rules suggest getting one whenever a teen says they are only a year or two over the minimum age for the job (29 CFR 570.5).

Breaks for minors

Illinois: Minors (under 16 under the new Act): no more than 5 hours continuously without at least a 30-minute meal period; periods under 30 minutes do not interrupt continuous work. 16- and 17-year-olds follow the adult One Day Rest in Seven Act rule (20 minutes for 7.5 hours) (Child Labor Law of 2024).

Federal law doesn't require meal or rest breaks at any age (DOL Fact Sheet #43).

Jobs minors can't do in your restaurant

Some jobs are off limits whatever the hours. Under federal law, no one under 18 may do these (DOL Fact Sheet #2A):

• Meat or deli slicer, meat grinder, patty former (29 CFR 570.61)
• Dough or batter mixer, dough sheeter or brake (29 CFR 570.62)
• Cardboard baler or trash compactor (29 CFR 570.63)
• Delivery driving (29 CFR 570.52)

And 14- and 15-year-olds also may not do these:

• Baking (29 CFR 570.33)
• Cooking other than on an electric or gas grill with no open flame, or a fryer that lowers and raises its baskets automatically (29 CFR 570.33)
• Power-driven food slicers, grinders, choppers, processors, cutters or mixers (29 CFR 570.33)
• Work in freezers or meat coolers (more than stepping in to fetch an item) (29 CFR 570.33)
• Ladders or scaffolds (29 CFR 570.33)
• Filtering, pouring or carrying hot oil or grease above 100 °F (29 CFR 570.34)
• Loading or unloading trucks (29 CFR 570.33)

Illinois's own rules

• Under 16: no drawing, mixing, pouring or serving anything with alcohol, and no handling open containers of alcohol (Child Labor Law of 2024; IDOL, child labor compliance).
• Under 16: no work on ladders, scaffolds or other raised surfaces, no oiling, cleaning or wiping machinery, and no job federal law bars minors from (Child Labor Law of 2024).
• An adult aged 21 or older must be on site whenever a minor under 16 works (Child Labor Law of 2024). Plan closing shifts around it.

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

Illinois has a youth rate: $13.00 an hour, instead of the $15.00 minimum, for employees under 18 (until 650 hours with the employer in a calendar year) (IDOL, minimum wage FAQ). After that, the teen earns the full minimum wage. The Department of Labor counts the year from the date of hire (IDOL, minimum wage FAQ).

Federal law lets an employer pay $4.25 an hour to a worker under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job, but not to push out other workers, and not where a state or local law requires more and makes no exception for workers under 20 (DOL Fact Sheet #32).

Everything else about pay, from the tipped cash wage to tip pools and overtime, is on Illinois restaurant pay rules (2026).

Posters and records

Every employer the federal minimum wage law covers must display the federal poster, Employee Rights Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, where employees can readily read it; it includes a section on child labor (US DOL, FLSA poster).

Post the Department of Labor's notice summarizing the Act, with the jobs minors can't do and its toll-free number, where minors work (Child Labor Law of 2024). The state's combined workplace poster includes the Child Labor Law (IDOL 2026 poster). The Department also asks employers of minors to post a schedule of their hours and lunch periods (IDOL, child labor compliance).

Two example weeks

Two made-up schedules for a week in October, when school is in session Monday to Friday: Maya, 15, and Leo, 17. Each line under a schedule is a limit from this page, and the week stays inside every one of them.

Maya, 15, in a school week

That's 12.5 hours over 4 days. How the week measures up:

• Longest school day: 1 hour; the limit is 3 (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• The week: 12.5 hours; the limit is 18 (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• Earliest start: 10 a.m.; not before 7 a.m. (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• Latest finish: 5 p.m.; not after 7 p.m. (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• Longest school day, school included: 7 hours of school (8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Mays's default school day) plus 1 of work, 8 in all; the limit is 8 (Illinois, Child Labor Law of 2024).
• Longest day: 6 hours; the limit is 8 (Illinois, Child Labor Law of 2024).
• Days worked: 4; the limit is 6 (Illinois, IDOL, child labor FAQ).
• Longest stretch without a break: 4.5 hours; the limit is 5 (Illinois, Child Labor Law of 2024).

Leo, 17, in a school week

That's 20 hours over 4 days. How the week measures up:

• No federal or Illinois hours limit applies at 17; only the jobs list above does.

In Illinois, Maya's school-day shift is short on purpose: a seven-hour school day leaves one hour of work under the 8-hour rule.

How Mays handles this

Mays builds the schedule, runs the time clock and keeps each person's details for every location. For teenagers in Illinois:

• Turn on minors' rules per location. Work rules for minors are part of Labor law compliance: switch on Minors (under 18) on the location's Labor & compliance card. Mays then works out each person's age on every shift date from their date of birth.
• The federal limits, and Illinois marked "Not checked yet". Mays checks the federal limits everywhere. Illinois's own limits aren't built into Mays yet: the location's card lists Illinois as Not checked yet, so check the Illinois rules on this page yourself, above all the ones stricter than federal law.
• Warnings on the schedule, never a block. A shift that breaks a limit is outlined with Minor rule, each minor's row shows their age band and the week's hours against their limit, and the warnings before publishing name the law. You can still publish.
• The auto-scheduler stays inside the limits. It never puts a minor on a shift that would break one of their limits: it gives the shift to someone else or leaves it open, and tells you why.
• Tasks by position. Give a position a minimum age and tick the federal tasks it involves, such as a meat slicer or delivery driving. A minor scheduled in it gets a warning, and the auto-scheduler won't put them there.
• School days from a calendar. By default Mays counts Monday to Friday as school days from the day after Labor Day through May, with school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can add your school district's own calendar, breaks included.
• Hours across every location. A teen who works at two of your locations is held to one weekly limit, because the limits apply per employer.
• What Mays doesn't check yet: minors' meal breaks, work permits and clock-ins. Keep the permits on file yourself, and schedule the breaks above.

How to set it up: Scheduling minors.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

• US Department of Labor, state child labor standards, checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #14: coverage under the FLSA, checked October 5, 2026
• Illinois Child Labor Law of 2024 (820 ILCS 206), checked October 5, 2026
• Illinois Department of Labor, minimum wage and overtime FAQ, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.2 (minimum age standards), checked September 24, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.35 (hours for 14- and 15-year-olds), checked September 24, 2026
• Illinois Department of Labor, child labor FAQ, checked October 5, 2026
• Illinois State Board of Education, work permits, checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #43: child labor provisions for nonagricultural occupations, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.5 (certificates of age), checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #2A: child labor rules for restaurants, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.61 (Hazardous Occupations Order 10: meat slicers and processing machines), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.62 (Hazardous Occupations Order 11: bakery machines), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.63 (Hazardous Occupations Order 12: balers and compactors), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.52 (Hazardous Occupations Order 2: driving), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.33 (jobs barred at 14 and 15), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.34 (jobs allowed at 14 and 15), checked October 5, 2026
• Illinois Department of Labor, child labor compliance, checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #32: youth minimum wage, checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, the FLSA minimum wage poster, checked October 5, 2026
• Illinois Department of Labor, 2026 "Your Rights" workplace poster, checked October 5, 2026

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you, a teen's schooling) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer about your situation.

Schedule teenagers without the guesswork

Add each teen's date of birth, turn on minors' rules for the location, and Mays warns you before a shift runs too long or too late.

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