Hiring minors at a restaurant in Indiana (2026)

Indiana's youth employment law has become simpler twice in two years. Since January 1, 2025, 16- and 17-year-olds may work the same hours as adults, and on July 1, 2026 the state shut down the system where employers registered their teen workers. What's left for a restaurant is a set of hours limits for 14- and 15-year-olds that matches federal law, a poster, the jobs teens can't do and the ages for serving alcohol.

This page is about hiring teenagers in Indiana: 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 Indiana 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 Indiana law: follow the stricter one

Two sets of child labor rules can apply to a restaurant in Indiana: the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Indiana'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.

Indiana's labor department enforces the state's youth employment law, and on the jobs minors can't do it enforces the federal rules alongside the US Department of Labor (Indiana DOL, banned jobs). Its 2025 rewrite brought Indiana's rules closer to the federal ones (Indiana DOL, youth employment).

Indiana at a glance

How young can you hire?

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

Indiana's own rules are written for 14- to 17-year-olds (Indiana DOL, YES FAQs), and its hours limits for the youngest workers start at 14 too (Indiana youth employment poster).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

At this age Indiana and federal law set the same limits, so one set of numbers covers both. Indiana treats a 14- or 15-year-old who is homeschooled or in an online school like one who goes to school in person, and uses the calendar of the school district where the teen lives for the start and end of the school year, its breaks and its holidays (Indiana DOL, youth employment).

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

Since January 1, 2025, 16- and 17-year-olds in Indiana may work the same hours and days as an adult, and no parent has to give permission for longer or later hours (Indiana DOL, youth employment). With no federal hours limits either, only the jobs list below limits them.

Work permits and age certificates

Indiana doesn't require work permits for 14- to 17-year-olds, and schools no longer track or register teens who work (Indiana DOL, YES FAQs).

The state's online Youth Employment System, where larger employers of teens had to register them, was shut down on July 1, 2026 under a law passed in 2026: you no longer report, register or track minor employees with the state, and the penalties for reporting late are gone. The hours limits and the banned jobs still apply in full (Indiana DOL, youth employment).

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

Indiana has no break rule of its own for minors (Indiana DOL, youth employment).

The labor department puts it plainly: employers no longer have to give a minor a break or a lunch, however many hours they work in a day (Indiana DOL, youth employment).

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)

Indiana's own rules

• Indiana's poster for employers of minors makes the federal hazardous jobs list a state rule too: no one under 18 may work in them (Indiana youth employment poster). For 14- and 15-year-olds, the state labor department lists the same kitchen limits as federal law: no baking, no cooking over an open flame, and fryers only if they raise and lower the baskets automatically (Indiana DOL, banned jobs).
• Alcohol: at a restaurant with an on-premises permit, a server must be at least 18 and supervised by someone at least 21 who has completed the required server training, and a bartender must be at least 21 (Indiana ATC, Alcohol Permits 101).

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

Indiana's minimum wage is the same $7.25 as the federal one, and the state law matters mainly for employers the FLSA doesn't cover (Indiana DOL poster). At a restaurant the FLSA covers, the federal rules set teen pay, the youth wage below included.

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 Indiana 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).

If you employ 14- or 15-year-olds, post the state's Work Restrictions for Youth Employees poster, updated for July 1, 2026, in a conspicuous place: the law requires you to post the most hours minors may work each day of the week and the hours each day begins and ends (Indiana youth employment poster; Indiana DOL, youth forms).

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 16.5 hours over 4 days. How the week measures up:

• Longest school day: 3 hours; the limit is 3 (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• The week: 16.5 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: 7 p.m.; not after 7 p.m. (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• Longest school day: 3 hours; the limit is 3 (Indiana, Indiana youth employment poster).
• Longest day with no school: 6 hours; the limit is 8 (Indiana, Indiana youth employment poster).
• The week: 16.5 hours; the limit is 18 (Indiana, Indiana youth employment poster).

Leo, 17, in a school week

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

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

How Mays handles this

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

• 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 Indiana marked "Not checked yet". Mays checks the federal limits everywhere. Indiana's own limits aren't built into Mays yet: the location's card lists Indiana as Not checked yet, so check the Indiana 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
• Indiana Department of Labor, prohibited and hazardous occupations for minors, checked October 5, 2026
• Indiana Department of Labor, youth employment, checked October 5, 2026
• Indiana Department of Labor, Work Restrictions for Youth Employees poster (July 1, 2026), checked October 5, 2026
• Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, Alcohol Permits 101, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.2 (minimum age standards), checked September 24, 2026
• Indiana Department of Labor, Youth Employment System (YES) FAQs, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.35 (hours for 14- and 15-year-olds), checked September 24, 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
• Indiana Department of Labor, minimum wage poster, checked September 24, 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
• Indiana Department of Labor, youth employment forms and publications, 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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