Guides

Hiring minors at a restaurant in Kentucky (2026)

Mays TeamNovember 10, 2026
Mays cover card: Hiring minors at a restaurant in Kentucky (2026) — 16–17: 30 hours in a school week

Kentucky still limits the hours of 16- and 17-year-olds while school is in session, and the limits bend with paperwork. In a school week a 16- or 17-year-old may work up to 30 hours, and until 10:30 p.m. before a school day; a parent's written permission raises that to 32.5 hours and 11 p.m., and adding the school's written certificate of the teen's grades raises the week to 40 hours. At every age under 18, no one works more than 5 hours in a row without a 30-minute lunch.

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

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

Kentucky at a glance

Rule

Kentucky

Youngest age for restaurant work

14 (KRS 339.220)

Work permit

None; keep proof of age on file for every worker under 18 (Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours)

14–15, school week

3 hours a school day, 18 a week, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (803 KAR 1:100)

16–17, school week

6 hours a school day, 30 a week, until 10:30 p.m. before a school day; more with a parent's written permission (803 KAR 1:100)

Lunch break

No more than 5 hours in a row without a 30-minute lunch, for every minor (KRS 339.270)

Serving alcohol

From 18, supervised by someone 20 or older; no bartending under 20 (KRS 244.090)

How young can you hire?

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

Kentucky sets the same minimum: no one under 14 may work in a gainful occupation, except in a work program their school runs that the Department of Education has approved (KRS 339.220).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

Limit

Federal

Kentucky

Hours on a school day

3 (29 CFR 570.35)

3 (803 KAR 1:100)

Hours in a school week

18 (29 CFR 570.35)

18 (803 KAR 1:100)

Hours on a day with no school

8 (29 CFR 570.35)

8 (803 KAR 1:100)

Hours in a week with no school

40 (29 CFR 570.35)

40 (803 KAR 1:100)

Days a week

No federal limit

No state limit

Time of day

7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day (29 CFR 570.35)

7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day (803 KAR 1:100)

During school hours

Not allowed (29 CFR 570.35)

Not allowed, unless the school has arranged for the teen to attend at other hours (KRS 339.230)

At this age Kentucky's numbers match the federal ones, so one set of limits covers both. Kentucky's law lets its labor commissioner make the hours rules stricter than the federal ones, but never less strict (KRS 339.230). The state's limits cover a teen enrolled in a public, private or home school, and one who has left school without graduating (803 KAR 1:100).

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

Limit

Federal

Kentucky

Hours on a school day

No federal limit

6; 6.5 with a parent's written permission (803 KAR 1:100)

Hours in a school week

No federal limit

30; 32.5 with a parent's written permission; 40 with that permission and the school's written certificate that the teen kept a grade point average of at least 2 in the latest grading period (803 KAR 1:100)

Hours on a day with no school

No federal limit

8 on a day off school in a school week (803 KAR 1:100)

Hours in a week with no school

No federal limit

No state limit (Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours)

Time of day

No federal limit

6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. before a school day (11 p.m. with a parent's written permission); 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. before a day off school in a school week (803 KAR 1:100)

Federal law sets no hours at this age, so Kentucky's limits are the ones to schedule by, but only while school is in session: in a week when school is out, 16- and 17-year-olds have no hours limits (Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours). Which weeks are school weeks is set by the local school district (803 KAR 1:100). The limits don't apply to a teen who has graduated from high school (Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours).

Work permits and age certificates

Kentucky's Labor Cabinet asks for proof of age, not a work permit: keep proof of age on file for every employee under 18, such as a copy of their birth certificate, driver's license or school ID (Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours). The state's poster also accepts a government document with the date of birth (Ky. child labor poster). A teen who wants one can get a certificate of age from the local board of education (KRS 339.360), and it is conclusive evidence of their age under the state's labor laws (KRS 339.370). If there's no age certificate on file, an inspector can require you to show within 10 days that the worker is at least 18, or stop employing them (KRS 339.450).

The paperwork for longer hours stays with you: a parent's written permission for the 6.5-hour school day, the 32.5-hour week or the 11 p.m. finish, and the school's grade certificate for the 40-hour week, are kept at your place of business (803 KAR 1:100). The certificate is good for 1 year unless the school revokes it sooner (803 KAR 1:100). The Labor Cabinet has a form for each, the Parent/Guardian Statement of Consent and the Certificate of Satisfactory Academic Standing (Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours).

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

Kentucky: Under 18: no more than five hours in a row without a lunch period of at least 30 minutes (a shorter break doesn't interrupt the five hours), and a paid rest period of at least 10 minutes during each four hours worked (KRS 339.270).

Write the lunch down: you document when each minor's lunch period begins and ends (Ky. child labor poster; KRS 339.400). Kentucky's lunch-timing and paid rest-break rules for every employee apply to teens too (KRS 337.355; KRS 337.365).

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):

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)

Kentucky's own rules

  • Under 16: kitchen work and other work preparing and serving food and drinks is allowed, including dishwashers, toasters, dumbwaiters, popcorn poppers, milkshake blenders and coffee grinders, but no cooking, except at a soda fountain, lunch counter, snack bar or cafeteria serving counter, and no baking (803 KAR 1:100). Kentucky's rule lists no exception for grills or fryers, so it is stricter than the federal one: keep 14- and 15-year-olds off the cooking line.
  • Also under 16: no work in freezers or meat coolers, no preparing meat for sale, no running, setting up, cleaning or repairing power-driven food slicers, grinders, choppers, cutters or bakery-type mixers, no maintenance or repair of the restaurant or its equipment, no work on ladders, and no loading or unloading trucks (803 KAR 1:100).
  • Places that serve alcohol: Kentucky's child labor law bars 14- to 17-year-olds from working in or in connection with any establishment where alcohol is sold for drinking or dispensed, unless the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board's rules allow it; a business whose package sales are only incidental to its main business is excepted (KRS 339.230). The Labor Cabinet lists it among the jobs prohibited for minors (Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours), so if your restaurant serves alcohol, ask its Division of Wages and Hours how the rule applies to you before you hire anyone under 18.
  • Serving alcohol: staff under 20 may sell or serve alcohol only if they are at least 18 and supervised by someone 20 or older, and they may not tend bar (KRS 244.090).

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

Kentucky's wage law has no youth rate. Its minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, covers minors like every other employee, and its list of workers the minimum wage leaves out doesn't include them (KRS 337.010). The one lower state rate is individual: the commissioner of the Department of Workplace Standards can give a learner, apprentice or student a certificate to be paid less, at the wage and for the time the certificate states (KRS 337.010). Kentucky's minimum makes no exception for workers under 20, so where the state wage law covers your restaurant, the federal youth wage below doesn't lower it.

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 Kentucky 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 state's child labor poster, with the hours minors may work and the jobs they can't do, where all employees can read it (Ky. child labor poster; Ky. Labor Cabinet, wages and hours). The law asks for a printed abstract of the child labor law, the list of jobs prohibited to minors, and a notice of the hours they work each day of the week (KRS 339.400).

Keep a separate register of employees under 18: their names, ages and addresses, when they start and stop work each day, and when their meal period begins and ends. It is open to inspection at all times by the Education and Labor Cabinet, school directors of pupil personnel and probation officers (KRS 339.400). Each violation of the child labor law carries a civil penalty of $100 to $1,000, and keeping a minor on after the department has notified you of a violation costs $100 for each day it continues (KRS 339.990).

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

Day

Shift

Unpaid break

Hours

School day?

Monday

Off



Yes

Tuesday

4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

None

3

Yes

Wednesday

Off



Yes

Thursday

4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

None

3

Yes

Friday

Off



Yes

Saturday

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

30 minutes at 1 p.m.

6

No

Sunday

Noon to 4:30 p.m.

None

4.5

No

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 (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Longest day with no school: 6 hours; the limit is 8 (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • The week: 16.5 hours; the limit is 18 (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Earliest start: 10 a.m.; not before 7 a.m. (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Latest finish: 7 p.m.; not after 7 p.m. (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Longest stretch without a break: 4.5 hours; the limit is 5 (Kentucky, KRS 339.270).

Leo, 17, in a school week

Day

Shift

Unpaid break

Hours

School day?

Monday

Off



Yes

Tuesday

5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

4

Yes

Wednesday

Off



Yes

Thursday

5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

4

Yes

Friday

5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

4

Yes

Saturday

10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

30 minutes at 2 p.m.

8

No

Sunday

Off



No

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

  • Longest school day: 4 hours; the limit is 6 (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Longest day with no school: 8 hours; the limit is 8 (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • The week: 20 hours; the limit is 30 (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Earliest start: 10 a.m.; not before 6 a.m. (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Latest finish on a night before school: 9 p.m.; not after 10:30 p.m. (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Latest finish: 9 p.m.; not after 1 a.m. (Kentucky, 803 KAR 1:100).
  • Longest stretch without a break: 4 hours; the limit is 5 (Kentucky, KRS 339.270).

The tables show only the unpaid lunch. Both teens also get Kentucky's paid rest period of at least 10 minutes during each 4 hours worked, on top of the lunch (KRS 339.270); it's paid, so it doesn't change the hours above. On Maya's Saturday and Sunday and on each of Leo's shifts, plan it in.

Leo's week uses none of the extras a parent's written permission allows. With that permission on file, he could work until 11 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday nights and up to 32.5 hours in the week (803 KAR 1:100).

How Mays handles this

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

  • 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 Kentucky marked "Not checked yet". Mays checks the federal limits everywhere. Kentucky's own limits aren't built into Mays yet: the location's card lists Kentucky as Not checked yet, so check the Kentucky 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.

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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